Holding those to account in Israel? Not if you’re a radical settler:
Even as concern grows about civil resistance to new government construction limits in the West Bank, a Knesset committee has approved a bill to scrub clean the records of right-wingers arrested during violent protests against Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza.
Under the bill, approved unanimously in late November by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, legal proceedings would be dropped against 400 people charged during violent protests before, during and after the disengagement. Only the 82 people up for the most serious charges — such as those that put lives at risk — will continue to face prosecution.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet officially declared his stance on the bill, but he looks set to back it and to demand that his coalition does likewise. This is, in part, because he welcomed the idea when it was first put forth before he took office. The bill also presents him with a rare opportunity to repair his standing in right-wing settler circles following a partial moratorium on new settlement construction his government has imposed on the Israeli-occupied West Bank.