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Israeli Army Chief Condemns Anti-Occupation Petition
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| "We will also no longer fight beyond the 'Green Line' with the goal of oppressing, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people," Israeli sodiers said. |
CCUPIED JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies ) - Israel's army chief of staff, General Shaul Mofaz, condemned a petition signed by 52 reservist officers and soldiers refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories, news agencies reported.
Mofaz, in a meeting of the armed forces command on Monday, January 28, said it was a "very serious" matter, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Fifty-two Israeli combat reserve officers announced Friday, January 25, that they will no longer fight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli Ananova news online reported.
In newspaper advertisements, 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.
The soldiers wrote that they decided to stop serving in the 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."
"The reservist service is carried out according to the law and it cannot be admissible for reservists to decide what tasks they carry out or not," Mofaz said.
Israel TV's Channel Two reported Friday, January 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.
On Monday, a conscientious objector, 18-year-old Yaer Khilou, was sentenced to a second term of 28 days in military prison for refusing to serve in the army, said New Profile, a pacifist movement. Khilou had already been imprisoned from December 23, 2001 to January 17. Israel does not exempt men from serving in the army on the grounds of conscience.
The signatories were almost all second-lieutenants and from combat units, notably parachute, tank and elite infantry corps, AFP said.
It marked the first time since the September 2000 start of Al-Aqsa Palestinian Intifada, that soldiers circulated a refusal to serve in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
"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 which separates Israel from the West Bank.
According to another Israeli pacifist movement, Yesh Gvul, 400 reservists have refused to join their units in the occupied territories since the start of the 16-month uprising. Only around 40 of them have been punished so far, however.
Israeli press reports have said that absenteeism, not necessarily for political reasons, has become a problem in most reserve corps.
Military service is compulsory in Israel, with 18-year-old men serving for three years and women for 21 months. Men are also required to serve in the reserves for more than a month every year up until the age of 49.
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