TEL AVIV - About 200 religious youngsters from across the country have signed a petition against military insubordination, a venture initiated by two Jerusalem highschoolers.
The petition, which attacks disobedience and calls for social solidarity, was initiated to counter a possible national rift, said Zaki Jamal, one of the venture's organizers.
"We represent a prevalent perception," he said. "Many youngsters in the West Bank and Gaza think as we do."
Even those opposed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan feel that military insubordination is "one step too far," Jamal said.
"Some rules are beyond political caprices," he said.
The petition also aims to protest against the alienation within Israeli society, Jamal said.
"We are trying to say that even on the day after disengagement we're still one community, and not two peoples," he said.
Opposition to the disengagement plan is legitimate, the petition says, but calls for insubordination and violent resistance, as well as politically inspired death threats, are not, and would lead the country to ruin.
The students behind the initiative are 12th Grader at Jerusalem's religious Hartman high-school, affiliated with right-wing parties. Many students at the school have also demonstrated in support of the settlers.
One of the students behind the venture says he identifies with left-wing political views, while the other one says he is a right-winger.