Tens of thousands of Israeli settlers and their supporters Sunday took part in a right-wing demonstration in Jerusalem's Zion Square.

The rally was organized in protest against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. Sharon planned to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and four other isolated enclaves in the northern West Bank by the end of next year and Israeli troops would also be pulled out from the areas.

Before heading to Sharon's office to demand the premier's resignation, the crowds gathered in the landmark Zion Square after holding a mass prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City.

Most demonstrators were Orthodox Jews, many of them teenage girls in long skirts or youths wearing knit skullcaps. A huge banner behind the stage set the theme: "Disengagement tears the people apart."

The demonstrators, waving blue and white Israeli flags, shutdown much of the city, while more than 1,000 police were on the scene to prevent the protest from turning into a violence.

It was the second mass show of opposition to Sharon's pullout plan in recent weeks.

Local newspaper Ha'aretz reported earlier in the day that Israeli settler leaders and council heads were considering calling on those carrying out the evacuation to disobey orders and settlers to resist the evacuation.

Yesha Council deputy chairman Shaul Goldstein told Ha'aretz on Friday he could no longer demand his colleagues obey orders to evacuate settlements, because the evacuation decision was not made democratically.

Sharon was ignoring his party's decisions and deceiving the public, he said, adding the settlers had warned the defense establishment of the risk of violent clashes between settlers and the evacuating forces, including an armed confrontation.

(Xinhua News Agency September 13, 2004)