PARIS, March 7 (IslamOnline.net) - A number of prominent Israeli figures denounced the policy of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, which they say “spells disaster” for the Israeli people.

Dubbing themselves “The Other Voice of Israel”, the group agreed that the only way out of the current limbo is to recognize the Palestinian rights and tear down the West Bank separation wall.

They wrapped up a multi-leg European tour Friday, March 5, in the French capital Paris in an effort to show the other face of Israel, which “tolerates co-existence with the Palestinians and rejects the Israeli occupation”.

They met in Paris with pro-Palestinians Jewish and French organizations in Saint Denis in northern Paris.

Among the delegation are also Oren Medicks, a representative of the Israeli Peace Block, Nurit Peled Elchanan, the chairman of an organization catering for the Israelis killed in Palestinian resistance operations and Talila Kosh Zohar, the head of the Israeli “Other Face” organization.

They met with representatives of the European Parliament, Belgian, French MPs and human rights activists.

Medicks said the delegation wanted to “send the unmistakable message that there is another voice in Israel other than the barbarism of Sharon and the ongoing [Israeli] violence and destruction”.

“We felt a sense of European support to our voice, although we are a minority in Israel,” he said.

The peace activist added that the European Union, for instance, supported the Refuseniks.

Diamante, for his part, offered the audience a few glimpses on the establishment of the Refuseniks organization, which came to light in September 2001.

He said that 600 soldiers have now joined the organization.

“We firmly believe that doing the military service in the occupied Palestinian lands is immoral,” he said.

“Israel has no future if it ignored the rights of the Palestinians and did not put an end to their [daily] sufferings,” added Medicks, who served in occupied southern Lebanon and refused to serve in the Gaza Strip.

“I have been receiving since six months letters of support from my pilot colleagues, who regretted that they could not follow suit,” Shapira said.

But he pledged to try to convince them to speak up and be counted “because we, the pilots are always on the frontline and should live up to their responsibilities”.

“The Israeli Air Force commander summoned me and asked: ‘Don’t you regret your behavior?’ And I answered that I regret that I didn’t take the decision long ago,” said Shapira.

Elchanan spoke up about the ‘military society’ in Israel with a soldier standing guard in front of a checkpoint has become the insignia of the Israeli identity.

“We should be aware of the fact that this insignia is built on the myth that ‘we did not choose the war we fight, but it was imposed on us’,” she said.

“The distinctions between the military and the civilian have, in effect, vanished. Now in Israel you see former generals chairing cultural, educational and social organizations let alone all Israelis are reservists.”

Zohar, whose daughter was killed in a Palestinian operation, spoke next about her organization “which calls for an Israeli pullout of the occupied Palestinian territories”.

She said the prestigious status given by the Torah to Jewish mothers belongs now to history, arguing that Israeli mothers were now giving birth to sons who would be killed later.

Zohar rebuffed condolences offered by Ehud Olmert, the deputy prime minister, over the death of her daughter.

“I do not accept condolences from those who dragged my daughter in a war, like Olmert, Sharon and [Defense Minister] Shaul Mofaz,” she said.