More than 100 Israeli Army reservists have now signed a public statement saying that if called up to duty they will refuse to serve in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving, and humiliating an entire people," declared the petition published in Israel's best-selling daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. "The price of occupation is the loss of the Israel Defense Forces' semblance of humanity and the corruption of all of Israeli society," the declaration also stated. The Green Line refers to the boundaries before the Israeli government launched a war against surrounding Arab countries in 1967, capturing the West Bank, the Golan Heights, the Sinai peninsula, and the Gaza Strip. The Sinai was later returned to control of Egypt.

"The statement, by combat officers and soldiers, amounted to the largest organized refusal by reservists to serve in the West Bank and Gaza in the last 16 months" since the latest upsurge in the Palestinians' fight against Israeli occupation, noted the New York Times.

The two reserve lieutenants who drafted the statement, David Zonshein, 28, a software engineer, and Yaniv Itzkovitch, 26, a university teaching assistant, said that their goal was to collect 500 signatures on the protest petition. They have both been suspended from their paratroop battalion by their commanding officer.

In interviews in Yedioth Ahronoth some of these reservists have been speaking out about the experiences they had as part of the Israeli military occupation force. These included firing at Palestinian boys who were throwing stones as far as 100 yards away, posing no danger whatsoever to the troops.

Ariel Shatil, 32, said that in the Gaza Strip last September, his squad was supposed to fire heavy machine guns at a Palestinian town. "The gunfire penetrates thin walls and windows, and that kills people, and you don't know who you're killing," he said. Zonshein said that in an area where he served, houses and orchards were bulldozed in response to Palestinian gunfire.

"We all have limits," he stated. "You can be the best officer, and suddenly you're required to do things that you can't be asked to do: to shoot at people, stop ambulances, destroy houses when no one knows who lives in them."

Responding sharply to the growing expression of opposition to the Israeli rulers' military operations in the West Bank and Gaza, the army's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, commented, "This is more than refusal to serve. This is incitement to rebellion."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon added his own warning: "It will be the beginning of the end of democracy if soldiers don't carry out the decisions of the elected government."

Most Israeli men are required to serve as army reservists until they are 45 years old. Since September 2000, more than 500 have refused to serve in the occupied territories. The majority have been quietly released. About 40 have been sentenced to up to 28 days in jail.

In mid-January, shortly after the Israeli army had demolished 60 Palestinian homes in a Gaza refugee camp, an article appeared in Ha'aretz by Dr. Yigal Shochat, a physician who used to be an Israeli fighter pilot, calling on F-16 pilots to refuse to bomb Palestinian cities.

"The divided opinion in the military ranks," noted a February 1 article in the London-based Independent, "was further exposed by revelations that a group of senior reserve officers led by a brigadier-general, were planning to present the government with proposals for the reoccupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and the destruction of the Palestinian Authority."  
 
Gas workers strike
At the same time, working people within Israel have been involved in several strike actions against government austerity demands. Workers employed by the Pi Glilot Gas Company walked off the job January 31, closing fuel supply depots around the country. The workers are protesting an announcement by management that 40 workers would be dismissed and wages for the remaining 180 would be cut by 20 percent. The workers rejected a call by the National Infrastructure Ministry to postpone their strike and begin immediate negotiations with the company.

According to an article in Ha'aretz, "Workers' committees from the National Insurance Institute...are expected to escalate work disputes, which have been going on for the past two-and-a-half weeks." They are demanding that 150 to 200 new employees be added to branches around the country.

Meanwhile, a strike by disabled workers entered its 50th day February 3 as protesters continued to demonstrate at the entrance to the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry in Jerusalem.  
 
Assassinations of Palestinian fighters
The Israeli regime continues to carry out a policy of what they call "targeted killings," involving the assassination of Palestinians deemed to be leading the fight against military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Dozens have been killed as a result of this policy, which just reinforced the determination of Palestinian fighters to press forward the fight for their rights.

Since the upsurge of protests started in September 2000, more than 250 Israelis and 800 Palestinians have been killed. Thousands more Palestinians have been wounded. Israeli forces have conducted deep incursions into Palestinian-controlled territory in the West Bank. For the past two months Israeli Army tanks have been stationed within 100 yards of the compound of Palestinian Authority president Yasir Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

In response to two recent suicide bomb attacks in Jerusalem, including one by a young Palestinian woman on January 27, Israeli authorities have erected police checkpoints on the roads between East Jerusalem and the city's Jewish neighborhoods, and are discussing a plan to surround the city with barriers that would totally separate it from neighboring Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

Sharon, who is scheduled to meet with President George Bush in Washington, February 7, placed himself at the center of further controversy when he told the newspaper Maariv that he was sorry Israeli forces did not kill Arafat when they had a chance in Lebanon 20 years ago.

Despite Sharon's tough talk, the Israeli ruling class has been unable to build up a prowar spirit among the population. The petition by the reservists, while signed by a small number, takes place in the context of a weariness growing with the war against the Palestinians and a lack of perspective for any solution other than continued violence.

Added to this are worries among Israeli rulers over the prospects that the Jewish population will, in the long run, become a minority. With the Arab and Palestinian birth rates significantly higher than that of the Jewish population, the Israeli government has been encouraging immigration into the country.

An Investor's Business Daily article noted that instead of a net immigration, indications are that Israelis are leaving the country in greater numbers. "Many Israelis have dual citizenship and are spending more of their time outside Israel," the article said. "For recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Israel has become a way station. They move to Israel, then move to the U.S. The Census Bureau estimates there are 24,000 Israelis in the U.S. illegally," the paper reported.
 
 
Related article:
Israel out of occupied territories!  
 
 
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