For more information about the Amona hearings and the truth in testimony and pictures regarding Police and Yassamnikim actions in Amona, click here, here and here. MB
Mofaz, Ezra Testify Before Amona Inquiry
Parliamentary Inquiry into Amona: Police Minister Questioned
Ezra: “Best and Most Highly Trained Forces At Amona”
Excerpts;
“Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra told the Knesset committee investigating the brutal evacuation of Amona that the government used ‘the best and most highly trained forces’ to evacuate nine buildings at the edge of the community last month.”
“Ezra appeared to testify instead of the officers who were in command during the bloody evacuation of demonstrators at the site which left over 300 protesters injured, including three Knesset members.”
Ezra’s warning – Don’t Mess with Kadima
Full Text;
“Some commentators called Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra’s appearance at the Amona Commission a ‘long slip of the tongue’ but they obviously don’t really now the ex-Shin Bet operative Ezra didn’t slip up, he meant to say every word and the chorus of criticism didn’t cause him any regrets.”
“Ezra was ostensibly on the stand to defend his police officers from politically motivated attacks, his real objective was to issue a stern warning to all Kadima’s enemies: Don’t Mess With Us.”
“That’s the reason that he didn’t stick to the issue at hand but fired a broadside in an altogether unexpected direction, former Police Investigations Chief Moshe Mizrahi, the bete noire of many a minister, who used wiretappings and leaks to the press to entrap politicians.”
“Ariel Sharon was marketed to us over the last six years as the nation’s grandfather, all the rest of Kadima’s ministers were supposed to stay in his shadow. Now Sharon is gone and the new model is of ruthless operatives, crafty lawyers like Ehud Olmert and Ronny Bar-On and former members of the secret services like Tzipi Livni and Ezra. These hard-hitting politicos don’t take any nonsense from anyone – press, law or parliament.”
“It didn’t matter that Kadima lost two votes in the Knesset over the formation of the commission, they weren’t going to allow the Right to haul them over the coals for the traumatic evacuation of the outpost.”
“Ezra and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz got the attorney-general to issue them an opinion allowing them to appear instead of IDF and police officers. The outcry from Likud and National Union MKs that they were demeaning the Knesset was like water off a duck’s back.”
“Then Ezra arrived at the commission spoiling for a fight, practically blaming the MKs for the threats against his officers. As a parting shot, he said he wouldn’t allow anyone to turn his police into ‘a punching bag, not right-wing MKs and not the leftist leakers, such as Mizrahi and his friends, and it’s a pity that he’s still on the police force.'”
“Neither was Mofaz ready to shoulder any part of the blame. On the contrary, the parents of the young demonstrators at Amona ‘who sent them there should account for themselves.'”
“Just like Ronny Bar-On, who a couple of weeks ago issued a veiled threat to Amir Peretz of an embarrassing scandal that he might just be tempted to reveal, Kadima’s ministers are making things very clear. They’re declaring: We are the rulers now, we’re going to win these elections and anyone who tries to mess with us – settlers, MKs, investigative reporters, the ‘law and order mafia’ in the police and the Justice Ministry – will find out that they’re wasting time and might just end up getting hurt.“
MK Shteinitz: Ezra Promised Me that Police Commanders Would Testify at Amona Committee
Shteinitz Insistent on Senior Officers Appearing Before Investigators
Excerpts;
“The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee investigating the Amona violence, MK Yuval Shteinitz, said today that Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra ‘needs a lesson in democracy.’”
“Ezra had said earlier that he would not allow police officers to testify at the committee’s hearings.”
“Shteinitz said that the committee had no intention of summoning individual lower-level policemen or soldiers, ‘but only the Police Commissioner and the District Commander, in order to hear what instructions they received from the political echelons and how they were carried out.'”
“‘I have no doubt that the top police officers will appear before the committee,’ Shteinitz said, ‘as Minister Ezra promised me personally just two days ago. It will be carried out in the most serious and respectful way possible, as is acceptable in proper democracies.'”
Mofaz Blocks IDF Officers From Going Before Amona Probe
Excerpts;
“A day before the Knesset launched its investigation on the Amona evacuation, security officials sought to undermine the committee.”
“Both Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Interior Security Minister Gideon Ezra told the committee that they would personally appear in place of the officers that the committee had intended to question.”
“‘This is an attempt to obstruct the Knesset from carrying out its work,’ said Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud), who chose the panel to conduct the investigation. ‘Minister Ezra is in need of a democracy lesson.'”
“While carrying out the evacuation and demolition of nine houses in the West Bank outpost of Amona, the police clashed with thousands of protectors. More than 250 people were injured, including over 80 policemen.”
But we all know that in the end there will be a white wash. It’s a sham. Just looking at the pictures it’s clear that there was unnecessary force, brutality, cruelty.