Wilner, Avneri Charge Security Forces in Gaza Strip with ‘atrocities’; Charge Refuted

Noisy squabbling broke out in the Knesset today when Meir Wilner, leader of the pro-Moscow Rakach Communists, and Uri Avneri, maverick chairman of the Haolam Hazeh, the New Force Movement, charged the Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip with “atrocities” against residents there, Wilner demanded that a parliamentary commission of inquiry be sent to the Strip to investigate. Avneri claimed that the border police had been sent to the Strip to take over security duties precisely because they were prepared to use methods the Army shrinks from. He was interrupted by hooting from all corners of the Knesset that temporarily stalled the proceedings. When quiet was restored, Interior Minister Yosef Burg of the National Religious Party took the floor to declare of the Wilner-Avneri charges: “These things have never happened. They are not true and should not have been said here.” He added that “it is unethical to try and drive a wedge between different arms of the defense services.” The allegations of border police thuggery came only a few days after they instituted a get-tough policy to subdue Arab terrorism.