JERUSALEM, May 29: A soldier spray-painted a slogan against Israel’s planned Gaza pullout on the headquarters of the country’s army chief on Sunday, stoking fears of dissension in the ranks over the removal of Jewish settlements. “He began spraying graffiti on the wall,” a military source said about the incident at General Staff headquarters in Tel Aviv. “He was stopped by a security guard and arrested.”

The source said the soldier was writing ‘Jews Don’t Expel Jews’ when he was apprehended near chief of staff Moshe Yaalon’s office.

“Whoever needed additional proof that politics has penetrated deeply into the ranks of the military, received it today at the ‘holy of holies’ — the chief of staff’s office in Tel Aviv,” Israel’s YNet Internet news site wrote.

Israel plans to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank in August, a withdrawal that opponents call a reward for Palestinian militants.

But opinion polls show a majority of Israelis support the move and the army has described soldiers’ protests against the pullout as isolated incidents. Earlier this month, the army sentenced a reservist to 21 days in jail for refusing military duty due to the upcoming pullout.

In January, the army dismissed six reservist officers who had threatened to disobey a pullout order. It also jailed a conscript soldier for 28 days after he urged comrades to defy an order to remove an unauthorized settlement in the West Bank. Revolt is rare in Israel’s army, a widely revered institution in a country where men and women are conscripted at the age of 18 and many later serve in the reserves. —Reuters