The office of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not made the text of the Disengagement Plan easily available to Israeli citizens. An investigation by BR has found that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) website has only made the English text of the Disengagement Plan available to visitors to the English language version of the Office’s website. However, the plan is not readily available in Hebrew to visitors to the Hebrew language home of the PMO site-the only version of the PMO website likely to be visited by most Israelis.

The obscurity of the plan’s Hebrew placement is in contrast to its positioning on the English-language site-a section targeted at building connections to English-speaking viewers in Western countries. English-speaking visitors can follow a large dedicated color graphic and link on the front page to a section concerning the Disengagement, where a link to the text of the Plan itself is at the top of the section.

The only references to the Disengagement Plan available in Hebrew, however, are statements by Israeli government spokespersons supporting it. Tracking down the actual text of the plan requires visitors to access the webpage of the “Sela” office, a temporary sub-office in the PMO that was set up exclusively to manage compensation and resettlement options for Gaza evacuees.

Only Israeli citizens facing evacuation from Gaza would normally have reason to be in contact with the Sela office. There are an estimated 8,500 Israelis living in Gaza.

The Hebrew text of the plan is also unavailable on sections of the Hebrew website titled “Government Decisions” and “Government Documents” respectively. A Basic Search of the site using the documentation number of the Disengagement Resolution passed by Sharon’s cabinet in June 2004 (documentation number 1996) returned no results.

An Advanced Search using number “1996” returned seven pages totaling 66 results, most of which were not connected to the Disengagement Plan. An Advanced Search that was specified only to “Government Decisions” returned two pages totaling 11 results. The Disengagement Plan itself was the final link on the second page. BR was also able to locate a link to a Disengagement page at the bottom of the “Communication” menu on the site.

A consequence of the plan’s Hebrew-language obscurity is that many Israelis may not be able to evaluate the Disengagement Plan itself, outside of statements issued by Sharon administration spokespersons.

Israeli diplomats contacted by BR generally could not explain the Disengagement Plan’s Hebrew absence. One diplomatic source at the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC initially responded, “I really don’t know what you’re talking about” when queried about the plan’s unavailability, but subsequently admitted that his office was unable to locate the Hebrew text after almost 10 minutes.

Another Israeli diplomat at a U.S.-based consulate provided BR with a link to Disengagement information from the PMO via e-mail, but did not respond to the question of why the PMO makes the plan’s text more easily available to foreigners than to Israelis. The official said the Disengagement plan had also been published by Israeli newspapers, and referred seekers of the text to the website of a popular Israeli tabloid.

Some Israeli diplomats in Asia, Australia, and Europe-contacted after U.S.-based Israeli officials could not provide information-expressed surprise. Most, however, said they had no knowledge of the text’s absence and were unable to comment further. (The Israeli Foreign Ministry does not make the plan’s text available on its website. It has recently published a full-color glossy brochure touting Disengagement that does not include the plan’s text.)

An Israeli official in the U.S., responding to BR after several days, stated that the differences in availability reflected intentional decisions based on the likely audience. “The English site has more background information for people from abroad, while the Hebrew site is more focused on the practicalities of disengagement, for Israelis who will be evacuated from Gaza.”

According to the official, making detailed information rapidly available to Israelis on the PMO website would be superfluous. “Israelis are hearing about the disengagement everyday, so they don’t really need to hear about all of the background when they go to the website.”

© 2005 Bryce Report

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