Police have questioned right-wing settlers in the territories and Golan Heights in connection with threats made by activists that they would take up arms to resist Israeli withdrawal from these lands.
In the past month, as Israel was engaged in negotiations with Arab parties that could eventually lead to territorial concessions in exchange for peace, some settlers said they would fight against any government-ordered withdrawal.
Such threats are being treated by police as possible criminal incitement to rebellion. The authorities are also investigating reports that some right-wing settlers have begun stockpiling weapons to be used in a future struggle against withdrawal.
Some of the Golan residents who have already been interrogated said they never meant they would take up arms against the Israel Defense Force.
They said they only meant to indicate they would wage a “legitimate” struggle, exercising their democratic rights to remain on the land where they currently live.
Residents of Moshav Neve Ativ in the Golan, some of whom are under investigation, have charged that left-wing figures within the government have been using the police as a political instrument to pressure the Golan residents into submitting to territorial concessions.
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