Israeli settlers threaten mass defiance
Jewish settlers’ leaders warned Israel’s army chief that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of soldiers could refuse to carry out orders to evacuate them from the Gaza Strip if the government went ahead with its plan to withdraw from the coastal area later this year.
Prime minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from all Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements beginning in July has drawn stiff opposition from hardliners in his own government and Jewish settlers.
At a meeting with the army’s top brass last night, settler leaders said the military had to prepare for the possibility of mass insubordination during the evacuation and the impact such a phenomenon would have on Israeli society.
Jewish settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein – who last month convinced the Yesha Settlers’ Council to announce it would break the law when opposing the pullout plan – said thousands of soldiers could refuse to carry out the evacuation orders.
“I have to be honest with the heads of the army about where the implementation of this draconian law will lead,” Wallerstein told Israel’s Army Radio on Monday.
“If there will be dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of insubordinates it will take the state of Israel decades to rehabilitate its society,” he added.
In recent years, Jewish settlers have filled many key positions in the army’s officer corps. Military and government officials have repeatedly expressed concern about the possibility of insubordination.
Opinion polls show that a vast majority of Israelis support the plan to evacuate 8,200 Gaza Strip and about 500 West Bank settlers.
But the 230,000 Jewish settlers, led by religious ideologues who believe the West Bank and Gaza Strip are the biblical birthright of the Jewish people, have long been a deciding force in Israeli society.
Some settler rabbis – who have great influence among religious settlers- have called on their followers who serve in the army to refuse to carry out any evacuation orders.
The Yesha Settlers’ Council has officially said it does not support insubordination. But government officials say the council’s position that it is acceptable to break the law when opposing the evacuation plan encourages insubordination.
Speaking at a conference wrapping up 2004, Army chief Lt Gen Moshe Yaalon defined implementation of the Gaza pullout plan as the army’s greatest challenge this year, saying it “touches the open nerves of ideology, beliefs and way of life”.
“With all the difficulties, we must be determined. If we don’t succeed in implementing the decisions of the political level, there is a danger to us as a nation and a society,” Yaalon said hours before meeting the settler leaders.
“Insubordination can lead to disintegration and destruction. Anyone who fears for the fate of the state of Israel as a democratic, independent state should not even mention the word insubordination,” he added.
Deputy defence minister Zeev Boim called on settlers’ leaders to show responsibility and to warn their public of the dangers of insubordination in a democratic society.
“If this is the picture then it will be a very difficult scene, so difficult that it is possible we won’t be able to implement this (the pullout),” Boim told Israel Radio.
