The organizers of a march to the ruins of the evacuated West Bank settlement of Homesh, scheduled for Independence Day, said Friday that they would go ahead with their plans despite the fact that Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Chief of General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on Friday reversed their decision to allow the march.

Citing 'appraisal of the current situation' as the reason for the turnaround, military officials notified march organizers that the Israel Defense Forces would not allow it to take place as planned.

Homesh was one of four settlements in the northern West Bank evacuated during the Disengagement from the Gaza strip in the Summer of 2005.

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GOC Central Command Yair Naveh decided Thursday that the army would allow settlers to carry out the march, the second in a month, on condition that the organizers leave the settlement ruins after a few hours. The marchers were to be heavily guarded by the military.

At the beginning of the Passover holiday, the IDF allowed thousands to march to Homesh. A few hundred youths who chose to stay at the site were forcibly removed a few days later by the police.

Naveh touched off a political firestorm Thursday when comments he made last week at a joint Central Command-Yesha Council of settlements ceremony in Ariel were published. At the ceremony, he expressed veiled criticism of government leaders over the Disengagement and other matters.

According to the Web site NRG, Naveh said, "The year 2007 is characterized by the fact that all the leaders are weak at home." He said the Disengagement was motivated not by security but by politics, and that these motives may eventually be investigated.

He also called the public attitude toward the former chief of staff Dan Halutz a "lynch," and slammed the media and "legal advisers" over issues such as the rejection of Yaakov Ganot as police chief.

Naveh is to complete his tour of duty and military service in May.

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