Ideas and Opinions of Religious Leaders on the Disengagment

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Rabbis Say No to Violence, Yes to Breaking the Law (By Yaakov Katz, JERUSALEM POST, April 8,2005) Entered: 10/Apr/2005

 

In an impressive display of power, dozens of religious Zionist rabbis gathered Thursday in Jerusalemwith more than 2,000 of their followers and called on them to refuse evacuation orders and resist the disengagement plan even if it means going to jail. Rabbi Avraham Shapira, a former chief rabbi and a spiritual mentor for the religious Zionist community, used Thursday's conference to call for the first time in public on soldiers to refuse evacuation orders and not to participate in the pullout. "The rabbis today need to affirm that it is forbidden to contribute to the evacuation of settlements and to give them to non-Jews," Shapira said, bringing the crowd to its feet in an ecstatic round of applause. "It is against the Torah and it is immoral."

While organizers claimed the conference was in response to a request by the public, which wanted to hear their leaders' views on the disengagement plan, one rabbi hinted that the conference was really a response to last week's conference by moderate religious Zionist leaders who met to discuss the "day after" the disengagement plan is carried out. The rabbis denounced the use of violence during the pullout, but did call on the public to be ready to head to the Gaza Strip to physically block the evacuation.

"What sins did the residents commit?" Shapira asked, directing his remarks at the government. "You prepare jails for them and then come ask the rabbis to calm them down?" Shapira, who met this week with OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh, hinted that the government was provoking the Right. Rabbi Zevulun Melamed of Beit El warned Naveh that if violence breaks out during the disengagement, it would be his fault. "They come to us from the army and ask us to calm down our people," Melamed said. "We try, but the disengagement is so terrible and no one knows what will happen. I told them that I cannot promise there won't be violence."

In a move intended to display the rabbis' support for anti-disengagement activities, including civil disobedience and breaking the law, Melamed summoned to the podium a youth who was under house arrest for blocking roads in protest against the pullout plan. Melamed awarded him a gift and said: "This student is a perfect example of someone who is willing to sacrifice himself for others."

Pinhas Wallerstein, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, said: "We need to stand as one man against this decree. We will not allow the government to close down Jewish communities.

Every person needs to be ready to go to jail, not by using violence but by entering closed military zones."

In response, Labor faction chair Eitan Cabel said the time had come to indict Shapira for his statements condoning refusal. "How long can the attorney-general continue to show restraint in the face of leaders calling for refusal," he said. "These calls are rebellion, especially considering that they come from an influential rabbi." Labor leadership candidate Matan Vilna'i said Shapira's statements were "an attempt to tear apart the nation." He called upon the attorney-general and the police to "wake up and take action before it is too late."

 

 

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