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52 Israeli Reserves Refuse To Serve In Palestinian Areas
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| Increasing number of Israeli soldiers refuse to serve in the army against Palestinians |
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Jan. 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Fifty-two Israeli combat reserve officers have announced they will no longer fight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli Ananova news online reported.
In newspaper ads the soldiers, some ranked as high as major, say military
actions have nothing to do with providing security for Israel and are meant to control Palestinians.
They said Israel's stringent travel bans, which confine many Palestinians to their communities, needlessly punish them.
"We declare that we will not continue to fight a war for peace in the (Jewish) settlements (in the West Bank and Gaza Strip)," read the ad, Ananova reported.
"We will not continue to fight on the other side of the Green Line with an intent to
control, expel, starve and degrade an entire people."
The so-called “Green Line” refers to the invisible line separating Israel from the territories it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The soldiers wrote that they decided to stop serving in the occupied Palestinian areas when it became clear to them that the army orders "have nothing to do with security, and their only intent is to control the Palestinian people forever."
Such public criticism of the military by soldiers has been relatively rare in Israel, though throughout the years, there have been some groups of soldiers refusing to serve, including during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and during the first Palestinian uprising against Israel in 1987-1993.
Friday's announcement marked the first time since the outbreak of the current round of fighting in September 2000 that a large group of soldiers announced it was refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian areas.
Israel TV's Channel Two reported Friday Jan. 25, 2002 that several soldiers who joined the group said they had been ordered to degrade Palestinians without reason.
In one case, soldiers were ordered to demolish homes or greenhouses of Palestinians just because a Palestinian passed near the property on his way to attack Israelis, the report said.
Maj. Gen. Uzi Dayan, the head of Israel's National Security Council, said the formation of the group concerned him.
"It worries us," Dayan told the television. "We have to allow these discussions but I say that it shouldn't be expressed in a refusal to serve."
In a special interview aired on Israeli television, Channel 2, a solider who was discharged from the Israeli army a week ago said that Israeli occupation troops and special units carried out "unimaginable" practices against Palestinians.
He said that he was a witness to a happening where Israeli troops competed among themselves on who is capable of killing more Palestinians, saying that soldiers would brag afterwards about the number of Palestinians they have killed.
According to the solider, who wanted his name withheld, Israeli troops operated on the basis of killing as many Palestinians as possible.
He told Channel 2 that while serving with the army in the West Bank town of Ramallah, one of his colleagues shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy without any reason.
He also narrated occasions where soldiers would slam the heads of detained Palestinians into concrete walls after being arrested and handcuffed.
The army practices have also extended, according to the soldier, to stealing Palestinian goods and furniture. He said that in one occasion, following a traffic accident between two Palestinian cars, Israeli soldiers in his unit ignored the wounded passengers and began dismantling and stealing the record players of the two wrecked vehicles.
It is noteworthy that it is not the first time Israeli soldiers refuse to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories, an Israeli reservist was sentenced to 24 days in jail for refusing to serve in the Palestinian territories, occupied since 1967, Israeli radio reported July 25,2001.
Reserve sergeant Alex Liachs, an information technology student aged 26, was sentenced for refusing to serve in Palestinian occupied territory since the beginning of Al-Aqsa intifada or uprising, on September 28, the radio broadcasted at the time.
Ten other soldiers from the reserve have faced similar charges, in addition to five regular soldiers, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
In May 22 the Israeli radio announced that the Israeli police-military leadership applied for a hike in budget to build a military prison to contain the increase in the number of imprisoned Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza strip.
The same month the Israeli daily Ha’aretz newspaper reported that a few years ago, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Sergeant Yishai Rosen-Tzvi refused to serve mandatory military reserve duty if it includes being part of the Israeli occupation.
“Today Israel is jailing Israelis for doing just that, refusing to participate in continuing the occupation of Palestinians” the Ha’aretz said.
"I won't take part in a siege enforced against hundreds of thousands of people, including women and children, I won't starve entire villages and prevent their residents from getting to work each day or to medical check-ups; I won't turn them into hostages of political decisions. A siege against cities, like bombing raids from helicopters, does not stop ‘terror’. It is a sop to placate Israel's public, which demands 'Let the IDF win'", Rosen-Tzvi said.
Tens of soldiers joined ‘Hadash’ movement, an Israeli activist movement protects Israeli soldiers refused the military serving.
In a press conference held in May 2001, an Israeli lawyer Leia’h Tsimel called on the International Human Rights Organizations and Peace activists to release a communiqué calling on the Israeli soldiers not to carry out “illegal” military orders against the Palestinians.
Oly Afenbery, one of ‘Peace Now’ Israeli movement leaders, said the Palestinian intifada or uprising is not a wave of violence, it is a “legitimate war for independence”.
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