Jewish extremists opposed to Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip have used an ancient ritual to put an Aramaic death curse on Ariel Sharon

AFP:

In a ceremony presided over by a rabbi, about 20 radicals held a "pulsa dinura", or rod of fire, imploring God to curse a presumed sinner, said the online edition of the newspaper Yediot Aharonot.

The ancient Jewish rite was led by rabbi Yossef Dayan at dawn last Friday in the ancient cemetery of Rosh Pina, in the northern Galilee region.

Far-Right Israeli activists held a pulsa dinura to pray for the death of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, a few days before he was killed by a Jewish extremist for trying to make peace with the Palestinians.

Rabbi Dayan read out the curse at that ritual, too.

The group urged "the angels of destruction" to kill Mr Sharon, participants said, stressing a human assassination attempt on the Prime Minister was "futile" given his massive security protection.

The ceremony took place near the grave of Shlomo Ben Yossef, a member of the ultra-nationalist Jewish movement Beitar, who was hanged in 1938 in British Palestine for taking part in an attempted attack on an Arab bus.

As befits tradition, only those who are married -- meaning no widowers or divorcees -- people aged over 40 and those with beards were able to attend the event, rabbi Dayan said.

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