 |
| An eviction effort turned violent Tuesday as Israeli police and soldiers tried to remove Jewish settlers living illegally
in the West Bank city of Hebron. Emilio Morenatti/AP   Evacuation of settlers |
Soldiers' refusal to heed West Bank evacuation orders roils Israel
Israel is jailing soldiers who disobeyed orders Tuesday to evict Jewish settlers in Hebron.
from the August 8, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
But most of the Israeli public, says Sheleg, is more easily rankled by the idea of soldiers refusing to follow orders for political or religious reasons than it is by the concept of settlers being moved out of homes, even in Hebron, a tinderbox town that is holy to both Jews and Muslims as the burial place of Abraham and the other biblical patriarchs and matriarchs.
"The public consensus is very much against disobeying," says Sheleg, also a columnist for the Haaretz newspaper.
In response, officers from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are threatening to marginalize the rabbis who encouraged their students to refuse orders by cancelling special arrangements in which young men can sign up to fulfill their army service while they pursue religious studies.
Israel has periodically sent to jail men who refuse, usually on ideologically left-wing grounds, to serve in the military in general, or in the West Bank and Gaza in particular.
Today, however, the Israeli military establishment is warily viewing the right-wing "national-religious" camp – whose sons boast a high rate of joining the army and volunteering for combat units – with concern that generals will find themselves with foot soldiers who won't follow orders.
The military's outrage over the issue was underscored by the fact that several prominent rabbis from the right-wing religious seminaries told their students – who are simultaneously enlisted in the military – that they shouldn't participate in the evacuation of settlements.
"We of course support what these soldiers did," says Elyakim Veisman-Stern, the spokesman of the council of rabbis in Yesha, the settlers' umbrella organization.
He quoted a late rabbi who ruled that soldiers should not do what is against the Torah, and this included giving up part of Israel.
"We argue something like this strengthens the army," he adds, "because if its army that does something without thinking, that's what destroys. That's like acting like a computer, with a disk in your head."
Defense Minister Barak, the Labor party leader and former prime minister, offered pointed words Tuesday for those who refused to follow orders.
RSS feed
