JERUSALEM – Hundreds of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and reserve officers assembled here yesterday to announce they will refuse to participate in the implementation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza evacuation plan and to call on fellow soldiers to follow their examples.
"There are those who tell us we are destroying the IDF – that a soldier must fulfill every order given to him,” retired Col. Moshe Leshem said at the meeting, held in a large Jerusalem auditorium. “At Nuremberg, people were hanged for saying ‘We were fulfilling orders.’ We say to them: ‘We are saving the IDF.’”
In a symbolic act of defiance, soldiers tore up mock draft notices in front of television cameras and brandished orange duty papers to show solidarity with the Jewish communities of Gaza slated for evacuation Aug. 15. Orange, signifying the citrus groves of Gaza, has become the color theme for the anti-evacuation campaign.
Also addressing the crowd was Nazib Abdullah, father of Abab Druze Sgt. Timor Abdullah, who last week became the first non-Jewish Israeli soldier to refuse to participate in the withdrawal. Abdullah was greeting with a standing ovation.
Timor Abdullah, now in prison for defying IDF orders, sent a letter to the IDF's new chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, blasting the Gaza withdrawal:
"When my colleagues and I are demanded to participate in operations whose objective is to defend the country and its citizens, we feel obliged to participate," wrote Abdallah. "But when we are asked to participate in an operation against the people we are meant to defend – our consciences would tremble eternally."
In attendance yesterday was Likud's Manhigut Yehudit leader Moshe Feiglin, who told WND, "This gathering makes very clear that more and more soldiers, including Druze soldiers, will disobey orders to evacuate Jews from their homes. This disobedience will be the act that will save the army from itself and from the poisoning order of the Gaza evacuation."
Feiglin recently sparked controversy by calling on Israeli soldiers to refuse orders if asked to help carry out the withdrawal. Since then, several hundred have said they would refuse.
In perhaps the most high-profile refusal case so far, the enlisted son of the police chief responsible for overseeing the withdrawal told WorldNetDaily in March he thinks the Gaza evacuation is "wrong," and he will not participate if his unit is ordered to take part.
The withdrawal has stirred much debate within the ranks of the IDF. Officials expect a sizable number of settlers to revolt against the plan and predict violent confrontations with law enforcement.
IDF leaders won an ongoing debate the past few months to employ police instead of soldiers to remove Jewish settlers, explaining police units are more properly trained in the confrontation of civilian dissenters and have more legal authority and maneuvering room than do IDF soldiers when it comes to domestic issues.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has said he, too, would prefer soldiers not take part in evacuations.
Arab Druze Knesset Member Ayoob Kara, from Sharon's Likud Party, told WND last week he will introduce a bill seeking to ban all Druze Arab soldiers from participating in the Gaza evacuation.
"My community didn't come to Israel to rip Jews out of their houses," Kara said. "Druze Arabs gladly become soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces to defend Israel from its enemies and to participate in operations that will make Israel a safer place. We don't want to be used to do something immoral and damaging like the Gaza evacuation."
Select Israeli police units reportedly have been learning techniques to carry out the withdrawal process, including putting down settler revolts and confronting Jews who refuse to leave their homes.
Said Kara: "Quietly, most leaders of the army and police are terrified because they can't predict what enforcing the evacuation is going to do to their units, but they know it will not be good."