Jewish extremists grow militant, official says

The threat of violence among Jewish settlers is growing.
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The head of Israel's Shin Bet security service warned Sunday that Jewish extremists are becoming more militant, as some prominent rabbis encouraged settlers to resist evacuation from their homes.
Violence continued in the Palestinian territories as an Israeli motorist and a Palestinian gunman were killed in separate shootings in the West Bank, and a Palestinian teenager was shot to death in the Gaza Strip. Also, Israeli border police killed a Palestinian laborer just west of Jerusalem.
The warning from Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter came as Israel prepares to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four isolated settlements in the West Bank. The evacuations will affect some 7,500 Jewish settlers in Gaza and about 500 of the 230,000 residents of West Bank settlements.
Some settler leaders have said they would resist. Many settlers are religious Jews who believe the West Bank is theirs by divine promise.
Rally
Late Sunday, about 1,000 settlers and supporters, including several prominent rabbis and politicians, held a rally at the Western Wall, a retaining wall of the ancient Jewish Temple and Judaism's most sacred shrine. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, a former chief rabbi of Israel, led a mass prayer session.
Yitzhak Levy, a politician from the pro-settler National Religious Party, said he does not support violence but did not rule out the possibility of fighting.
"The eviction will be tough," he told Israel's Channel Two TV. "But I can't promise it won't be violent, even though we are calling for there not to be violence."
Dichter told a Cabinet meeting Sunday that the threat of extremist violence among Jewish settlers is growing, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Jewish militants recently attacked an army officer in Jerusalem because he helped dismantle a synagogue at an unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost, the official quoted Dichter as saying.
In recent weeks, settler leaders and prominent rabbis have spoken out harshly against the government's plan to remove some settlements.
Resistance
Last month, settler leader Uri Elitzur, a former top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said violent resistance to settlement evacuations is legitimate. An eminent rabbi in Jerusalem also has said that anyone who removes Jewish settlements would be subject to the death penalty under biblical Jewish law.
Justice Minister Joseph Lapid told the Cabinet meeting that he isn't surprised by the growing threat. He said police's failure to take action against Elitzur was encouraging violence, according to a source close to Lapid.
Israeli security officials confirmed that the Shin Bet has grown concerned.
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