Right-wingers harass IDF Rabbi


Jerusalem Post
 Date: Dec. 4, 2004 19:04

Several dozen right-wing activists demonstrated Friday opposite the Mitzpeh Jericho home of Lt.-Col. Yehuda Vesner, chief Rabbi of the IDF's Central Command, who has denounced rabbinic calls for soldiers to refuse evacuation orders.

Holding signs reading "Our chief commander is God. Who is yours Yehuda Vesner?," demonstrators passed out flyers throughout the settlement against the rabbi. Vesner was attacked earlier in the year by right-wing extremists after he participated in the demolition of an illegally-built synagogue in Kfar-Tapuah.

The demonstration, organized by the Defensive Shield anti-disengagement organization, was secured by dozens of Judea and Samaria District policemen who were on standby in case violence erupted between protestors and local residents.

Vesner is not the only rabbi to feel the right-wing's wrath in recent days.

Last week, graffiti reading "Death penalty for traitors" was found scrawled across the home of Rabbi Menahem Fruman in Tekoa. Fruman has met several times with former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as well as Hamas leaders.

Right-wing activist and head of the National Jewish Front political party Baruch Marzel said the activities will continue as long as such rabbis betray their own people.

"The people of Judea and Samaria are fed up with Trojan horses working from within and against the community," Marzel said. "We won't forgive and won't forget the rabbis who work against us."

Noam Livnat, brother of Education Minister Limor Livnat and head of the Defensive Shield organization, said that despite his uneasiness with speaking out against rabbis, the demonstrations will continue.

"Crazy times call for crazy measures," Livnat said. "I am uncomfortable speaking against rabbis but when there is a desecration of God one is not obligated to respect a rabbi."

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