Press Release, March 13,  2008

Gush Shalom: Assassinations in Bethlehem and Tulkarm – grave provocation

The government does not want a ceasefire, but a new flareup

Those who sent the assassins to carry out “liquidations” today, in Tulkarm and Bethlehem, knew what they were doing –

a grave act of provocation which might blow up the serious chance which had opened up, to reach ceasefire and calm.

This is a wanton, completely irresponsible act, which might return the inhabitants of Sderot, Ashkelon and Gaza back into the hell from which they momentarily escaped.

The lethal propaganda perpetrated today is the latest in a whole week of provocations:

-         the Prime Minister approving settlement construction, spitting in the face of the entire world;

-         the incitement in the Knesset,  even by the Speaker, to the vengeful  destruction of a family house for a crime of which none of the people living there is guilty;

-         the rabbis who openly and insolently encourage their disciples to commit indiscriminate killings;

-         and also the small-minded boycott declared against the Al-Jazeera TV, whose only sin was to expose to the world’s gaze horrors which the Government of Israel wanted to hide.