New York, NY, December 6, 2004 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today praised three Orthodox rabbis for their "important public statement" denouncing calls for resistance against Israeli soldiers by settlers facing evacuation in the West Bank and Gaza.

"In these times it is critical that Rabbinical voices expressing views such as yours be heard both by the Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora," Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said in a letter to each of the three leading Orthodox rabbis who took a prominent stand against insubordination last week. "It is my hope that many other prominent leaders such as you will join in this stand," Mr. Foxman added.

In a joint declaration, the three Orthodox leaders – Rabbi Norman Lamm, Chancellor of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, head of Israel's Har Etzion yeshiva, and Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, a former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel – denounced calls for insubordination within or against the Israel Defense Forces as "deeply disturbing and dismaying."  The rabbis added that "selective insubordination cannot in this case be countenanced on either moral or (rabbinic legal) grounds."

In recent weeks, as the Israeli government has moved ahead with plans for a withdrawal from Gaza and the West Bank settlements, ADL has expressed concern over the mounting threats against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as well as statements by rabbis and settler leaders calling for resistance to evacuation on the part of soldiers and settlers.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.