A former chief rabbi and the most prominent figure of the religious-Zionist sector has called on Israeli soldiers and policemen to refuse orders to evacuate settlements as part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
In an interview with the Israel National News publication “Bea’Shevaa,” Rabbi Abraham Shapira, who is now chief of a prominent yeshiva in Jerusalem, said “God-fearing members of the security forces should notify their commanders that just as they would refuse to an order to cease upholding the Sabbath or eat non-Kosher meat, they would refuse to uproot Jews from their homes.”
Shapira said not only must a solider refuse to uproot a Jewish community, he must also refuse to assist those doing the action. He went on to criticize a prominent rabbi who recently ruled that soldiers must not refuse to obey evacuation orders.
Shapira repeated on several occasions that this is “the will of Heaven” and added that to the best of his knowledge, “the commanders also do not want” to evacuate settlements.
Shapira associates said yesterday his comments were made in the course of a private conversation with one of his students, and were not meant for publication, but they did not refute the contents of the report.
“The rabbi does not conceal his views; his mouth and heart are aligned,” said a source close to Shapira. “These statements are nothing new, but are something that was already said in the days of Yitzhak Rabin of blessed memory.”
Member of Knesset Haim Ramon last night called on Israel’s attorney general to arrest the rabbi for incitement to rebellion, urging the courts “to put out the fire of rebellion against the democratic regime while it is blazing.”
Michael Melchior, leader of the Meimad movement, said Shapira’s statements threaten the army’s integrity. Melchior called on Shapira “as a rabbi who shoulders tremendous responsibility, to retract this terrible religious dictum.”
Some settler leaders have accused Sharon of contriving reports of settler violence and extremism and quoting extremist statements to discredit the settlement movement and foment domestic and international opposition to the settlers ahead of the Prime Minister’s Gaza withdrawal plan.
“We have said continually that any protests we are planning will be entirely peaceful,” Jewish Legion head Mike Guzofsky told WorldNetDaily.
In June, leaders of the Yesha Council of Jewish Communities in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the largest settlers group, signed a document, the “Covenant of Brothers,” that pledged to avert violence in the face of settler contention over Sharon’s disengagement plan and its implementation.
“It may be that an extremely small sector of settlers are thinking crazy thoughts, but this is not even a tangible minority,” a Yesha leader told WorldNetDaily.
