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Anti-pullout activists spraypainted a military vehicle with the slogan, "No to the destruction of the Jewish Bloc (Gush Katif, the Israeli settlement area in Gaza)". Another grafitti said "Sharon-Dictator." (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 9, 2005 |
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Neria Ofen, a 34-year-old father of four from the settlement of Yizhar, was arrested and placed in administrative detention in Ashkelon's Shikma Prison on suspicion that the man planned to murder Palestinians.
Ofen was stopped with his family at the Hizma checkpoint and went peacefully with arresting security personnel.
As his wife was driving back home to Yizhar, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at her car while she was passing the northern West Bank village of Luban a-Sharqiya. There were no injuries.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz signed the administrative detention order against Ofen, and the order will stay in effect until September 30. Although the detention order was signed by Mofaz and approved by State Prosecutor Eran Shendar, it still requires approval by the president of one of the district courts. If approved, Ofen will be kept in custody until the end of September, after the disengagement is scheduled to be completed.
Military sources said Sunday there was a consensus among the Shin Bet, the IDF Central Command, the State Prosecutor's Office and the Military Advocate General's Office that Ofen should be detained. "There was unequivocal information about his plans to harm Arabs in the near future," the sources said. "That's why such an unusual step was needed."
According to settlers, Ofen was involved in the "Defensive Shield" movement, which tries to get soldiers to disobey commands to evacuate settlers.
A spokesman for Yitzhar, considered one of the most hard-line settlement communities in the territories, said that the arrest was "an act of cowardice. The defense minister apparently decided they could never find evidence against Ofen."
Security sources have said that this would not necessarily be the last time they would slap a right-wing radical with administrative detention. And despite claims that this detention will not mark the beginning of a crackdown, senior Israel Defense Forces officers from the Central Command have been recommending the preventive arrest of dozens of extremists from the right -- high-profile activists who have been campaigning against the disengagement and organizing protests designed to obstruct the army's moves.
Major General Yair Naveh, the head of the Central Command, told Maariv last week that administrative detentions should begin in June. Central Command officers are convinced that only by removing all the leading activists will it be possible to control the turmoil in the settlements and illegal outposts, and minimize the chances of violence as the disengagement takes place.
Right-wingers have decried the arrest as the beginnings of a "witchhunt".
Knesset Member Arieh Eldar (National Union) said, "I want to bless the first administrative detention prisoner of Sharon's dictatorial reign and tell him, 'To be jailed is to be victorious.'"
The Yesha Council, which represents all of Israeli cities, towns and villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, through a plenum comprised of 25 mayors and 10 other community leaders, warned against the slippery slope of using administrative detentions, an instrument of totalitarian regimes.
"The few democratic values left became this evening a thing of the past," the council said in a statement. The group has requested an emergency meeting with Mofaz. "The order shows that the government is panicking, and it is applying measures that are neither democratic nor would stand the scrutiny of the courts," Yizhar Spokesman Yigal Ameti said. "This is not the first time that this government has begun plunging us towards dictatorship. Good morning, Argentina."
The "Women in Green" movement promised it would not let administrative detentions stop its anti-disengagement activities. "We are against administrative detention, but if Jews who pose a danger are going to be arrested, then Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres should be arrested for threatening the very existence of the State of Israel," they said.
This is not the first time a right-wing group has been slapped with administrative detention. But unlike Ofen, Noam Federman -- of the outlawed Kach movement -- was placed under house arrest in Hebron instead of being sent to prison.
In the meantime, the IDF has completed training exercises for removing settlers who barricade themselves in their homes during the evacuation from the Gaza Strip.
The IDF will allocate five soldiers to every settler who objects forcibly to being evacuated. Four soldiers will take hold of the settler's arms and legs, while the fifth will clear a way through the crowd for his comrades to carry the settler away.
Officially, the police are in charge of coming into direct contact with the settlers who barricade themselves.
One of the problems the soldiers are preparing for is how to handle a woman who decides to barricade herself with a baby or small child in her arms. The troops have received instructions to leave the child in his mother's arms if possible. If this is not possible, the mother and child should be allowed to remain within sight of each other even during a forcible evacuation.
In related news, the Nitzanim plan will be presented to the national council for planning and construction tomorrow, regardless of the settlers' agreement, which the cabinet at first required.
The settlers' leaders regard Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to go ahead without their agreement as a great victory for their cause.
On Sunday, Interior Minister Ophir Paz-Pines signed documents categorizing a small part of the Nitzanim sands a nature reserve. The reserve consists of 7,650 dunams out of an overall 30,000 dunams, most of which serves today as a military firing range.
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