OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, October 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A week after twenty seven Israeli pilots refused to take part in raids on Palestinian territories, some 200 Israeli professors and university students signed a petition Wednesday, October 1, supporting their courageous decision.

"The elected government doesn't have the right to destroy this country's military. We, professors, teachers and university students who have signed this petition, support the pilots who have the courage to refuse to participate in the repression and massacre of another people," reported Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoting the petition.

"We share their sentiments regarding the disappearance of moral values (...) We believe there is no good reason to keep feeding the cycle of violence rather than fighting against the real causes of terrorism which result from the occupation of Palestinian territories," the petition continued.

The pilots proclaimed they no longer wanted "to obey illegal and immoral orders" and they refused "to take part in aerial raids against populated civilian centers" in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The pilots say they refuse "to continue to endanger innocent civilians and to attack densely populated areas".

"The continuation of the occupation endangers the security of the state of Israel, as well as its moral fiber," the pilots added in their letter.

Major Eshel Hafetz, a former combat and transport pilot, and Major Yiftah Astrick, a non-active reservist helicopter pilot, added their names to the pilots' petition, reported Haaretz Wednesday.

Since the initial publication of the pilots' letter, two signatories have withdrawn their support and four more pilots have added theirs.

Two of the active pilots who were initiators of the petition - Captain Yonatan and Captain Alon - are ordered to report Wednesday for meetings with their wing commanders.

Both said they remain steadfast in their opinions and are not disturbed by the meetings - the results of which, they said, have been predetermined.

In response to a debate on the matter held by the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the pilots said "the very same committee that supports an unethical policy that leads to the killings of innocent citizens on both sides, is today attempting to preach morals to us."

Pilots who signed the petition have been either suspended or forbidden to fly. The majority of the pilots are no longer in active service.

Israeli air force commander Dan Haloutz accused the pilots of playing politics and also criticized them for not airing their grievances through the proper chain of command.

"We have to deal with matters appropriately. This is not an earthquake in the air force. This afternoon was the first I have heard of this," he told Channel 10 television.

A group of Israeli intellectuals, supported by the human rights organization B'Tselem, has petitioned the supreme court to charge Haloutz with murder for the killings of Palestinian civilians in a July 2002 raid.

They accuse Haloutz of killing 16 people, including nine children, during an air strike on a building in Gaza City in which a member of the Islamic Palestinian group Hamas was assassinated.