Hebron Settler Renews Call to Bring Down Government

A leader of the Israeli settlers movement has renewed his call for a massive campaign of civil disobedience to bring down the government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Zvi Katzover, head of the local council of Kiryat Arba, said what was needed was “a massive campaign of civil disobedience in the full sense of the word: Block the roads, put a siege on government offices — all within the boundaries of the law, of course.”

“All we need is 10,000 people who will respond to our ‘reserve duty call-ups’ for 60 to 90 days, and this government will fall,” he said.

Katzover made a similar statement a week ago, after terrorists ambushed a bus near Hebron, killing two Israelis and wounding five. Within days after the March 19 attack, the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the shootings.

Katzover spoke on Army Radio after convening an emergency meeting of the settlers council of Hebron and neighboring Kiryat Arba. The meeting had been called to discuss the future of a continued Jewish presence in Hebron, where about 500 Israelis live among some 100,000 Palestinians.

The meeting dealt with the settlers’ opposition to an eventual Israeli army withdrawal from the West Bank, a move called for under the terms of the Palestinian self-rule accord, but which has been postponed because of repeated terror attacks on Israelis.

The settlers also discussed a plan recently suggested by Environment Minister Yossi Sarid for evacuating all Jewish settlers from the heart of Hebron.

Attending the settlers meeting, Likud Knesset member Ariel Shron voiced grave reservations about the impending army pullout from the West Bank.

The army withdrawal “would endanger not only the Jewish settlers, but also the Jewish citizens of Israel who live close to the Green line,” said Sharon, referring to the pre-1967 borders.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Sharon, a former defense minister, alleged that the Rabin government hates West Bank settlers.

“We are witnessing a hatred that is cultivated by the government and by its prime minister with the aim of isolating the Jewish settlers, and making some of them want to leave the place,” Sharon charged.

Rabin, during an interview on Israel Television last Friday, charged previous Likud-led governments with creating “perpetual friction” by establishing Jewish settlements in or near Arab towns in the West Bank.

Rabin also said it “requires more soldiers than settlers” to provide security for the settlements.

Leaders of the settlers movement met last Friday with Maj. Gen. Ilan Biran, the commander of the Israel Defense Force’s central command, including the West Bank, to discuss security and defense issues.

Although nothing new was achieved, a military source said it was significant that the meeting took place at all, particularly in the wake of the harsh accusations leveled by the settlers against the army in general, and against Biran in particular, in the aftermath of last week’s terrorist attack in Hebron.

Along with concerns about an eventual army withdrawal, the council members have also had to confront a recent demand by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the removal of one council member, Baruch Mazel.

The Ministry has demanded Marzel’s removal because, it says, several convictions against him for “offenses of moral turpitude” disqualify him from serving on the council.

Marzel is leader of the militant anti-Arab Kach movement, which was outlawed last year after Jewish settler Dr. Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians during prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Marzel resides in Tel Rumeida, in the heart of Hebron.