The results of the survey add weight to reports that Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef will voice his ruling Saturday night, during a weekly Torah lesson, that the withdrawal violates Jewish law.
The Haredi weekly Mishpacha (Family) flatly states that Rabbi Yosef called the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon an "apostasy". He also is quoted as accusing Sharon of trying to destroy religious institutions, making the government even worse than that of the late Yitzchak Rabin. Shas abstained when Rabin brought the original Oslo Accords to a vote in the Knesset, thus facilitating its ratification.
Other news sources report that Rabbi Yosef simply will rule that the 11 Shas Knesset members abstain from voting, although Mishpacha insists that he will instruct the party to vote against Sharon. In either case, political analysts tend to believe that Sharon will succeed in passing his withdrawal program even without the Shas votes.
The poll also shows that only 57 per cent of all the interviewees are in favor of disengagement, a number far lower than its supporters have claimed. More significant is that less than two-thirds of the plan's supporters replied they would vote in a referendum; whereas, 81% of opponents said they would participate. Prime Minister Sharon so far has resisted calls from both proponents and opponents to hold a national referendum.
Rabbi Yosef also received an appeal from the Victims of Arab Terror International (VAT) organization calling on him to rule against the plan. The VAT argued that a ruling for the plan would "desecrate the memories of soldiers who died" from terrorism, as well as those of more than 1,500 victims of Arab terror the past several years.
The Haredi weekly Mishpacha (Family) flatly states that Rabbi Yosef called the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon an "apostasy". He also is quoted as accusing Sharon of trying to destroy religious institutions, making the government even worse than that of the late Yitzchak Rabin. Shas abstained when Rabin brought the original Oslo Accords to a vote in the Knesset, thus facilitating its ratification.
Other news sources report that Rabbi Yosef simply will rule that the 11 Shas Knesset members abstain from voting, although Mishpacha insists that he will instruct the party to vote against Sharon. In either case, political analysts tend to believe that Sharon will succeed in passing his withdrawal program even without the Shas votes.
The poll also shows that only 57 per cent of all the interviewees are in favor of disengagement, a number far lower than its supporters have claimed. More significant is that less than two-thirds of the plan's supporters replied they would vote in a referendum; whereas, 81% of opponents said they would participate. Prime Minister Sharon so far has resisted calls from both proponents and opponents to hold a national referendum.
Rabbi Yosef also received an appeal from the Victims of Arab Terror International (VAT) organization calling on him to rule against the plan. The VAT argued that a ruling for the plan would "desecrate the memories of soldiers who died" from terrorism, as well as those of more than 1,500 victims of Arab terror the past several years.