IDF Soldier Refuses Expulsion Orders, 12 Comrades Join Him.

By IsraelNationalNews.com

U.S. immigrant Avi Bieber declared, 'A Jew does not expel a Jew' and refused orders after seeing his officers beating Jewish residents Monday. Twelve of his comrades have now followed suit.

Bieber, a soldier in the 603rd Combat Engineer Battalion, approached

his commander a week ago, and informed him that he is unable to take part in the implementation of the Disengagement Plan. Bieber's father Ralph told Arutz-7 that the commander dismissed the 19-year-old, telling him that the matter would be discussed two months from now, when the actual expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria is due to begin.

On Sunday, Bieber's unit was brought to an area near the beachfront community of Shirat HaYam and ordered to destroy 11 abandoned structures. The government wished to ensure that the buildings would not be used to house anti-expulsion activists flooding into Gush Katif.

As violent scuffles ensued, Bieber, who according to his father did not plan on publicly refusing orders, felt compelled to cry out against the beating of the protesters, young and old alike. "Soldiers do not beat Jews! A Jew does not expel a Jew!" he cried out. He was immediately relieved of his weapon and taken into custody, as friends from his unit looked on.

Many of his fellow soldiers of 15 months, it turns out, do not disagree with him. Twelve of the soldiers from his unit informed their brigade commander last night that they refuse to take part in any future actions having to do with the Disengagement Plan. They received a reprimand on their permanent records.

Some of the soldiers were also not pleased with the way they say they were deceived into taking part in the expulsion. "If we had been informed that we were being taken to a mission of this sort, we would have refused along with Avi," some of the soldiers told Yedioth Ahronoth. "We were always told that [our] weapons ... are against Arabs. How can you do such thing against Jews?" one soldier said.

"My wife and I are very proud of what our son did," Ralph Bieber told Arutz-7's Ezra HaLevi. "It took a lot of courage to do what he did. He is usually a very quiet kid, but he saw something that moved him emotionally and brought him to speak out."

Bieber said his son had been stationed in Gush Katif for the past six months and has grown to admire the community, which he took great pride in protecting. "Now they bring him to kick them out?" Bieber asked.

The Biebers say that ever since news of Avi's refusal hit the headlines, their phone has been ringing nonstop. "I really believe the majority of this country knows this plan is insane," Bieber said. "I have gotten calls from Herzliya, Netanya, Tel Aviv - people who tell me that they are not religious, but agree with my son and will stand with him. I got a call from the Chabad house in Tokyo. A father and son from Tel Aviv approached us, and the elderly father, a Holocaust survivor, said, 'What your son did really moved me. If the Jewish people would have done what he did in the time of the Holocaust, things would have ended differently.'"