Thousands of Israeli soldiers could disobey orders to evacuate Jewish settlers under a Gaza pullout plan, settler leaders said today in comments Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's deputy called exaggerated.
"I think the phenomenon could reach these proportions," Pinhas Wallerstein of the YESHA Council of Settlements told Army Radio referring to the possibility of mass mutiny.
His comments echoed warnings sounded by members of the forum at a meeting with army chief Moshe Yaalon.
In what could be a sign of violence to come, some 500 settlers scuffled with police and soldiers who dismantled two makeshift buildings at a settler outpost established without Israeli government permission in the West Bank.
Israel Radio said 15 settlers were detained.
Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim said on Israel Radio that if the warning of rebellion in the ranks proved correct, the army might not be able to carry out the removal this year of all 21 Gaza settlements and four of 120 in the West Bank.
Settler leaders have called for a campaign of civil disobedience to foil the pullout plan but insisted they do not advocate soldiers break ranks.
Outside parliament, hundreds of settlers began an open-ended, sit-down protest against the Gaza withdrawal. They waved orange flags, the symbol of the Gush Katif bloc of settlements in the Israeli-occupied territory.
Palestinians have welcomed any Israeli withdrawal from land they claim for a state of their own but fear that uprooting the Gaza settlers could be a cover for strengthening Israel's hold on bigger West Bank enclaves.
Former chief rabbi Avraham Shapira issued a ritual ruling last month forbidding soldiers to evacuate settlements, claiming a biblical right to land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and Palestinians want for a state of their own.
Many combat soldiers and officers are Orthodox Jews, and Yaalon has spoken publicly about the damage any disobedience in the ranks would have on Israeli society, which has traditionally seen the army as a unifying force outside the political fray.
Vice Premier Ehud Olmert, commenting on the warnings of mass mutiny, said "certain elements" were trying to sow panic among the public "in order to further their cause".
Olmert described Orthodox soldiers and settlers serving in the military as "far more responsible, restrained and disciplined" than the way they were being portrayed.
"I believe that ultimately ... the army's orders will be obeyed by the overwhelming majority of troops," Olmert said.
At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said army conscripts and police would be used to remove settlers under Sharon's "disengagement" plan, which opinion polls show the Israeli public strongly supports.
Conscripts, aged between 18 and 21, have largely stayed out of past disobedience campaigns spearheaded by military reservists opposed to government policy towards the Palestinians.