Over 15,000 attend anti-pullout rally in West Bank settlement

Over 15,000 people attended an anti-disengagement rally in the West Bank settlement of Homesh on Thursday. Homesh is among those settlements slated for evacuation under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

During the rally, police confiscated leaflets calling on Israel Defense Forces conscripts not to participate in the pullout and to refuse orders.

Police Commission Moshe Karadi on Thursday wrote to retired police officers to ask them to help replace officers who will be deployed in the territories during the pullout.

Among those scheduled who addressed Thursday's rally was far-right MK Aryeh Eldad, who came under fire Thursday for having exhorted anti-disengagement forces to commit mass civil disobedience.

"Thousands of people will walk through the hills from everywhere. They will come to strengthen these settlements when the police and army come to uproot them," he told the crowd Thursday.

Eldad, of the National Union party, said earlier in the day that he would agree to having his parliamentary immunity lifted in order to stand trial, should Attorney General Menachem Mazuz ask the Knesset to do so.

There were mounting calls Thursday for legal and parliamentary action against Eldad for his impassioned address at an anti-disengagement rally in Gush Katif Wednesday.

"I want to see civil disobedience, in which every government official who receives a [disengagement-related] document tears it up and says 'I won't be a cog in the demolition machine that is coming to expel Jews from their homes," Eldad called to the crowd of tens of thousands Wednesday.

"The days are nearing, my brothers, the days are nearing in which those who do not go to jail will bear a mark of disgrace."

Earlier on Thursday leftist Yahad MK Avshalom Vilan asked Mazuz to open an investigation against Eldad on suspicion of sedition. Within the Knesset, however, the possibility of Mazuz taking such a step is viewed as unlikely.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin slammed Eldad for the remarks, saying he viewed them as grave. "Even if we are speaking of a call for passive disobedience, this is a rejection of the authority of decisions of the Knesset and the government."

Labor cabinet minister Matan Vilani called on Eldad to shed his parliamentary immunity and willingly face trial. "I suggest he forego his immunity and be prepared to deal with this in a court of law, just as he advised his comrades to do."

Yahad MK Ran Cohen called Eldad's call "atrocious," and demanded that Eldad be dropped as chair of the Knesset Ethics Committee.

Eldad's remarks drew criticism even from Likud MK Ehud Yatom, a strong opponent of the prime minister's disengagement plan. Yatom said that any call for civil disobedience increases the danger of a violent clash between Jews, a disaster that will be greater than the disengagement itself.

Yahad party chair Yossi Beilin said that "MK Eldad today crossed the red line and lost all moral basis to serve as a member of Knesset and especially as the chair of the Knesset Ethics Committee."

'At any price'Tens of thousands of people took part in the anti-pullout march and rally in Gush Katif on Wednesday.

As the crowds marched, Palestinian militants fired two mortar shells and a Qassam rocket, which landed close to the rally. One Israel Defense Forces soldier was wounded very slightly. IDF posts in the area also came under fire on several occasions.

Among the speakers addressing the huge crowd, Yesha Council of Settlements head Bentzi Lieberman said that if a blockade is imposed on Gush Katif, the settlers will break through it "at any cost, but not through violence."

He said "the moment a Jewish leader decides to impose a blockade on Jews, we will be there to break through it. Do not be afraid to come here. This will happen well before the day of evacuation. The struggle will begin any place where the security forces want to stop the masses. If they won't let us vote [in a referendum on the issue], we'll vote with our feet."

Vilnai: Let Eldad stand trialAccording to Vilnai, "Everone who incites and creates an atmosphere of incitement at this sensitive time paves the way for grave incidents, including the next political assassination in the state of Israel. The wise course at this time is knowing when to set limits, to know how to calm."

"The parliamentary struggle of the opponents of disengagement failed. The cabinet made its decision. The Knesset ratified it. Israeli society stands behind it.

"Let them stop threatening civil war. Let them stop inciting, because incitement can only cause grave consequences.

Cohen said Eldad's speech showed that Eldad and others of the right, when confronting a government decision they opposed, were prepared to call for civil disobedience "when they know that this could end in bloodshed of Israelis, soldiers and police.'

"Aryeh Eldad cannot serve today as chairman of the Ethics Committee, after he spat on the elemental ethics of the Knesset, who should call for keeping the law and respecting the decisions of the Knesset. Therefore I will call on the Speaker of the Knesset to depose him from that position."

Eldad also said during the rally that if Gush Katif is closed off, the entire country will be blocked off and brought to a standstill. Eldad called on the demonstrators to be prepared to be arrested and urged public sector workers to refuse to carry out any work linked to the disengagement plan. "Do not be screws in the machine of destruction," he said.

	A youth protesting against the pullout in Gaza Tuesday ahead of Wednesday's mass rally. (AP)