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Yahni
refuses to be a part of Ben Eliezer's "insanity" |
Reported
by Marwa El-Naggar, IOL Staff
CAIRO,
March 21, (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An Israeli soldier who
was sentenced to 28 days in military prison for refusing to serve
duty in the Israeli occupation army, has spoken out against the
Israeli army, calling it "nothing more than the armed wing of
the settlement movement," news agencies reported.
Sergio
Yahni, Co-Director of the Alternative Information Center, sent a
letter to the Israeli Minister of Defense, Ben Eliezer, Tuesday,
March 19, in which he says, "I did not refuse only to serve in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as I have for the past 15
years, I refused to serve in the Israeli army in any capacity."
He
told Ben Eliezer that ever since the outbreak of the Palestinian
intifada in September 2000, "the Israeli army has waged a
'dirty war' against the Palestinian Authority. This dirty war
includes extra-judicial killings, the murder of women and children,
the destruction of the economic and social infrastructure of the
Palestinian population, the burning of agricultural fields and the
uprooting of trees."
The
Palestine Chronicle quoted Yahni as attacking Ben Eliezer's
policies, saying that Israel is "now witness to an intellectual
debate amongst Israelis of the worst kind: a discussion about the
possible deportation and the mass killing of Palestinians."
"The
racist violence of the Israeli security establishment, who do not
see people but only 'terrorists', has deepened the vicious cycle of
violence for both Palestinians and Israelis," the letter
stated.
"It
is clear to me that you have risked all of our lives only in order
to continue building illegal and immoral settlements, for Gush
Etsion, Efrat and Kedumin: for the cancer which eats away at the
Israeli social body. For the past 35 years, the settlements have
turned the Israeli society into a danger zone. The Israeli state has
sowed despair and death both for the Palestinians and
Israelis," he continued.
Yahni
then criticized the Israeli occupation army, saying that it
"calls itself the 'Israeli Defence Force', is nothing more than
the armed wing of the settlement movement. This army does not exist
to bring security to the citizens of Israel, it exists to guarantee
the continuation of the theft of Palestinian land. As a Jew, I am
repelled by the crimes this militia commits against the Palestinian
people."
He
ended his letter to Ben Eliezer, saying that, "As a human
being, it is my duty to refuse to participate in any institution
which commits crimes against humanity."
Sergio
Yahni is just one of hundreds of Israeli soldiers refusing to serve
duty with the army. Earlier this year, 500 Israeli soldiers
protested the brutality of the Israeli occupation army, especially
in the "Occupied Palestinian" areas, causing widespread
controversy.
