Posted on 9-2-2002
Ethics
Before Orders
By Phil Reeves
Israel's armed forces have decided to suspend scores of reserve
soldiers
from their posts in an effort to quell the largest internal
revolt in the
ranks since the start of the 16-month Palestinian uprising.
The reservists, who include combat officers, have signed a petition
saying
they will refuse to serve in the occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip because
Israel is "dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating"
the Palestinian
population. By yesterday, the petition had 173 names. The figure
has risen
from 100 in less than a week, adding momentum to an acrimonious
national
debate. It is the first big rift in Israeli public opinion over
Israel's
conduct of the conflict since Ariel Sharon was elected Prime
Minister in a
landslide victory 11 months ago.
The army has reacted with annoyance and unease, not least because
it makes
wide use of reservists to patrol and guard Jewish settlements
in the
occupied territories. The refuseniks insist that their objections
are
principled, and have stressed that they are willing to defend
Israel within
its pre-1967 borders. One of them, Lieutenant Ishai Sagi, has
described
how, during one two-week stint in the West Bank, he was ordered
to open
fire at Palestinians who picked up stones for throwing at the
troops.
"There were no specifics about whether [the person] was a child,
a woman or
an elderly man," he said, "And there were no specifics as to
where to shoot
[the person]." He told one interviewer: "I don't think that
what the
Israeli Defence Forces do in the territories contributes in
any way to
defending Israel itself ... "Everything that we do in there
all the
horrors, all the tearing down of houses and trees, all the roadblocks,
everything is just for one purpose, the settlers, who I believe
are
illegally there. So I believe that the [orders] that I got were
illegal and
I won't do them again."
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