Israel: Officers refuse military service
July 18, 2002
Pravda Online: http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/07/18/32799.html

Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, one of the most authoritative rabbis of the Israeli expansion movement, said in his interview to the Yediot Aharanot newspaper that the Israeli army's leadership should consider the possibility of the introduction of the death penalty for people who refuse military service for ideological reasons.

According to the rabbi, such people could dangerously influence the nation, so the nation should get rid of them with the most radical measures.

The Palestine Intifada daily gathers its bloody harvest; however, most of the victims are civilians, but the military also receives its fair share. While most of them are young men who want to live and to love, but, instead, they have to die instead in this Middle-East slaughter.

Since the beginning of the Intifada (October, 2000), several hundreds of Israeli soldiers have refused to serve service in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Ha-aretz reports.

At first, when only single persons indivicuals refused to serve in the occupied territories, nobody paid attention to it. However, this February, over 100 reservist officers openly refused, and a great scandal erupted. While explaining the reasons for their refusal, they said they are ready to defend Israeli State, though they do not want to participate in what is called the neutralization of the Palestinians.

?We were officers, possessing strong convictions, while now we are being turned into soldiers who shed blood and commit military crimes,? v one of them who signed the petition said. Cruel things, he added, do not surprise anybody.

The behaviour of the reservist officers excited emotions in Israeli society and some concern in the leadership of the military forces: among officers who signed the petition, there were paratroopers and servicemen of other elite units.

No concrete measures to change this situation in the Israeli army have been taken.