'Following orders' in Ma'ale Rehavam
'Following orders' in Ma'ale RehavamFlash 90

An IDF combat soldier in the Golani Brigade, who took part in a new protest by soldiers against the eviction of Jews from their homes, called on soldiers to refuse orders expelling Jews in an interview on Friday morning.

The soldier, identified only as N., told Keshet, "if you go blindly after everything your commanders tell you, there will be a Holocaust. You can't go blindly, this is a clearly illegal order."

Two combat soldiers were dismissed from their roles in the Nahal Brigade on Thursday after taking part in the protest by posting photos of themselves with signs opposing the orders on Facebook. The protest comes amid the backdrop of demolitions and evictions in Judea's Ma'ale Rehavam on Wednesday, and Givat Assaf in Samaria on Friday.

"If I was a police officer I'd know where I'm going, but if I'm a soldier who's supposed to defend citizens, what's the idea that I'd expel them from their homes?" posed N.

"I'll sit three months in jail, but I won't sit with my conscience seeing how you uproot someone from his home," said N., who himself lives in a community in the Judea and Samaria region.

According to the soldier, expelling Jews is a red line that he and his friends in the infantry unit will not cross.

Aside from Givat Assaf and Ma'ale Rehavam, the small town of Ramat Gilad in northern Samaria has also been slated by the Supreme Court for demolition by next Sunday, following petitions by the extreme-left group Peace Now seven years ago claiming they were built on Arab-owned lands.

Residents of the towns have argued the land was not previously privately owned and so the state could have legalized the homes, but did not do so, leading to the Supreme Court instructions that the government demolish them.