Right-wing rabbis 'stirring up civil war' over Gaza

[emad]

The Telegraph
By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor
(Filed: 22/10/2004)

Israel's justice minister has accused Right-wing rabbis of fomenting "civil war", saying they could face prosecution for urging soldiers to disobey orders to evict Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.

Political tensions have risen in the run-up to Tuesday's parliamentary vote on government plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip - abandoning 21 settlements - and to dismantle four more settlements in the West Bank.

Ariel Sharon listens during a meeting in the Knesset
The disengagement plan proposed by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, has drawn accusations from settlers and their supporters that he is a "traitor" who will provoke a civil war.

But Yosef Lapid, the justice minister and head of the secularist Shinui party, said yesterday that it was Right-wing rabbis who were causing the strife. He warned them: "We have reached the outer limits of our patience with statements that could pose a danger to public security."

Asked if he would prosecute the spiritual mentors of the settlement movement, he said: "We must observe the boundary between acceptable and criminal statements."

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/22/wmid22.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/22/ixworld.html