Right-wing speaker: 'Don't go to army'

Thousands of right-wing activists attended Wednesday evening a conference in Jerusalem held under the banner "We won't forget and won't forgive – The war on Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem has begun. The Israeli government has declared war on God and his Bible."

Eran Sternberg, former spokesman of the Gaza Strip Regional Council, called on youth not to enroll to the IDF until "it restores its role as the Israel defense forces."

Sternberg blasted the IDF, saying that "The crime of the uprooting plan was committed first and foremost by the army."

"If you receive an illegal command, I call on you, the youth, to smile and go to jail. If I was to be recruited now I would not go to the army," he added.

Youths in the conference  (Photo: Haim Tzach)

The conference constitutes the first significant right-wing conference since the disengagement plan was implemented. Rabbis, right-wing leaders and Gush Katif evacuees are expected to speak in the conference.

Outside the conference hall, the attendees were asked to sign a petition calling for help in the new battle on Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. Teenagers about to be recruited to the army were asked to sign a petition calling for insubordination.

"We are high-school students about to be recruited to the IDF. We see the protection of the Jewish people in the land of Israel as a mission and a holy value, and we therefore view our service in the army as a right and not a duty… The duty is derived from our belief in God," the petition read.

"We hereby declare that for us, our Torah, the Bible of life, is the only source of authority… We shall not take part in the uprooting of settlements and expulsion of Jews in the land of Israel," it concluded.

A new sticker was prepared for the conference, reading "Not a kapo, not expelling, not a 'sucker', not enrolling in the army."

The conference opened with prayers and the rest of the evening’s events will be led by the spokesman for the Jewish Community in Hebron, Noam Arnon.

“The pain from the evictions has not been healed and will never be healed,” Arnon said.

Eran Sternberg, the main speaker at the event, lashed out at the IDF calling it “destruction machine,” arguing that the settlers should have protested outside the offices of IDF chief and not the prime minister, because it is the army that executed the evictions.

“Our mission is to reinstate the army as the Israel Defense Forces,” he said.