JERUSALEM, 5 January 2005 — An Israeli soldier is to be court-martialed for urging comrades to refuse orders to remove Jewish settler buildings, unprecedented disobedience that has raised fears of violence over a Gaza pullout, army sources said.

Settlers have warned that thousands of soldiers could refuse to evacuate settlements under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to abandon the occupied Gaza Strip and some of the northern West Bank this year.

Avi Dichter, chief of the Shin Bet internal security service, told a parliamentary committee yesterday a fringe group of hard-line settlers would try to provoke shooting at soldiers.

“They will try to spread rumors of shooting by Israeli security forces against settlers, setting the stage for the settlers to ‘return’ fire,” a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee quoted Dichter as saying.

The soldier to be court-martialed was arrested in fierce scuffles on Monday between hundreds of settlers and troops trying to remove two buildings that had been erected without government permits from a radical outpost in the West Bank.

Military sources described the soldier as being on active service. Israeli media said he was a sergeant on leave who had donned his uniform to try to persuade fellow soldiers to defy their commanders at the outpost near Yitzhar.

Military sources said precise charges had yet to be drawn up. He is not being detained. “He will be tried for his actions,” one source said.

Israel Radio said five Israeli civilians also arrested at the site would be charged with assault and incitement. The Justice Ministry had no immediate comment.

The international community regards all the settlements as illegal. Israel disputes this. Sharon insisted on Monday any soldier refusing orders would be dealt with according to the law.

Most Israelis support his plan for removing 8,000 settlers from Gaza, where they live in enclaves among 1.3 million Palestinians, as well as four of 120 West Bank settlements.

Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee called on the authorities on Monday to try any soldiers who refuse orders to remove settlers.

“The phenomenon of organized refusal of orders contains the seeds of sedition,” Yuval Steinitz, the committee chairman said.