Some statements demand a response from elected officials without evasion.
After attorney Tamir Dortal said in a podcast discussion on a hypothetical evacuation of Judea and Samaria that even if IDF soldiers were killed during resistance to such an evacuation, preventing the move would still be a good thing in his view, Srugim reached out to a long list of senior figures in the national camp.
The question put to them was clear: Do you condemn the statement that the deaths of IDF soldiers might be an acceptable price to prevent the evacuation of settlements?
Srugim contacted Minister Amichai Shikli, Otzma Yehudit chairman Itamar Ben Gvir, Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich, Amcha Yisrael chairman Ofer Winter, and MKs Tzvi Sukkot, Moshe Saada, Limor Son Har-Melech, Zvika Fogel, Avichai Boaron, Moshe Feiglin, and others.
As of publication, not one of them issued a condemnation of the remarks.
Elected officials who have been identified for years with the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria and with the struggle against settlement evacuations were asked this time to draw a clear line: fighting for the Land of Israel, yes; justifying the deaths of IDF soldiers in the course of such a struggle, no. But when given the opportunity to say so publicly, no response was received from them.
Dortal himself clarified after the uproar that the discussion was philosophical and the scenario hypothetical, and that his words do not constitute a call to harm IDF soldiers. Still, the question posed to the elected officials remained simple: Are the remarks worthy of condemnation? As of publication, the answer from them has not arrived.
