CADIM, West Bank - A group of settlers from three northern West Bank settlements slated for evacuation in August in the framework of the pullout plan have applied for political asylum from the Palestinian Authority. "If the State of Israel doesn't want us," said 28-year-old Drori Shtoan, a member of the group, "then we don’t want it either." Shtoan's parents were among the founders of the Kadim settlement, and he has no intention of leaving the town he grew up in without a fight. "We have every intention of continuing to live here in the Shomron (the Samaria region of the West Bank), under Palestinian jurisdiction and not under Israeli rule," he said. According to Shtoan, the group has asked an international mediator to forward a message to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that several intend to accept Palestinian sovereignty. "A large number of people have signed onto our initiative," he said. "There are Jews all over the world - Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan. So we'll be Jews living under Palestinian jurisdiction." "We're not afraid, and I expect it will be good, and secure, for us here, just like Jews live in other places," he said.