"SEDITION" --OR PATRIOTISM? Michael Baron On December 3, 1995, the three leaders of Zu Artzeinu, a grassroots movement which protests the Labor government's policy through passive civil disobedience, were charged with sedition. According to the indictment, the defendants, Moshe Feiglin, Shmuel Sackett, and Rabbi Benny Elon, "conspired to frustrate the implementation of decisions legally made by the legal government of Israel, and approved by the Knesset, with regard to its policy in Judea and Samaria...by calling on the public to commit illegal acts, including mass disturbances of the peace, interference with the government's functioning, and preventing the police from doing their duty." It is noteworthy that the United States passed a Sedition Act in 1798. This act provoked the first states rights movement under the Constitution, and backfired on those who established it, leading to Thomas Jefferson's election to the Presidency--and repeal of the law. There was good reason for this. Sedition, in the dictionary definition, is a highly elastic term, including everything from "any action, especially in speech or writing, promoting discontent or rebellion against a government" to "insurrection" and "treason." Sedition can easily become a way to muzzle critics, as it is being used in Israel--to stifle those who are in fact Israel's greatest patriots, putting themselves on the line in an effort to arouse a public passively accepting the government's suicidal policy. Zu Artzeinu emerged for two reasons: the government's refusal to listen to those opposing its policies, and the vacuum of political leadership on the right, which simply gave up in the face of government arrogance and brutality, waiting for the next elections while the state's survival was being fatally compromised. Shmuel Sackett says that he and the others have "merely followed the teaching of the great Jewish leader, Hillel: 'in a place where there are no leaders, strive to be a leader.'" The young leaders of Zu Artzeinu are an unlikely group to take center stage in challenging the government. Thirty-three year old Moshe Feiglin--already the father of four--runs a computer business. Thirty-four year old Shmuel Sackett, born and raised in Queens, is marketing manager for Shoham, the electronic division of the Israel Postal Authority. Like Feiglin, he is the father of four, and the two are neighbors in the village of Karnei Shomron in Samaria. The third to be indicted for "sedition" is Rabbi Benny Elon, at 41 the oldest, and son of the former deputy chief justice of the Supreme Court, Rabbi Menachem Elon. (Elon has left Zu Artzeinu to join the Moledet Party.) The group began its activities in 1993 with

Operation Double, whose purpose was to establish dozens of new towns in Judea and Samaria beside existing ones. The results of the effort were disappointing, and it seemed that Zu Artzeinu was a flash in the pan. But in August, 1995, Zu Artzeinu organized countrywide roadblocks, snarling traffic at 80 intersections. It took 3,000 police to clear the roads. Shmuel Sackett said, "People are sick of demonstrations according to the police's rules, where they can tell us what to do. We did it that way for years, and every week there was another murder, and another bus that exploded." Feiglin agreed, "For two years, we played by their rules. People would go to demonstrate, and would always ask for permission. There would be huge demonstrations, and Rabin would say we don't move him. The dogs barked, and the caravan continued moving. We decided to stop being propellers." (Feiglin's reference was to Yitzhak Rabin's contemptuous dismissal of the settlers: "Let them spin like Sedition can easily become a way to muzzle critics, as it is being used in Israel--to stifle those who are in fact Israel's greatest patriots. propellers.") The leaders of Zu Artzeinu were convinced that passive civil disobedience was more effective than traditional demonstrations. Feiglin noted that while the government can effectively deal with huge rallies by ignoring them or downplaying the number of participants, and while it can effectively combat a violent underground, it is foiled when dealing with passive resistance by people who publicly declare a willingness to break the law. The police reacted violently (as they have against those demonstrators who play by the government's rules), beating Zu Artzeinu participants, charging them on horseback, and throwing them into prison. Zu Artzeinu has engaged in a number of other imaginative protest demonstrations. Last September, movement leaders told the public to turn on all the electricity in their homes at 7:20 p.m., then to turn off the main electrical switch and at 7:40 to turn the main switch on again. "Tell the minority government, 'You are returning us to the dark ages,'" read the Zu Artzeinu flyer. A month later, protesters led scores of sheep into downtown Jerusalem with cries of "Baa-a" ringing out. The message in the words of one participant: "Rabin is leading us like sheep to the slaughter and therefore we decided we would illustrate that visually." Even prior to the indictments for sedition, six of Zu Artzeinu's leaders were arrested (on September 19, 1995) in pre-dawn raids on their homes by dozens of police in riot gear covered by snipers. They confiscated computers and disks, "including the mouse and the (Continued on p.11)

March 1996               - 5 -               Outpost