http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1031495.html
Last update - 23:10 26/10/2008
Mazuz calls for incitement probe against settler activists in response to
West Bank rioting
By Haaretz Service
Tags: Outpost, Israel News
Attorney General Meni Mazuz on Sunday called for an incitement
investigation
against right wing activists, hours after rioting by settlers in the West
Bank that included the desecration of headstones at a Muslim cemetery near
Kiryat Arba.
During the rioting, settlers hurled abuse at security forces personnel,
and
called for a "revenge attack" against them in response to the evacuation
of
an illegal outpost built by Right-wing activist Noam Federman near Kiryat
Arba.
"We hope they will be defeated by their enemies, that they will all be
[kidnapped IDF soldier] Gilad Shalit, that they will all be killed and all
slaughtered because this is what they deserve," they said.
In a letter released Sunday, Mazuz said that statements made by right-wing
activists during the rioting "crossed a red line", and are not protected
under freedom of speech.
During the rioting, a number of settlers were arrested for attacking a
police
officer, and two young women were arrested after they tried to set a
police
car alight.
In addition to vandalizing the graves, settlers also damaged over 80
Palestinian vehicles by sma****ng windows and puncturing tires. Two police
cars were damaged during the altercations.
Settlers, for their part, argued that security forces carried out the
evacuation without a preliminary order and that they did not give the
outpost's residents time to pack up their belongings.
Olmert: Anyone inciting violence against troops belongs in jail
The settlers' calls for violence against the security forces drew fire
from
outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting.
"I've ordered Ministers Dichter and Friedman to manage the procedures
against
these people, whoever expresses himself in such a manner belongs in jail.
We've had enough of all this violence: Verbal violence that brings
physical
violence - and we will not abide this," he said.
Olmert was referring to Public Security Minister Avi Dichter and Justice
Minister Daniel Friedmann.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak joined the premier in his condemnation,
calling
for right-wing extremists to receive harsher punishments for such
outbursts.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon also attacked the phenomenon.
"Everyone who this morning called for violence against IDF soldiers must
be
arrested immediately," he said.
"If an Arab had urged on the radio for attacks against IDF soldiers he
would
have already been arrested long ago - [our] behavior must be exactly the
same
toward the settlers."
The Yesha settlement council, for its part, also issued a condemnation of
the
verbal attacks, branding those responsible for them "troublemakers."
The settler leaders said: "The defamatory words that were spoken by
troublemakers this morning against IDF soldiers are particularly grave,
and
deserve every condemnation. But there is nothing in this to lessen the
gravity of the acts the government has initiated in Hebron including the
evacuation of a farm in which Jews have live for two years and the
insertion
of Palestinian police in the city."
Israel has repeatedly pledged to the United States that it would evacuate
these outposts to meet the conditions of the first stage of the diplomatic
road map leading to a final-status agreement with the Palestinians.
Earlier this year, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and settler leaders reached
an
agreement to dismantle some 26 outposts built on private Palestinian land
after March 2001.
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