Hundreds of Israeli soldiers have received letters at their private addresses from an ultra-nationalist movement urging them to disobey orders during the Gaza Strip pullout, army radio said Thursday.
An organisation calling itself the Forum for the Defence of the Values of the Tsahal (the Israeli army) appealed to the soldiers not to take part in the "transfer of Jews" and "the desecration of synagogues" if they receive orders from their superiors next month to uproot settlers from the occupied territory. "The cruel reality that thousands of Jews are being expelled from their homeland is being hidden behind the slogan 'an order is an order which must be obeyed'," said the letters.
The previously unknown organisation included a phone number in the letters for the soldiers to obtain legal advice on the consequences of their insubordination.
Cabinet minister Matan Vilnai and Israel's main pacifist movement Peace Now are leading demands for an inquiry into how the group had obtained the private addresses of the soldiers, as well as denouncing the appeal in the letters.