Prime Minister Sharon’s Unilateral
Disengagement Plan for Gaza and Northern Samaria is a deliberate misnomer and
deception to hide the truth of what he really intends to do. Disengagement was
never Sharon’s true object since there already exists a separation of Jews and
Arabs in these regions of the Land of Israel. What he seeks in the name of
security and eventual peace is not disengagement, but an illegal territorial
withdrawal from integral parts of the Jewish National Home, the uprooting of
flourishing Jewish settlements and the forcible transfer of Jews from their
sovereign land. The implementation of this plan will infringe Jewish national
and political rights to the Land of Israel under international law, Israeli
constitutional law and criminal law, as well as Jewish religious law. The
Disengagement Plan would never have seen the light of day, if the
Attorney-General had threatened to enforce the relevant law governing this Plan.
The transfer of Jews from the Land of Israel where they
are lawfully present has absolutely no legal validity. Such transfer
violates the most basic rights of Jews inherited from the Mandate for
Palestine which were subsequently implanted into the constitutional law of
the State of Israel upon the expiry of the Mandate and the proclamation of
the State. Those rights concern immigration and settlement anywhere in the
Land of Israel under the rule of the State. The converse of the right of
settlement prohibits the uprooting of government-authorized settlements and
the displacement of their Jewish residents. Inasmuch as the Jews in Gaza and
Northern Samaria are lawfully present in these areas, there are no legal
grounds under international law to justify their transfer as defined in the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The transfer of Jews from
undisputed parts of the Land of Israel is also a clear violation of the Law
of Return passed on July 5, 1950, which also incorporates the previously
existing Jewish Right of Return into Israeli constitutional law. The scope
of the Right of Return is the Land of Israel in all its dimensions, not
merely the limited area of the State of Israel, as evidenced by the use of
the word artza (“to the Land”) in the text of the Law of Return,
rather than medina. Any restriction placed on the Right of Return
which built the State of Israel is a repudiation of Zionism and a staggering
blow to the highest value of the State.
The transfer of Jews from Gaza and Northern Samaria
also violates the Proclamation of Independence which promotes the return of
Jews to the whole of Eretz Israel. Furthermore, the evacuation of
Jews from their settlements will impair the sovereignty of the State over
all regions of the Land of Israel presently under its control, exposing
those responsible for the Disengagement Plan, particularly Prime Minister
Sharon, to a charge of treason under article 97(a) of the Penal Code. Since
the Disengagement Plan also involves a territorial withdrawal, a charge of
treason can also be brought against him under sections 97(b) and 100 of the
law. However, this would only take place if and when a true Zionist
government comes to power and initiates prosecution. Finally, the rabbinical
call to Jewish soldiers and policemen not to obey any order to uproot Jewish
settlements and eject settlers from their homes in the Land of Israel is in
full accord not only with a widely accepted interpretation of halakha,
but also with the most important law of the State, i.e., the Law of Return
which embodies the sacred Right of Return of Jews to their ancestral
homeland.
