JERUSALEM: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AND OTHER HIGH RANKING OFFICIALS ATTEND FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE COMMITTEE MEETING.

Record ID: 400910

  • Title: JERUSALEM: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON AND OTHER HIGH RANKING OFFICIALS ATTEND FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE COMMITTEE MEETING.
  • Date: 14th February 2005
  • Summary: (BN08)JERUSALEM (FEBRUARY 14, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WS: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON, SURROUNDED BY BODYGUARDS, ARRIVING AT FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND DEFENCE COMMITTEE MEETING WALKING TOWARDS CAMERA. 0.05 2. SCU: OF CAMERAMAN. 0.10 3. TRACK: SHARON ENTERS THE MEETING ROOM. 0.14 4. TRACK: UNKNOWN COMMITTEE MEMBER ARRIVING. 0.21
  • Embargoed: 1st March 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA39592KJB0V54HAGOBTMLCSEKT
  • Story Text: Sharon and other high-ranking Israeli officials
    dogged by death threats.



    Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was surrounded by
    bodyguards on Monday (February 14) as he entered a Foreign
    Affairs and Defence Committee meeting.

    The increased security comes amid threats against
    Sharon and other high-ranking officials in response to
    Sharon's "Disengagement Plan" that foresees the evacuation
    of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in mid-2005.

    Israeli security services are stepping up protection of
    public officials after death threats against cabinet
    ministers by militant Jews opposed to the planned pullout
    from the Gaza Strip, officials said on Sunday (February 13).

    Incitement and threats against officials in favour of
    the withdrawal have reached such a peak of late that the
    daughter of slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin wrote in an
    open letter that the "writing is on the wall" for another
    assassination.

    Rabin was killed in 1995 by an ultranationalist Jew
    opposed to his peace moves with the Palestinians.

    In the latest threat, Transport Minister Meir Sheetrit
    received letters saying his wife and children would be
    killed if he continued to support Sharon's plan.

    "You will attend the funeral of your children. We will
    murder your wife and you," said an excerpt of one letter
    cited in a news story in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

    The daily quoted a police source as saying that 84
    senior officials were under protection due to concern for
    their lives.

    Another cabinet minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said he
    too had received threatening letters which he had given to
    police.

    Last week Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a former
    prime minister, was accosted by supporters of Jewish
    settlers while attending a wedding and Education Minister
    Limor Livnat was jostled and heckled at a memorial ceremony.

    Officials said the incidents prompted the national
    police chief to order a tightening of security at events
    attended by public figures. He also advised them to avoid
    circulating in public unless absolutely necessary.

    Most of the threats appear to be aimed at Sharon, who
    has been vilified by ultranationalists ever since his
    turnaround from being the darling of the Jewish settler
    movement to a leader bent on withdrawing from Gaza and the
    northern West Bank.

    Graffiti threatening him with death and doctored
    photographs of Sharon dressed in a Stalinist uniform with
    the words "The Dictator" have become increasingly common,
    drawing comparisons to the sort of incitement that preceded
    the Rabin assassination.

    During Monday's meeting Foreign Affairs and Defence
    Committee Head Yuval Steinitz said the pictures in local
    newspapers depicting Sharon as Stalin were appalling.

    "It was really appalling to see pictures in the
    newspapers of the Prime Minister represented as the great
    enemy Stalin, the murderer of millions. It was really
    appalling to me, and I'm sure that for most of the members
    of the committee as well, Steinitz said.

    Shinui leader and Member of Knesset Yosef Lapid said
    the threats were unacceptable.

    "The extreme right which opposes the withdrawal from
    Gaza is threatening leading personalities in the country
    and we have to take care that this does not happen again as
    it happened to Yitshak Rabin," Lapid said.

    Security around Sharon is so tight that he is often
    seen surrounded by more than a dozen bodyguards. But a
    columnist for Yedioth Ahronoth suggested that Jewish
    extremists might try to thwart his security detail by
    killing him in a suicide bombing.

    Other officials, including lawmakers in the right-wing
    Likud party, complain they are under intense pressure from
    ultranationalist party supporters who have threatened them
    with political consequences if they support the pullout
    from Gaza.

    Pressure will likely rise ahead of upcoming key votes,
    including a cabinet vote in March to approve the evacuation
    of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four in the West
    Bank.
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