Ads portray ministers in Peace Now 'uniforms'

Opponents of evacuating call feature Meridor, Kahlon "members of Peace Now's expulsion army."

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Peace Now 'uniform' ad Meridor Kahlon 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Peace Now 'uniform' ad Meridor Kahlon 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Opponents of evacuating outposts escalated their attack on cabinet members who prevented the passage of a bill that would legalize them on Wednesday, publishing advertisements of the ministers wearing uniforms of the anti-settlement organization Peace Now.
The first ads published featured Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor and Welfare and Social Services Minister Moshe Kahlon. Future ads are expected to feature other Likud ministers.
The ads call ministers who do not back legislation to legalize outposts “members of Peace Now’s expulsion army.”
“Peace Now has tried for years to expel residents of Judea and Samaria from their homes,” the ad reads. “After Peace Now found Palestinians to claim the land is theirs without an ounce of proof, it was enough to expel law abiding citizens and their children.”
A bill defeated in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday states that outpost homes built on private Palestinian property may not be demolished, if they have been in place for more than four years and at least 20 families live in the fledgling community.
Sponsored by MK Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi), the bill proposed compensating the Palestinian landowners.
The group of settler organizations that sponsored the ads vowed to keep on pressuring ministers to back Orlev’s bill until it passes.
“This is a fateful time,” Samaria Residents council chairman Benny Katsover said. “A community of hundreds of people cannot be destroyed.”
A source close to Kahlon responded by calling the campaign “not serious.” He noted the oddity of Kahlon being accused of being too left-wing just days after he was portrayed in high-profile television reports as too right-wing.