JERUSALEM - There is a realistic chance that violence will mar Israel's historic withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip next month, a spokesman for the main Jewish settlers lobby said Tuesday.
"Realistically there can be violence. We'll be there to prevent it," Shaul Goldstein told a gathering of foreign journalists.
"Things happen in the dust and heat," he continued, evoking the emotions of a settler accidentally poked in the eye by a soldier, or who sees his family upset, hears cries from a neighbouring house or sees bulldozers in action.
"There can be violence but we have to be organised to stop it," Goldstein added, regretting that his lobby had not itself ousted radicals holed up in a hotel in the main Gush Katif settlement bloc, raided by the army last week.
"I think myself and other leaders of the Yesha council should have gone to Gush Katif and put out those lunatics. Us, not the army," he said.
He warned that "lunatics" such as the extremist settlers who tried to block roads and lynch a Palestinian in protest against the operation are threatening national unity.
"Such people are a very small minority and they can cause a split in ... society in Israel," he said, confessing that nothing was likely to obstruct the disengagement plan, which the Yesha council vehemently opposes.
"As a believer I'm praying to God to do something to stop it. If you're asking me realistically what are the chances of stopping it ... the option to stop it is very, very small," he said.
However, he insisted on the need to bring "reasonable people" to protest peacefully against the pullout without any violence whatsoever.
"No violence at all. Don't curse, don't shout, don't hit. No weapons around," and no roadblocks, he said.
07/05/2005 14:54 GMT