Peace Now: Probe rabbi's call to disobey evacuation orders

Peace Now called on the government Thursday to halt all funding of a religious institute headed by Former Ashekenzi chief rabbi Avraham Shapira, who on Thursday urged soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate settlements under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon?s disengagement plan

In an interview published Thursday in the religious newspaper Basheva, Shapira - head of the Merkaz Harav yeshiva, one of the most important yeshivas among the national religious public - also called on soldiers to approach their commanders and inform them that they do not intend to evacuate settlements.

"A civil servant cannot incite an entire sector of the public to violate laws and will make political use of religious matters," a Peace Now statement read.

According to Shapira, orders must be refused "also at the price of sitting in jail." In addition, soldiers must not even assist in evacuating settlements, he said.

"It is an offense, it is forbidden, and they must say that to their commander. It is like desecrating the Sabbath and eating non-kosher food," Shapira said.

Referring to police officers not in compulsory service, Shapira said: "If it is against his conscience, the policeman must resign. If he thinks it is forbidden and still does it, he is a plunderer."

MK Haim Ramon (Labor) called on the attorney general to launch a probe into Shapira's directives. "You must uproot the revolt against the Israeli democracy before the flames of revolt will spread and become unstoppable," Ramon wrote to the attorney general.

MK Shaul Yahalom (NRP) said he believed Shapira's words were taken out of context. "Religious Zionists do not disobey orders," Yahalom asserted.

Sharon told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Thursday that the evacuation from Gaza would begin in May 2005, and last for no more than 12 weeks.

The plan calls for the removal of every settlement in the Gaza Strip, as well as four from the northern West Bank.

Meanwhile, the settlement movement has planned 100 anti-pullout protests to take place around the country simultaneously Thursday.

Demonstration planners say they expect some 500,000 people to take part in the various protests.

Attorney representing 130 settler families to appeal to High CourtThe disengagement plan has now managed to rile even those settlers who want to leave: Attorney Yosef Tamir, who represents 130 such families, plans to ask the High Court of Justice next week to freeze the Knesset's discussion of enabling legislation for the plan on the grounds that the settlers were not given a fair hearing.

"If the proposed compensation remains as it is today, it will be impossible to carry out the disengagement," he said Wednesday, charging that all the demands his clients submitted to the government while the bill was being drafted were ignored.

"Contrary to the government's declarations that each family will receive $200,000, under this bill, each family will receive only $120,000."

Moreover, he said, there is no compensation for pain and suffering, such as was given to settlers evacuated from Yamit, and the composition of the committee that will determine each family's compensation level is problematic, because it consists entirely of representatives of the Disengagement Administration and the government.

Most of Tamir's clients come from the four West Bank settlements slated for evacuation; a few dozen are from the Gaza Strip.

Also Wednesday, residents of the Gaza settlement of Alei Sinai came to the Knesset to present their objections to the bill to MKs Eitan Cabel (Labor) and Omri Sharon (Likud). These settlers said they oppose the disengagement, but if it is going to happen, they at least want to receive fair compensation - which this bill does not provide.

As for the plan's diehard opponents, they are currently mulling a new tactic in their fight: a "legal filibuster," under which every settler will demand an individual hearing before the compensation committee, as the bill entitles them to do. In this way, they hope to be able to delay the evacuation for months or even years.

	Former chief rabbi Avraham Shapira called on soldiers Thursday to refuse orders to evacuate settlements. (Archive)