Last update - 00:00 04/07/2007
Olmert to ask AG Mazuz to close pullout protesters' criminal files
By Nadav Shragai and Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondents
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday he intends to request the closure of criminal files against hundreds of right-wing activists who were indicted over light offenses during protests against Israel's 2005 pullout from the Gaza Strip and Northern West Bank.
"I am prepared to ask the Justice Minister and the Attorney General to examine the issue, but not with reference to serious offenses," Olmert said at a Knesset session.
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann expressed support for closing the files against those indicted of disorderly conduct and for blocking highways. He emphasized he would only consider doing so for offenses that do not go beyond disrupting traffic - such as the endangering of lives by spilling oil on roads.
At a session of the subcommittee of the Knesset committee on Gaza and northern West Bank evacuees, police and state prosecution representatives reported that 634 right-wing activists were tried for their anti-pullout activities. Many of those indicted were teenagers, they said.
The representatives said another 119 activists were tried for serious offenses. The public defender's office told the subcommittee that it requested judicial proceedings be postponed in more than 100 of the cases.
Most of the MKs in the session, including Avshalom Vilan of the left-wing Meretz party, were in favor of erasing indictments for light offenses, but opposed a sweeping eradication of all criminal files.
MKs from a number of different factions spoke at the session, stating that if the indictments are not eradicated they will work to cancel them through legislation. MK Yitzhak Levy (National Union -National Religious Party) started the legislation initiative, which was written by Reuven Rivlin (Likud).
The subcommittee was told stories of youths who participated in protest activities, and were indicted over light offences such as "prohibited assembly," or "disturbing a police officer at work." The criminal records prevent the youths from serving in the Israel Defense Forces, and from finding work.
The example was given of a right-wing activist who was tried because he refused to show his identification card to a police officer.
Many of the indicted are the children of evacuated families, whose parents are unemployed and have not managed to readjust socially and economically to life after the pullout.