Last update - 01:11 11/03/2005
Group of police volunteers says it won't participate in evacuation of settlements
A group of police volunteers has declared it will not participate directly or indirectly in the evacuation of settlements in the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.
The volunteers - from Sadeh Ilan, Mitzpeh Netofa and Hazorim in the Lower Galilee - have also informed their commanders they will not fill in for regular forces sent to the Strip and West Bank to oversee the disengagement plan.
"We fear that in the not-too-distant future, it will emerge that we were part of a system that lent its hand to implementing patently illegal orders... and we won't be able to say we didn't know," the volunteers wrote in a letter to their commanders.
Meanwhile, results of a public-opinion poll published yesterday show that 30 percent of religious youth between 16 and 18 view rabbis as the supreme source of authority, including for military matters.
Rafi Strasberg of Marketing Data Research Institute, which conducted the poll, said 36 percent of religious youth in the 16-18 group will refuse to evacuate settlements, while another 30 percent said they would act within the confines of the law to avoid taking part in the evacuation.
All told, some 70 percent of religious youth in that age group will take action not to play a part in the pullout.
However, Strasberg said that since the respondents are not serving in the Israel Defense Forces, it is impossible to draw conclusions regarding religious soldiers in active service.
The poll also found that 13 percent of secular youth would refuse an order to serve in the territories.
The full results of the poll will be presented at a conference at Bar-Ilan University next week.