Israeli police sought to counter the increasingly virulent tactics of extremists opposed to the Gaza Strip pullout on Thursday by beefing up intelligence and banning a protest due to be held in Jerusalem’s disputed mosque compound.
As Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to tour an environmentally-sensitive site where many Gaza settlers are expected to relocate, the supreme court was also hearing petitions which argued the whole pull-out is illegal.
Meanwhile, police said they had arrested two right-wing extremists on suspicion of planting fake explosives near a market in Jerusalem’s city centre, alleging that the suspects were trying to heighten tension in the run-up to the evacuation process which should start in late July.
Sensitive to accusations that they have been left flat-footed by the militants of late, police said around 50 intelligence officers are to be posted to police stations across the country with orders to gather information on ”illegal preparations” by protestors such as blocking roads.
Police will also mobilise hundreds of reservist border guardsmen to fill in for the thousands of police who will take part in the evacuation of the 21 Gaza settlements.
With the Gaza pull-out plan having passed every parliamentary hurdle, its opponents have been resorting to increasingly radical measures to derail it.
Protestors recently brought the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway to a standstill by placing burning tyres on the road and there have been calls for a mass campaign of civil disobedience.
The Israeli authorities also fear that extremists could try to disrupt the pull-out by staging an attack on the disputed mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims.
The Israeli police have announced that they will close access to the compound to all non-Muslims on Sunday to block an attempted demonstration by extreme rightists.
A small group called Revava (Myriad) called the demonstration to oppose the Gaza pullout, timing it to coincide with Sharon’s departure to the United States for a summit with President George Bush, which will be dominated by the plan.
The head of Revava, Israel Cohen, told army radio he had no intention of resorting to force to gain entry into the compound, which is revered by Jews as it was once the site of the Jewish temple, the holiest shrine in Judaism, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
”If we are prevented from exercising our right to pray we will protest in the area to denounce this violation of our religious freedom but we will not use violence,” Cohen said.
The ongoing Palestinian uprising was triggered by a visit to the compound, which houses the Dome of the Rock (Omar Mosque) and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, by the then opposition leader Sharon.
The premier was then seen as the champion of the right in Israel but has since come to be reviled by many of his former supporters for forging ahead with the plan to leave Gaza.
Sharon argues that, rather than going soft, his tactics will increase Israel’s prospects of clinging on to large parts of the West Bank in any final status agreement.
It was a message that he hammered home again at a meeting with leaders of the Gaza settlers on Tuesday, during which he proposed that large numbers of them relocate to the Nitzanim area on the southern coast of Israel, famed for its natural beauty.
Sharon was due to tour the area later in the day with some of the senior officials involved in implementing his disengagement plan to discuss the practicalities of building hundreds or even thousands of new homes.
One surprise opponent of such a move, however, is son and normally close political ally Omri Sharon, who wrote in a piece for the Yediot Aharonot daily that the dunes area should be left untouched.
”A suitable living solution must be found for the Gush Katif settlers, one that meets all their needs, but we must not relocate them in a nature reserve,” said Omri Sharon.
Interior Minister Ophir Pines was also dismissive of the idea.
”All those who talk about transferring Gush Katif [the main Gaza settlement bloc] to the Nitzanim area are talking in a delusional, unrealistic and impractical fashion,” he said. — Sapa-AFP