A diverse group of Members of Knesset has begun pressuring the government to close the criminal files against dozens of young activists who protested the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria in 2005. The group includes MKs from NU/NRP, Kadima, Shas, Likud, and Yisrael Beiteinu.

MK Rabbi Yitzchak Levi (NU/NRP), who initiated the movement, accused the police of a “wholesale opening of criminal files” during the weeks leading up to the expulsion. Activists faced criminal charges for minor infractions, he said. Levi pointed out that then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin closed the files against protestors after the expulsion of Jews from Sinai, and called on today’s government to do the same.