Israeli army shaken by own extremist rebels

TEL AVIV - The Israeli military has been shaken from within because of a growing number of extremist religious soldiers who say they will refuse to obey orders to evacuate illegal Jewish settlements from the occupied West Bank.

So concerned is the top brass about the mutiny that it has warned a group of rabbis it will not tolerate political protests by their students while serving in the military.

Major General Avi Zamir, head of the army's human resources directorate, said some rabbis were urging their young followers to disobey orders they deem contrary to their faith.

The senior officers' warning came after two incidents in which soldiers publicly held up banners vowing to refuse to take part in any future evacuation of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Several religious soldiers were jailed after refusing to take part in Israel's unilateral withdrawal from positions inside the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip. Gaza is also still part of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories under international law.

A large part of Israel's religious extremist Zionist movement considers the Palestinian West Bank -- under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967 -- as an integral part of "Greater Israel."

The soldiers, some of whom were later jailed, came from Jewish seminaries or yeshivas, where students combine military service with religious studies.

Each year, their form of service draws nearly 1,600 new recruits who must stay in the military for five years, two years longer than the usual compulsory term for men.

But only 24 months of this period is devoted to military activities, freeing up the remainder of their time for religious study at the yeshivas, or Talmudic schools.

Most young ultra-Orthodox Jews avoid full military service by attending yeshivas. In contrast, religious Zionists -- many of whom live in illegal West Bank settlements -- believe enlisting in the military is a sacred duty.

The soldiers recently convicted were from two yeshivas in the northern West Bank, including that of Rabbi Eliakim Levanon, director of the Yeshiva of Eilon Moreh near the Palestinian town of Nablus.

"I did not ask them to wave banners. My students act according to their conscience but I support them," Levanon, a figure from the extreme religious right, told Maariv newspaper.

Another rabbi, Eliezer Melamed of a yeshiva near Nablus, published an article justifying the refusal to obey orders "when they are contrary to the laws of the Torah."

However, the union of "Yeshivot Hesder" comprising 62 military Talmud schools has vowed not to encourage soldiers to stage political protests.

"We are opposed to these political events which threaten the foundations of the military and social cohesion in the IDF (Israel Defence Force)," a statement said.

"But we call for a debate in Israeli society on the use of soldiers for missions of a police nature," the statement added, referring to the use of the army to evacuate illegal settlements.

The military's chief rabbi, Avihai Ronski, himself born into religious Zionism, has requested that disobedient soldiers be "referred to the army," but he also criticised the decision "to send conscripts on police missions."

In recent years, the number of officers from the religious Zionist community has greatly increased.

The spokesman said the military did not have statistics, but Rabbi Moshe Hager, director of military training schools, estimated the number at nearly 30 percent.

According to Rabbi Hager, a colonel in the reserves, "the refusal to obey can destroy the army from inside... but our students do not always ask us how to behave when they are in uniform."

"There is no rebellion in the army," reassures the home page of the Yeshivot Hesder union's website.

However, the text adds, "we are at the heart of a struggle for the national and spiritual values of our people and its future in the Holy Land."

All Jewish settlements are illegal under international law because they are built on Arab land (mainly Palestinian), illegally occupied by Israel since 1967.

Around 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers are estimated to have moved into the dozen or so Israeli settlements in Palestinian East Jerusalem.

There are about 300,000 more illegal Jewish settlers currently living in settlements the Palestinian West Bank.

The settlers adhere to radical ideologies and are extremely violent to almost-defenceless Palestinians.