Uproar as Israeli MP shows pity for Palestinian woman

AN ISRAELI minister threw a cabinet session into uproar yesterday when he said footage of an elderly Palestinian woman sifting through the rubble of her house in Rafah Refugee Camp reminded him of his grandmother, who was a Holocaust victim.

Justice minister Yosef Lapid, head of the centrist Shinui party, did not explicitly mention the Holocaust in his remarks, which were part of a call for a halt to the house demolitions that have left about 1,500 Palestinians homeless over the last ten days in what the army says is a bid to curb smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza through tunnels.

"It isn’t human, it isn’t Jewish and it causes us tremendous damage in the world," Mr Lapid said of the demolitions.

Referring to television footage of an elderly Palestinian woman looking through the rubble, in what was said to be a search for her medicines, Mr Lapid, a Holocaust survivor who spent part of the Second World War in the Budapest ghetto, said: "The old woman searching in the remains reminded me of my grandmother."

He warned that if army plans for demolitions of some 2,000 homes in Rafah are implemented "[Israel] will end up being expelled from the United Nations, those responsible will be placed on trial in The Hague and no-one will want to speak to us". He added: "After the first hundred houses are destroyed, the world will stop us."

Israel’s prime minister, Ariel Sharon, finance minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and foreign minister Silvan Shalom each demanded a retraction.

"You are pouring oil on the fire of our enemies," Mr Sharon was quoted by Y-net news agency as telling Mr Lapid.

"These are grave things that should not have been said," Shaul Mofaz, the defence minister added. "This is the harshest possible statement about the security forces of the state of Israel. I request a retraction."

Mr Lapid responded: "I did not compare Israel to Germany or the Nazis, I just said there is no atonement for the suffering caused to an elderly and helpless woman."

Mr Lapid’s aide, Tzachi Moshe, issued a clarification last night: "There was no connection made to the Holocaust. He was reminded of his grandmother because she was also an old woman."

Forty Palestinians, many civilians, have died in the Rafah operation, during which troops say they have uncovered two tunnels. Rafah residents said Israeli helicopters yesterday directed machine-gun fire at several houses in the camp and doctors reported two wounded, one a ten-year-old boy.

Israeli hawks including army chief-of-staff, Moshe Yaalon, have repeatedly sought to stifle domestic criticism of the army by saying it undermines Israel during a war for its existence.