MIDDLE EAST: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday warned extremist Jews resisting his planned pullout from the Gaza Strip that their wild behaviour and violence against security forces threatens the existence of the Jewish state and will be stopped.
Mr Sharon's strong message was directed at rightist activists who have holed themselves up in a beachfront hotel in a Gaza settlement and clashed last Sunday with Israeli troops who were razing abandoned houses nearby, which the activists had been trying to take over.
The prime minister's tough talk came as an Israeli soldier, who disobeyed orders to take part in the house demolitions, was imprisoned - a sentence widely seen as setting a precedent for punishment of soldiers who defy orders to remove settlers from occupied Gaza.
US-born Cpl Avi Bieber (19) was sentenced to 56 days in jail for refusing to carry out an order, threatening and insulting a commander and giving media interviews against army regulations during last Sunday's demolition operation.
Amid concerns that Sunday's clashes are a hint of the turmoil to come once the pullout begins in mid August, Mr Sharon stressed the lawless minority who use violence do not represent the wider settler community.
He condemned calls for soldiers to disobey orders to carry out the evacuations under his unilateral plan to evacuate some 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
"We must all remember that the calls to disobedience and attempts to disrupt life in Israel endangers the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic nation," Mr Sharon said at an annual conference for the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.
"We must all, regardless of creed, oppose this. And I believe that the legal authorities will take all the necessary measures to stop this wild behaviour."
In recent days, opponents of the plan have stepped up their civil disobedience campaign. A mass action to block roads and paralyse traffic throughout Israel is planned for today, following a more modest roadside protest on Monday.
Opinion polls show that most Israelis favour removing all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank, a move which the US and Europe hope will lead to a renewal of peace talks with the Palestinians under the inter-nationally-endorsed Road Map.
Ultra-rightists have issued death threats against Mr Sharon and vowed to resist the withdrawal by force.
Israeli security sources said yesterday that security had been beefed up around the home of the head of the army, Lieut Gen Dan Halutz, after he received a letter saying: "If your family is important to you, don't follow in Sharon's footsteps."
In defiance of Mr Sharon's remarks, a group of settler rabbis yesterday repeated their call for soldiers to refuse orders to evacuate settlers, issuing a statement calling the Gaza withdrawal immoral.