Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is in danger of assassination at the hands of Jewish extremists, according to Shimon Peres, the leader of the country’s Labour Party.
The atmosphere in Israel was similar to the political turmoil of 1995 when Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister, was murdered by a religious nationalist, he said.
Sharon and many of his colleagues in the Likud party were at the forefront of the campaign against Rabin and the Oslo peace process he was trying to push through. Now Sharon has earned the hatred of the same constituency which produced Yigal Amir, who shot Rabin at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
Israeli settlers are opposed to Sharon’s plan to withdraw from Gaza settlements. They believe that any attempt to move a Jew from his or her home is illegal, and that abandoning sovereignty over the Palestinian-dominated Gaza Strip goes against God’s will.
”I am very fearful of the incitement, from the grave things that are again being heard,” Peres told the Israeli newspaper Maariv. ”I am afraid someone will try to assassinate the prime minister. There is a lot of similarity between the situation then and today.”
The head of Israel’s internal security agency has given similar warnings and Sharon is never seen in public unless surrounded by bodyguards.
Threats to Sharon’s safety are just one of the emerging obstacles to his disengagement plan. On Monday more rabbis called on soldiers to disobey orders if they were told to evacuate settlers from the Gaza Strip.
Avraham Shapira, a former chief rabbi of Israel, said last week that Sharon’s planned withdrawal violated Jewish law.
In a statement signed by 60 other rabbis, Shapira said observant soldiers should not take part in the removal of settlers from their homes.
Many of the 7 000 to 8 000 settlers are likely to take compensation and move elsewhere, but a large minority are expected to resist.
Hundreds of soldiers have been jailed for refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories, and a number — usually estimated in the thousands — have avoided service by feigning illness.
Meanwhile, reports Sapa, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is also Trade and Industry Minister, told a gathering of Israeli businessmen on his four-day visit to South Africa that the Israeli government is committed to resolving the situation between Israel and Palestine.
Speaking at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Olmert said his visit has business, trade and political dimensions.
”Alongside the important business and trade significance … there is also a political dimension … some people outside have indicated it,” he said.
Olmert was referring to small group of pro-Palestinian supporters, Palestine Solidarity, who were escorted out of the convention centre earlier in the day during a protest against his visit.
”We understand there is a certain concern among some people in South Africa about the Middle East,” he said, before adding that his ”government is determined to make every possible effort at great political cost to move forward to change reality… in the Middle East”.
Olmert said no one in Israel was ”happy to carry on this war forever”.
He said the Israeli government wanted to reach a situation where it could sign a peace treaty with the Palestinians, which would see Palestine exercising its independence in its own state alongside Israel.
Olmert is the first senior Israeli official to visit South Africa since 1994.
South African Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa told Olmert the South African government was deeply committed to promoting peace and stability in the Middle East region.
”South Africa through its own experience has seen the benefits socially and economically from peace and stability,” he said.
In response, Olmert said: ”We appreciate your goodwill and that you have taken one step forward in this process by inviting an Israeli official.”
Israel and South Africa signed an investment agreement on Wednesday. Israel is South Africa’s biggest trading partner in the Middle East. In turn, South Africa is Israel’s biggest trading partner in Africa.
The countries plan to cooperate in areas of mining, telecommunications, agriculture, engineering and water.
Trade between the two countries was worth about R4-billion in 2003, which was up from R3,8-billion in 1999 and indicated an average 9,5% growth rate over the four years.
Trade in diamonds between the countries was worth R4,4-billion between 1999 and 2003, Mpahlwa said.
South African activist group Palestinian Solidarity is campaigning against trade with Israel.
The South African Communist Party said it opposed Olmert’s visit. ”The apartheid Israeli government has not shown any resolution towards peace and the resolution of the Palestinian question,” SACP general secretary Mzibuko Jara said. — Â