The only way the Knesset can overturn the expulsion law is by a dramatic move, such as Ministers Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and Limor Livnat quitting their posts in protest, Porat explained. He said the rallies represent an effort to encourage people to voice enough opposition to convince the government to cancel the plan.
Porat pointed out that support for the expulsion policy has decreased consistently to 50 percent or less and that opposition has mounted to 40 percent. Polls also have shown that an absolute majority is opposed to executing the plan under the present circumstances of continuing terror and mounting complications on where to transfer expulsion victims.
The rally in Ashkelon (pictured above) is scheduled for Monday evening, and a prayer rally in Jerusalem will take place Wednesday, Porat added. He said that people also are continuing to try to reach 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza coastal region, where the government has tried to bar non-residents from entering and remaining during the expulsion, scheduled to begin in the middle of next week.
Ultra orthodox (Haredim) Jews are planning to participate in the Jerusalem rally, Porat added. Several hundred Haredim attended the rally in Ofakim Wednesday night, reflecting their leaders' calls to leave Torah studies and prayer long enough to protest. The elderly Rabbi Menachem Porush, a revered ultra orthodox leader, addressed the Ofakim crowd, "Expelling Jews from Gush Katif is the same as expelling all of us."
The rally in Ashkelon is particularly significant because of the location of a huge power plant south of the city, nine kilometers (5.6 miles) from the northern edge of Gaza, which Israel plans to hand over to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The range of most of the Kassam rockets is nine kilometers, and Arab terrorists in the past year have fired several rockets close to the power plant. A direct hit on the station would cause a major power outage in the southern part of the country and place a heavy burden on the overworked Hadera facility in the north.
Military and intelligence officials have reported over the past year that terrorists have developed longer range rockets, some of which have been tested over the Mediterranean Sea.
The IDF, worried that the PA will allow terrorists to fire rockets toward the power plant after an IDF withdrawal, has installed the Red Dawn warning system throughout Ashkelon. The system detects an approaching rocket and gives residents about 20 seconds to take cover.
In the Negev town of Ofakim, southeast of Ashkelon, several hundred people remained on Friday and Saturday. Leaders of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) said they are postponing protest activity until Monday in consideration for the mourning over the victims of the Jewish gunman who killed four Christian and Druze Arabs in the Galilee Thursday evening. The man, an IDF deserter, subsequently was beaten to death by an angry mob in the town of Shfaram, the destination of the bus around which that shooting incident occurred.
Meanwhile, the PA already has begun celebrating the scheduled dismantling of the Jewish communities, which they term a direct result of terror against Israel. PA prime minister Ahmed Qureia Thursday continued to excite Gaza crowds with speeches that the expulsion is the first step of "a national struggle [which] will continue until we reach Jerusalem and celebrate there and in the West Bank."
He vowed that Arabs will “hoist the Palestinian flag on the walls of the Old City [of Jerusalem] and its minarets and churches."
Porat pointed out that support for the expulsion policy has decreased consistently to 50 percent or less and that opposition has mounted to 40 percent. Polls also have shown that an absolute majority is opposed to executing the plan under the present circumstances of continuing terror and mounting complications on where to transfer expulsion victims.
The rally in Ashkelon (pictured above) is scheduled for Monday evening, and a prayer rally in Jerusalem will take place Wednesday, Porat added. He said that people also are continuing to try to reach 21 Jewish communities in the Gaza coastal region, where the government has tried to bar non-residents from entering and remaining during the expulsion, scheduled to begin in the middle of next week.
Ultra orthodox (Haredim) Jews are planning to participate in the Jerusalem rally, Porat added. Several hundred Haredim attended the rally in Ofakim Wednesday night, reflecting their leaders' calls to leave Torah studies and prayer long enough to protest. The elderly Rabbi Menachem Porush, a revered ultra orthodox leader, addressed the Ofakim crowd, "Expelling Jews from Gush Katif is the same as expelling all of us."
The rally in Ashkelon is particularly significant because of the location of a huge power plant south of the city, nine kilometers (5.6 miles) from the northern edge of Gaza, which Israel plans to hand over to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The range of most of the Kassam rockets is nine kilometers, and Arab terrorists in the past year have fired several rockets close to the power plant. A direct hit on the station would cause a major power outage in the southern part of the country and place a heavy burden on the overworked Hadera facility in the north.
Military and intelligence officials have reported over the past year that terrorists have developed longer range rockets, some of which have been tested over the Mediterranean Sea.
The IDF, worried that the PA will allow terrorists to fire rockets toward the power plant after an IDF withdrawal, has installed the Red Dawn warning system throughout Ashkelon. The system detects an approaching rocket and gives residents about 20 seconds to take cover.
In the Negev town of Ofakim, southeast of Ashkelon, several hundred people remained on Friday and Saturday. Leaders of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) said they are postponing protest activity until Monday in consideration for the mourning over the victims of the Jewish gunman who killed four Christian and Druze Arabs in the Galilee Thursday evening. The man, an IDF deserter, subsequently was beaten to death by an angry mob in the town of Shfaram, the destination of the bus around which that shooting incident occurred.
Meanwhile, the PA already has begun celebrating the scheduled dismantling of the Jewish communities, which they term a direct result of terror against Israel. PA prime minister Ahmed Qureia Thursday continued to excite Gaza crowds with speeches that the expulsion is the first step of "a national struggle [which] will continue until we reach Jerusalem and celebrate there and in the West Bank."
He vowed that Arabs will “hoist the Palestinian flag on the walls of the Old City [of Jerusalem] and its minarets and churches."