JERUSALEM, Sept 10: Jewish settlers threatened with eviction under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout plan on Friday hardened their opposition with calls for soldiers and police to disobey orders to remove them.

Far-right supporters of the settlers dubbed Mr Sharon's plan to evacuate the Gaza Strip and four West Bank enclaves a "crime against humanity", while settler leaders brandished the spectre of a "civil war".

"The Israeli Defence Forces were created to defend us against enemies not to go after Jews and expel them from their motherland," said a petition published by two hundred figures from Israel's extreme right, equating the pullout to a "crime against humanity.

"Soldiers, officers and policemen must listen to their national conscience and not participate in operations they are bound to regret for the rest of their life," it said. "We call on the government not to give this illegal order which it is forbidden to obey."

The petition appeared in several newspapers, including Hatzofeh, mouthpiece of the pro-settler National Religious Party (NRP), which has one minister in Mr Sharon's governing coalition.

Among the signatories were Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's father Ben Tzion and his brother Ido, as well as army reservists, leaders of the settler movement and academics.

While expressing serious misgivings about the Gaza pullout plan, Netanyahu endorsed it in a June cabinet vote. According to a timetable presented by Mr Sharon late last month, the Israeli government is to consider draft legislation as early as Tuesday compensating settlers who will lose their homes.

The leader of the northern West Bank settlement of Alphe-Menache, Eliezer Hasdai, meanwhile told army radio that the planned evacuation of his enclave would unleash "a mass refusal to obey among soldiers and officers" and might "degenerate into a civil war".

Earlier this week, Hasdai and other settler leaders had issued the same warning in a meeting with Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz.

The Maariv daily reported that Hadsai, who buried his daughter in Alphe-Menache, told Mofaz: "If anyone dares touch my daughter's grave, whether a soldier or the chief of staff, I will shoot him." The main Jewish settlers' organization is planning a rally in Jerusalem Sunday. -AFP