Israeli Attorney General Menachem Mazuz on Tuesday slammed leaders of the anti-disengagement movement in Israel, accusing them of crossing red lines in their public fight to foil the pullout from Gaza Strip."Unfortunately, those leading the struggle have crossed many times red lines. In meetings with the Council of Jewish Settlements of Judea, Samaria and Gaza District (The Yesha Council), we have made it clear that we will ferociously defend their right to a public struggle and protest so long as they do not cross any red lines," said Mazuz.
Mazuz said those leaders are becoming radical in their fight.
"This is not easy – a struggle that is ideologically motivated causes all parties involved to become more radical. This forces us to monitor the process on a daily basis," he said.
Mazuz also said that the top echelons of the Israeli Justice Ministry are monitoring actions against disengagement, in order to determine to what extent criminal law should be enforced against protesters.
"We should move away from a narrow legal approach that seeks to determine whether a crime was committed or not, and approach the events with wise enforcement of criminal law… [we must ask ourselves:] do we fan or calm the flames by enforcing criminal law," Mazuz said at a conference of the Israel Bar Association in Eilat, Mazuz said.
He stated that it is not an easy solution to manage to obtain a careful and restrained approach of enforcing criminal law in relation to the disengagement plan, because power lies with restraint, since restricting the freedom of expression would in many instances yield the least desired results.
The attorney general praised the Israeli courts for their tough actions in the various sessions to try protestors who blocked major roads two weeks ago.
"The judicial system is probably partly responsible for the harsh approach to handling such occurrences… The courts have demonstrated a harsh approach and approved most of our requests for arrests, including arrests until the end of procedures," said Mazuz.
