As Protesters March, Sharon Assails Critics of Gaza Pullout

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon lashed out Sunday against what he called growing incitement toward violence by opponents of his Gaza Strip withdrawal plan, while tens of thousands of Jewish settlers and their supporters gathered here to protest the proposed pullout.

Sharon’s comments, and the demonstration hours later in Zion Square, came amid escalating passions over the plan to remove Jewish residents and Israeli soldiers from the Gaza Strip and a portion of the West Bank by late next year.

Sharon’s critics say he is trying to squelch debate over the evacuation by characterizing dissent as incitement and opponents as extremists.

“It’s wrong and it’s dangerous,” said Josh Hasten, spokesman for the Yesha Council, the main settlers’ group. He said Sharon’s comments appeared timed to undermine the demonstration.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have expressed alarm over what they view as incendiary rhetoric by opponents of the withdrawal, including toward Israeli soldiers and police officers who would be responsible for removing settlers from their homes.

Sharon’s plan calls for evacuating all 21 Gaza Strip settlements and four others in the northern West Bank. About 7,500 Jewish settlers live among 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, and protecting them has been costly for Israel in both lives and money.

Israeli leaders are voicing growing worry that calls to resist may trigger civil strife.

Last week, opponents of the pullout published an open letter in several Israeli newspapers calling settlement evacuation a “crime against humanity” and “ethnic cleansing of Jews.” The letter called upon soldiers to refuse to take part in any removal of settlers.

Israeli officials have complained of threats and harassment against soldiers and police who took part in attempts to dismantle small settlement offshoots, known as outposts, from the West Bank.

“We have seen a severe campaign of incitement, with intentional calls for civil war. I see this as very serious. I think that the threats on [soldiers] and security-establishment personnel are a very grave phenomenon,” Sharon said Sunday, opening the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Sharon said too few government ministers had spoken out on the matter, and he urged authorities to “take all the necessary steps” to curb language meant to incite.

“This phenomenon must stop,” he said. “Of course, it didn’t start with settlers. Such voices are -- to my regret -- also heard from other areas, but it is no less serious.”

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that officials were considering whether they might detain activists from the settler movement under a provision of the law that allows suspects to be held without being publicly charged -- a measure usually employed against Palestinian militants.

Members of Sharon’s government have suggested that extremists might seek to foil the pullout by killing a ranking government official or attacking Muslim worshipers on the Temple Mount.

Incitement has remained a worry since the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by an Israeli gunman who opposed provisions of an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians. The killer, Yigal Amir, said he acted after hearing right-wing rabbis declare that ceding part of the biblical Land of Israel to non-Jews was a crime meriting death under ancient Jewish law.

At the rally in downtown Jerusalem on Sunday evening, settlers and their allies decried what they saw as a forcible expulsion of Jews from their homes by a prime minister who once was a staunch proponent of settlements. They say the pullout would reward terrorism.

“Sharon is not acting as a democratic person. In every case he says, ‘I will do what I want,’ ” said Shoshana Kaplan, a Jerusalem guidance counselor who turned out for the rally. Police said 40,000 people attended.

Leaders of the settlers say they oppose violent resistance.

They accuse Sharon of ignoring the public’s will by pushing ahead with the pullout despite losing a vote on the issue among members of his Likud Party in May. He later fired two rightist ministers who had opposed the withdrawal in order to get a Cabinet majority in favor.

“The prime minister and the government too must do some soul-searching about the way the decision-making process has led us,” Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev of the National Religious Party told Israel Radio on Sunday. His party is debating whether to abandon Sharon’s shaky governing coalition.

Withdrawal opponents are calling for a national referendum, with passage dependent on a super-majority of perhaps 60%. Opinion polls consistently have shown majority support for exiting the Gaza Strip.

Sharon aides have dismissed the referendum idea.