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Israeli Army Officers Suspended For Refusing To Fight Palestinians
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| Palestinian woman and her child terrorized by Israeli military oppression |
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Feb. 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Israeli occupation army suspended all the officers who refused to serve in the Palestinian territories and ordered their dismissal from commands of responsibility.
Israel’s army chief Shaul Mofaz said he ordered the heads of the army to negotiate with the more than 100 officers and try to understand the reason behind their decision instead of jailing them in the military prison, the Israeli daily newspaper, Ma’ariv, reported Tuesday. Mofaz said, "We take the petition in which officers and soldiers have called for insubordination very seriously. They will be summoned to perform other tasks."
But the officers' campaign received unexpected support from a former security chief, who said there should be more of them.
On January 25 a total of 52 reserve officers and soldiers said they would refuse to serve in the Palestinian territories so as not to participate in operations of "oppression." On Friday the movement published a further 50 signatures in the Israeli daily newspaper, Ha'aretz.
After compulsory military service of three years, Israelis have to do a month every year in their old units, sometimes in senior positions, up to the age of 49.
Mofaz said that if political motives are behind the reservists' move, he would take their refusal as an act of mutiny and would punish the objectors more seriously.
A spokesman for the movement denied there was a political basis for their conscientious objection, adding that Mofaz was trying to dirty their campaign, AFP reported.
While several political parties have courted the group, the officers have intentionally denied any party affiliation, adding that the movement was grounded in morality, not politics, the spokesman said.
The chief of staff's remarks followed a declaration by Ami Ayalon, former head of Israel's internal security agency Shin Beth, who said he had "a lot of empathy for the reserve officers," and added that soldiers should not obey orders that were "blatantly illegal."
"As far as I'm concerned," he told Ha'aretz Friday, "too few soldiers are refusing such orders. For example, (an order) to shoot an unarmed youth is a blatantly illegal order. I am very worried by the number of Palestinian children shot in the past year."
The petition marked the first time since the Palestinian Al Aqsa intifada started in September 2000, that Israeli soldiers circulated a refusal to serve in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
"We will continue to serve in the army when it involves defending the state of Israel but not in the task of oppression and occupation of the Palestinians," said the reservists, mostly subalterns and from combat units, notably parachute, tank and elite infantry corps.
"The territories are not part of Israel and the Jewish settlements that have been established will eventually be dismantled ... we will not continue to fight for them," the soldiers said.
"We will also no longer fight beyond the 'Green Line' with the goal of oppressing, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people," they said, speaking of the border that separates Israel from the West Bank.
In the statement published Friday in Ha'aretz they added, "We, reserve combat soldiers and officers, say: The decision is in our hands! We are already more than 100."
The refusal movement has sent shockwaves through Israel, sparking a heated debate in parliament where most deputies criticized the call for disobedience, fearing that introducing a political dimension into the army would weaken Israel's security.
According to a poll quoted by Israeli radio, 31 percent of Israelis support the petition, while two thirds of the Jewish state's population oppose it, AFP reported.
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