Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech contained some innacuracies

Netanyahu Blasts Judicial Reform Protesters And Rewrites History While Doing It

Details
The Judean Staff
Politics

The pressure from the protests against the overhaul of Israel’s judicial system, some of which have become disruptive to the normal flow of life, and traffic, and some of which have seen damage and mayhem, seem to be affecting the memory of Israel’s elected leader.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday night compared the protesters against the judicial reform, some of whom clashed with police in Tel Aviv, to the Jewish extremists who set fire to houses and vehicles in the Palestinian village of Huwara. Netanyahu did not mention in that the security forces were not standing ready to prevent violence in Huwara. At the same time, at the protest in Tel Aviv, police were prepared in advance to deal with disturbances.

Netanyahu's full statement was flawed, as it contained several untrue statements about the disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and was seen as a politically charged statement that was not based in fact.

Netanyahu began by providing a quote that he attributed to former Supreme Court President, Aaron Barak. The statement read: "Citizens of Israel, 'The right to demonstrate is a fundamental value in democracy, but the freedom to demonstrate is not the freedom to stop the state." 

Netanyahu neglected to mention that Barak's words in 2005 were said during a hearing held at the Supreme Court about extending the detention of two right-wing activists accused of crimes including sedition and rioting. The activists had organized civil disruptions several months before Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip.

While Justice Barak did say some of the things that Netanyahu quoted, in the same comments during the hearing, he also spoke about issues attributed to the two right-wing activists only: "In the acts attributed to them, the defendants set fire to barrels of fuel. The acts attributed to them lit the fire itself," Barak said on May 21 2005.

Barak then added: "Freedom of speech does not protect the freedom to prevent a woman in labor from reaching the hospital, freedom of speech does not protect the freedom to prevent the fire department from reaching the scene of a fire, freedom of speech does not protect the freedom to paralyze the law enforcement mechanisms and bring about their collapse, the freedom of demonstration does not protect the freedom to stop the state and endanger the security of the individual and the whole."

Another incorrect part of Netanyahu’s statement last night came when he addressed the disengagement in 2005 and the months leading up to it. Netanyahu said: "The opponents of the government policy saw their life's work collapsing and even more, many of them believed with all their hearts that this was the beginning of the destruction of the third house (Holy Temple). Well, they embarked on a fierce and determined struggle, a poignant and powerful public struggle that included very large support of the public in the country.”

The Prime Minister was trying to paint the picture of a peaceful movement to rectify an impending injustice where protests consumed the country. Netanyahu continued, “But I can learn one thing, this struggle did not cross red lines. We did not see then what we see today, the demonstrators did not beat police officers, did not call for civil riots, did not call for work stoppages, no one took their money out of the state, nor did they slander Israel In the world. The leaders of the opposition, and I was among them, we did not call for strikes, we did not say that we would not serve in the reserves, we did not call for the shutdown of the economy, we did not encourage blocking roads, we did not try to lead the country to anarchy. In essence - we did not cross red lines."

Meanwhile, the fact of what happened in 2005 does not correspond to the Prime Minister’s claims. The struggle against the evacuation of Gush Katif included active defiance of the move by those who opposed it. For example, in May 2005, three months before the start of the evacuation from the Gaza Strip, the protestors, in a coordinated and timed effort, blocked around forty intersections throughout the country. The police then arrested almost 300 demonstrators but were unable to prevent heavy traffic caused by the blockages. The activists who organized the bottlenecks said at the time that the disruptive protest was “a tremendous success."

In addition, contrary to Prime Minister Netanyahu's words - during the disengagement period there were calls for mass strikes. The fear that national religious soldiers would refuse to carry out the evacuation order increased following a prominent Rabbi, Avraham Shapira, issuing an edict comparing the order to evacuate Jewish communities to ordering the desecration of the Sabbath. Several academics also published articles calling for soldiers to refuse an evacuation order if it were to be given.

To the claim that violence was not a part of the protests back in 2005, a Palestinian boy was beaten by anti-disengagement protesters. Israel Defense Forces soldiers had to protect the boy with their bodies from the settlers who continued to attack him even after he lost consciousness. The current Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, was arrested shortly before the disengagement on suspicion of organizing a roadblock. In July 2005, it was reported that the Federal security service the Shin Bet seized 700 liters of gas and oil from five right-wing people who wanted to damage the infrastructure to prevent the evacuation. One was Smotrich, but no indictment was ever filed against him.

Netanyahu also said that he was one of the leaders of the opposition during the disengagement. In his comments, he even noted that "the opposition led by me behaved responsibly." However, on October 26, 2004, the Knesset approved the disengagement plan, and Benjamin Netanyahu was at the time, Ariel Sharon’s finance minister. He even voted in favor of the plan during the Knesset vote.

On August 7, 2005, on the eve of the evacuation, Netanyahu announced his resignation from the government. Only in December 2005, after Sharon left the Likud for the Kadima party, did Netanyahu rise to power and become the leading candidate for the leadership of the Likud party.

Lastly, in last night's speech, Netanyahu said in reference to the demonstrations against the judicial reform: "I know that it is not all of them and that there are other voices in the opposition and in the demonstrations that oppose this extreme line, voices that are opposed to the violent actions of a handful of militants who are financed and organized by interested parties and all kinds of parties, including foreign parties. I call on those responsible people to make their voices heard." Netanyahu is not precise here either. There is no proof that foreign parties are financing the demonstrations.

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