Pullout laws `illegitimate,' says Likud party elder

Knesset legislation of the disengagement plan is "a rude and intolerable violation of justice and therefore as a law, it is illegitimate," said retired district judge Uri Strussman, a Likud elder statesman who serves as chairman of the World Likud Election Commission.

He called for the Knesset to pass a law making it illegal for an MK to change his or her mind after he or she is elected to the parliament.

Speaking to a meeting of the right-wing group Professors for a Strong Israel, Strussman argued that the prime minister and all the Likud MKs who support him broke their contract with the voter "by adopting the rival's policies and relying on the support of the rival."

He said, "it is not the order to disengage that is illegal, but those who gave the order - the government and Knesset - so their legislation and decisions about the withdrawal and the expulsion of the settlers was given without the authority of the law."

Strussman said that the circumstances leave no choice to disengagement opponents other than "civil disobedience and refusal."

Israel, he said, is now in the unique position of its elected representative, the prime minister, changing his mind. "But he refused to act like a gentleman and put his new opinion to the test of a vote. That refusal makes those of us who voted for Sharon understand that he betrayed our trust, that he and not only he, but the ministers and Likud MKs who support him, stole our votes."

The prime minister should resign, he said, or order new elections "and not use his election on the basis of one platform to conduct an opposing policy."

Strussman said the High Court of Justice should have ruled that Sharon should resign or at least order them not to vote on any issue brought up in the Knesset in which his opinion has changed since he was elected.

Strussman said he hoped the Knesset would one day pass a law that would prohibit any MK from voting against his campaign platforms "to protect the voter."