Peace Now sign in Samaria
Peace Now sign in SamariaIsrael News Photo: (file)

Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer says he plans to sue Rabbi Yisrael Rosen for "incitement and calls to murder" in response to an article in which the rabbi referred to members of Peace Now as "informers."

Rabbi Rosen, Director of the Tzomet Institute, used the charged Hebrew word "mosser" (Yiddish: moisser) in his Sabbath message in this week's Shabbat B'Shabbato newsletter.

The rabbi pointed out in the article that under a certain Torah law (Halacha), one is allowed to kill a mosser. He was careful to add, however, that no one must "take Halacha into his own hands" and that matters of life and death must be decided by a Rabbinic Court.

Oppenheimer, incensed, asserted that "the legal authorities must not stand for the phenomenon that is evidenced by alleged Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, and not allow such incitement and calls to murder." He added that he intends to file a petition with the Attorney-General asking him to "file charges against the rabbi and his dangerous words."

The rabbi's article was written in the context of the recently agreed upon plan to move the Samarian Jewish community of Migron to a new location. Rosen said the issue at stake is the conflict between a belief-based grip on the land, and the "informing" by Peace Now.

Migron, a community comprised of 42 families, including more than 100 children, was founded on 19 Adar 5762 (March 3, 2002). It is perched on a strategic hilltop overlooking Samaria's central artery, Highway 60, which leads from Jerusalem to the Binyamin region and such communities as Ofrah, Beit El, Shilo and Eli. Located between Kochav Yaakov and Michmash, Migron is a quick 15-minute drive north of the capital.

Though some of the land on which the community was built was definitely purchased by Jews, other parts of the community are situated on tracts of privately-owned Arab land. However, those Arabs had never come forward to make their claim, nor had they ever cultivated or laid any claim to it, until Peace Now sought them out and encouraged them to do so.

It was this act by Peace Now members, who "informed" Arab land owners that they had a claim to land upon which a Jewish town was built, thus causing the expulsion of Jews and destruction of Jewish homes, that prompted Rabbi Rosen to declare they were "mosser."

Oppenheimer appeared unmoved by the distress caused to Jewish families and upheaval in Jewish lives.

"Peace Now will continue in its struggle to put a stop to the illegal construction of settlements and the struggle for a sane future of the State of Israel," he responded in a statement.