Pinchas Wallerstein, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, declared that the people of Gush Katif must now act aggressively against the Sharon government in order to save their homes and farms. And to be ready to go to prison for this act.



The Prime Minister's Office immediately responded with a flurry of press releases declaring that Mr. Wallerstein's comments were tantamount to "incitement" and he could be prosecuted for civil disobedience. The attorney general, true to form, immediately announced that a file would be opened against Wallerstein.



Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition both in Jewish and world history. Governments have enacted laws that were patently unjust, immoral and illegal. Open your Bible.



Lot knew the law of Sodom that no sustenance is to be given to a stranger. He flouted the law and invited unknown guests (who were actually angels) into his home. Sodom was destroyed; Lot lived.



Moses smote an Egyptian taskmaster - certainly an extreme act of civil disobedience. He led our people out of Egypt to become a nation.



The Jews of Spain defied the Spanish Laws of Conversion when they continued to practice Judaism in secret during the Inquisition.



Mahatma Ghandi, using non-violent civil disobedience, helped drive the British from his country.



The American civil rights movement was totally based on the concept of rejecting the laws of the USA that forbade blacks from sitting at the front of the bus, drinking from a 'whites only' water fountains, or being served in a 'white' restaurant. Martin Luther King, Jr., the symbol of civil rights, is lauded and revered for encouraging civil disobedience - with the full knowledge that he and his people would be jailed for refusing to obey the law.



Pinchas Wallerstein is now in this league of those who call for disobeying the law. The laws are wrong - the removal, the expulsion, the prepared destruction of homes, farms and synagogues - and go against every fiber of Jewish heritage.



How dare a Jewish government in the Jewish land of Israel demand that Jews of Israel be ready to walk away quietly from the basic tenets of human rights - the right to live in one's home?



The precedent this sets for World Jewry is frightening. Today, it is the Jews of Gush Katif and the four communities in Samaria. We are told, quite emphatically, that this is the beginning of other expulsions in Israel. Today, it is Israel. Tomorrow, it will be Jewish communities in other parts of the world.



If the prime minister of Israel is ready to evict Jews, what will keep other authorities in other lands from removing their Jews? This eviction of Jews is not a Gush Katif problem; it is a World Jewry problem.



We are required to obey the laws of the land. We are also required to protest when the laws are wrong.