GUSH KATIF, Gaza Strip ?After Elkana Gubi was killed in a Palestinian ambush three years ago, his family refused a burial with military honours in Jerusalem.

They preferred the fenced-off plot outside their embattled Jewish settlement.

Now Gubi's and 47 other graves, silent testaments to the settlers?claim on land they see as a biblical birthright, have become a front line of defiance ahead of Israel's planned withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip.

"Elkana always wanted to be buried in Gush Katif,?said Gubi's mother Miri in Gaza's main settlement bloc.

"Anything necessary to protect my son's final rest, I will do ?anything.?

Such talk, echoed by other settlers, adds to fears of violent resistance to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for quitting some of the occupied land where Palestinians want a state as a way of "disengaging?from conflict.

The umbrella Yesha settler council has called for passive protests only, but no one denies that the exhumation of the bodies of loved ones could intensify grief.

"Politics aside, the fact is that these people are invested in the land, and have endured four years of fighting,?said Maoz Azaryahu, a Haifa University cultural geographer. "The graves are a focal point for this trauma.?

The Evacuation and Compensation Bill passed by parliament last month requires the government to "do its best to move the Gush Katif cemetery to Israel and take care of reburial.?

The somewhat vague phrasing has further incensed settlers complaining that the disengagement plan ignores their concerns.

"No one has contacted me about anything,?said Shlomo Yulis, whose son Itay died of cancer and was buried in Gush Katif.

"I can hardly believe that they will dare to go ahead with the evacuations, let alone try to touch the graves.?

Reversing tradition

Relocating the Gush Katif cemetery will set a symbolic precedent for a Jewish state still struggling with its identity ?in terms of politics and culture, as well as geography.

When Israel demolished the Sinai settlement bloc of Yamit in 1982 under a peace deal with Egypt, also withdrawing from land captured in the 1967 Middle East war, there were no graves to be removed.

Azaryahu saw in the Gaza plan a de facto border demarcation.

"Zionism was always predicated on Jewish burial in Israel, all the way back to the biblical Joseph, whose bones were brought up from Egypt,?he said.

"By moving the Gush Katif graves, the government is effectively saying it no longer considers Gaza part of Israel.?

Such arguments have not been lost on ultra-nationalists who describe the withdrawals from Gaza and four of 120 West Bank settlements as a reward for Palestinian violence.

Polls show that most Israelis would welcome the withdrawal of Gaza's 8,500 settlers from the heavily-defended enclaves situated among 1.3 million Palestinians, a plan hailed by the United States as a possible step towards Middle East peace.

Mindful of reverence for the dead in a nation where war monuments adorn many public spots, an Israeli opposition politician has called on pious Jews to come out against the Gaza plan for the sake of the cemetery.

"When the ultra-Orthodox hear of an ancient grave being uncovered anywhere, they fight to the end to preserve its sanctity,?said Arieh Eldad of the far-right National Union.

"I expect them to show the same determination when it comes to Gush Katif, where Jews are buried and now face removal.?

Piety vs pragmatism

Weighed against dogma are widespread fears that the Gush Katif graves, if left behind, could be vandalized by Palestinians who view the settlers as interlopers on their land.

Palestinian officials are wary of commenting on the issue, which is also very sensitive for them since they do not want to appear sensitive to the settlers, nor callous.

"Burial sites are sacred, but reverence for the dead more so,?said Rabbi Avraham Ravitz of United Torah Judaism, a small religious faction allied to Sharon's ruling Likud party.

"Jewish law allows for the relocation of bodies under certain circumstances, when there is an absolute risk of desecration. That would definitely apply here,?he said.

According to Ravitz, it was not yet clear which authority would be responsible for moving the cemetery.

The rabbinates of the Israeli military, police, and government gave no immediate response. Officials have kept much of the disengagement plan under wraps, citing concerns that Palestinian militants could attack withdrawing forces.

But a government source also attributed the confusion to the fact that few of Gaza's 8,500 settlers have so far agreed to be relocated to Israel.

"How can we decide on moving the dead when we don't even know where the living are going to go??the source said.

(Agencies via Xinhua)