'At the end of the day, State and settlers always make up via pardon'
צילום: אמיר כהן
I’m a disengagement victim
Assaf Gefen gives tips to lawbreakers in wake of pardon to Gaza pullout offenders
The recent pardon granted to lawbreakers who were protesting the Gaza disengagement is an important decision; it will enable the people detained during that time, most of them teenagers, to join the army, and then refuse to take part in the next evacuation.
Indeed, annulling legal proceedings and erasing the criminal records of young people who did foolish things is truly a positive move. (Personally, I think that anyone should be entitled to erase from their resume not only acts of violence committed at the age of 16, but also crimes related to bad taste in clothing, dating, or musical preferences).
However, in order for us to address this issue seriously, it would be worthwhile for such pedagogical mercy to also be granted to those whose youthful follies have nothing to do with sexual attraction to the Gush Katif communities.
If we are to believe supporters of the law who claimed they were motivated by more than just smalltime politics, we would have to see them endorsing pardons for the protestors in Bilin, the demonstrators at Jerusalem’s Karta parking lot, people who smoke pot, thugs who get into brawls at nightclubs, or every other Israeli detained while “hindering a policeman on the job” in a location that is not a former settlement.
Until this won’t happen (that is, not before the year 4025,) we will continue to view such pardons (a theme that has accompanied the settlers since the good old days of the pardon granted to members of the Jewish underground) as a special VIP track for a sector that enjoys extra rights: The settler community, whose hue and cry regarding persecution by the establishment ignores one small fact – the settlers themselves are the establishment.
This is yet another proof that as opposed to what they try to convince us of, even after the Gush Katif pullout and the current “struggle” against the Judea and Samaria settlement freeze, the State and the settlers are not facing each other from different sides of the court; rather, they cooperate in the same theater group. And just like in the worst of families, even if they argue a little and beat each other up here and other, at the end of the day they always make up via a pardon.
However, even this rotten issue can give rise to something positive. If in the past criminals had to arrive in court with a kippa on their head and recite Torah verses in order to get lighter sentences, today all one needs to do is to declare that he is a disengagement victim.
You were found guilty of tax evasion? Just say it was your way of protesting the government’s actions against the Gush Katif settlements. You were caught using drugs? Well, you had to mitigate the disengagement pain somehow. You poured acid on your wife? Sorry, I thought she was a police officer who wanted to evacuate me from my home.
