Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05TELAVIV3891
2005-06-21 13:55:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

GAZA DISENGAGEMENT: RIBBONS SHOW ISRAELIS' TRUE

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C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 003891 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2015
TAGS: PGOV KWBG SOCI IS GAZA DISENGAGEMENT GOI INTERNAL
SUBJECT: GAZA DISENGAGEMENT: RIBBONS SHOW ISRAELIS' TRUE
COLORS ON DISENGAGEMENT

Classified By: Political Counselor Norman Olsen for reasons 1.4 (b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 003891

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2015
TAGS: PGOV KWBG SOCI IS GAZA DISENGAGEMENT GOI INTERNAL
SUBJECT: GAZA DISENGAGEMENT: RIBBONS SHOW ISRAELIS' TRUE
COLORS ON DISENGAGEMENT

Classified By: Political Counselor Norman Olsen for reasons 1.4 (b,d).


1. (SBU) In recent months, some Israeli motorists who oppose
Prime Minister Sharon's disengagement plan have taken to
tying orange ribbons on their vehicles to denote their
opposition. Up until about a week ago, orange was the only
color streaming from car -- and truck -- antennas, bumpers
and door handles. Not so today. Some disengagement
supporters have started streaming blue ribbons from their
cars, and Peace Now Director Yariv Oppenheimer told Poloff
June 20 he had little time to talk, as he was busy launching
a formal blue ribbon pro-disengagement campaign. The
anti-disengagement movement has been for two months visible,
with bumper stickers, billboards, and roadside banners in
noticeable numbers on the main highways. In Jerusalem, home
to a large number of religious Jews who support the
settlements, anti-disengagement banners are pervasive.
Oppenheimer hopes to change that.


2. (C) Oppenheimer said he has 100,000 blue ribbons to
distribute over the next two weeks, and 500,000 in total,
through a grass-roots campaign to show support for
disengagement. In response to Poloff's question whether
people may decide not to display blue ribbons out of fear
that fervent disengagement opponents might vandalize their
cars, Oppenheimer assessed that most disengagement supporters
will display the ribbons regardless. He noted that if they
are afraid of vandalism, they can remove the ribbon once they
park their cars. "To be silent," Oppenheimer stressed, "is
the most terrible thing to do. It means you don't care."


3. (SBU) Oppenheimer has only several weeks to make progress
on his campaign before leaving it in other activists' hands
as he will be leaving for two-and-a-half weeks of military
reserve service beginning July 17. He made the news June 15
when word go out to the press that the left-wing peacenik
will perform his reserve duty guarding settlement outposts in
the southern Etzion bloc. He will serve with a battalion
that will replace a regular Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit
that will participate in the evacuation of settlements in
Gaza. Oppenheimer told Poloff, as he had told Ma'ariv, that
he is "happy to be going to help the cause of disengagement."



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