Rabbis call on Israel not to evacuate settlers by force

Hard-line Jewish rabbis today called on the Israeli security forces to disobey orders and not to evacuate settlers from the Amona outpost in the occupied West Bank.

The call comes after dozens of settlers in the outpost rejected a proposal from the Israeli government to evacuate the settlement voluntarily and move to nearby land.

The Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the Israeli government in to evacuate Amona by 23 December after proving it was established on private Palestinian land.

“We call on the personnel of the security forces to act in accordance with justice and righteousness and not to blindly carry out any order,” the rabbis declared.

“Jewish law ‘if the decree of a King is to abolish a commandment one does not accede to him’, and even according to the laws of the state one should not fulfil an order which is manifestly unlawful,” they added.

The Jerusalem Post newspaper reported the rabbis include Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg, a leading inspiration for many religious radicals, Rabbi Dov Lior, former chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder and director of the Temple Institute.

Israeli public radio said the Amona outpost is expected to be forcibly evacuated under the Supreme Court’s decision.