Soviet Jewry activist, Natan Shcharansky came under attack from Orthodox political circles Wednesday for a meeting he had early this week with Palestinian leaders in East Jerusalem. Laborites and leftists in the Knesset immediately sprang to his defense.
Shcharansky, who came to Israel last February after nine years in Soviet prisons and labor camps, was angrily denounced by National Religious Party MK. Haim Druckman for “succoring Israel’s enemies.” Labor MK. Micha Harish said Druckman’s attack was reminiscent of the Soviet Union.
Shcharansky met discreetly with Feisal Husseini, a prominent pro-PLO Palestinian intellectual, and reportedly with other Palestinian activists in connection with the deportation order against Akhram Haniye, editor of the East Jerusalem Arabic daily A-Shaab. The meeting became known generally only after Druckman attacked Shcharansky for it.
Husseini, who heads the Palestinian Research Center in East Jerusalem, is a leading figure in a public movement to block the deportation. The movement consists mainly of Palestinian academicians and journalists, but they have been joined by a growing number of Israeli liberals. Many of the latter attended a protest rally for Haniye at an East Jerusalem theater Wednesday evening.
Haniye’s case will be considered by the Supreme Court. His attorney, Felicia Langer, lodged an appeal after a military review board in Nablus upheld the deportation order at a hearing last week. The Israel Defense Force Central Command ordered the editor expelled to Jordan on grounds that he has been involved in PLO activity in the administered territories. But the IDF acknowledged that Haniye is not linked directly to any terrorist act.
MK Ram Cohen of the leftist Citizens Rights Movement (CRM) said at the East Jerusalem rally that the expulsion of Haniye would hinder the peace process. He said Israel should be ashamed to resort to “colonialist laws under which our own people previously suffered.” He was referring to the British Mandate regulations under which Haniye was ordered deported.
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