Gaza evacuees call to keep ‘disengagement architect’ Sharon out of Likud
The evacuees called Sharon, son of former prime minister Ariel Sharon, was “the architect of the disengagement.”
By LAHAV HARKOVUpdated: JANUARY 18, 2019 04:04Gilad Sharon speaks with mourners at his father Ariel Sharon's funeral, January 13, 2014.(photo credit: Tovah Lazaroff)
Gilad Sharon should not be allowed to run in the Likud primary, members of the central committee who were evacuated from Gaza in 2005 wrote to the party’s court.The evacuees called Sharon, son of former prime minister Ariel Sharon, “the architect of the disengagement.”They pointed out that “his father’s departure from the Likud, following Gilad’s advice, crashed the Likud to an unprecedented low... which took time to repair. There are candidates who are good and more worthy that represent the national camp and the Likud Party in the Negev, [than] Sharon the son [who] seeks to run.”Dr. Shlomo Karai, who is running for the Negev spot on the Likud’s list, said the letter says the “painful truth about the younger Sharon, who destroyed the party twice, first by preparing the disengagement plan and a second time by advising his father to leave to form a new party.”Asked if he does not think that in a democratic party, the voters in the primary should be the ones to decide if Sharon’s views are beyond the pale, Karai responded: “The Likud is the largest and most democratic movement in Israel…[which] has a broad range of opinions.”“Despite this, the disengagement is separate from this story, because of the difficult reality in the South [which] proved it was a fatal mistake, and because Sharon the father ignored the will of the movement and chose to take this step despite a clear stance against it” in a central committee vote, Karai stated. He repeated that this was Gilad Sharon’s idea, and said that Sharon “refuses to this day to admit his mistake.”Sharon said in response to efforts to keep him from running that it’s “a democratic party.”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly refused to sign a waiver allowing Sharon to run in the primaries, despite not being a Likud member long enough, even though Netanyahu waived Immigration and Absorption Minister Yoav Gallant’s waiting period.Netanyahu’s spokesman said he had an agreement with Transportation Minister Israel Katz, chairman of the Likud secretariat, not to sign waivers for anyone other than Gallant in order to give a fair chance for longtime party members to run in the primaries.Sharon is appealing the decision to the Likud’s court.
