Knesset grants amnesty to protesters from 2005 Gaza Strip disengagement

The Knesset passed a law yesterday that grants amnesty to most of those convicted for protest activities against the 2005 disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

The law passed by a vote of 51-9, with all the votes against coming from opposition MKs. These MKs charged that it discriminates between rightist and leftist protesters.

The bill, which was submitted to the previous Knesset by MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud), now the Knesset speaker, will pardon about 400 of the 482 people who faced criminal proceedings related to the disengagement. Most are teens convicted of minor offenses. It will not apply to those convicted of serious violence or of endangering human life, nor will it apply to those with previous criminal records.

Knesset Constitution Committee chairman David Rotem (Yisrael Beiteinu), whose panel prepared the bill for yesterday's final reading, told the plenum that it law will not free anyone from prison, because the committee discovered that no one is currently in jail due to anti-disengagement activities. However, it will erase the criminal records of all those it affects, and forbid the law enforcement agencies from informing any other organization of the convictions, thereby ensuring that those pardoned will not face difficulties in being drafted or finding employment.

The law will also cancel any disengagement-related criminal proceedings still pending against those it covers.

The amnesty, Rotem argued, is necessary, because "the disengagement was a unique event" that "nearly tore the nation in two," and the law is the Knesset's way of saying "'I am trying, and want, to heal the rift that was created.'"

MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) countered that the bill was a serious mistake, because the disengagement is unlikely to be the last evacuation of settlements, and future evacuations will spark similar protests. "The message you're sending to right-wing demonstrators today," he charged, "is, 'resist, pour boiling oil, throw stones and act as you see fit, because in the end, Knesset members will protect you and exempt you. You'll be protected - as long as you're on the right side of the political map.'"

Noting that Arab protesters - for instance, against last year's war in Gaza - enjoyed no such special protection, he added, "a normative system that relates differently to crime that comes from a different side of the political map is a dangerous political system that leads society to terrible places."

MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) agreed. "This is a dangerous precedent, in which an entire political camp is exploiting its political majority to obtain pardons for crimes that stemmed from a particular political direction."

But despite the left's objections, the bill has enjoyed sweeping support since its inception: When Rivlin first submitted it, he succeeded in signing a third of the Knesset on as cosponsors, including two Labor MKs.

This is only the third general amnesty in Israel's history. The first was in 1949, and the second in 1967, following the Six-Day War. Several other attempts at amnesties have failed.