[Peace-discuss] pilots

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

Halutz: Pilots refusing to serve in territories will face law   
 
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service 
 
 
 
The head of the Israel Air Force, Major General Dan
Halutz, said Wednesday that the pilots who have
signaled their refusal to take part in operations
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip "will have to face
the law." 

 

  
A group of 27 active reserve
duty pilots and retired pilots
have sent a letter to Halutz
declaring that they refuse to
participate in operations
against Palestinians in the
territories. 

"We, veteran pilots and active
pilots alike, who have served
 
and who continue to serve the State of Israel
for many weeks every year, are opposed to
carrying out illegal and immoral attack orders,
of the type carried out by Israel in the
territories," the group wrote. 

"We, who have been educated to love the state of
Israel and to contribute to the Zionist
endeavour, refuse to take part in Air Force
attacks in civilian population centers." 

The group was referring to Israel's policy of
targeted killings of Palestinian militants in
the territories. Dozens of civilians have been
killed in these strikes, which began a few
months after the intifada erupted in late
September 2000. 

News that a group of pilots opposed to the
targeted killing policy was coalescing, was
first published in Haaretz a week ago. 

"The pilots refusing to follow orders will have
to face the law," Halutz told Channel 10 in
response to the letter. 

"We must keep things in the right proportions,
we are talking about only 27 out of thousands
of pilots." Halutz said. 

"There is no corps and army more humane and
moral than us," Halutz said. He added that if
the pilots had received an illegal order, they
should have informed their commanders of it,
instead of sending a letter before receiving
such a command. 

Halutz said that refusal to serve was an
inappropriate form of protest in the general
context, and called it "the mother of all
dangers to our people." 

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz reacted to the
letter, saying the letter was entirely
political and had nothing to morality. 

Housing and Construction Minister Effi Eitam, of
the National Religious Party, called for the
discharge of the pilots and said the letter was
a realization of Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat's vision of the disintegration of
Israeli society, Channel 10 reported. 

In response to the letter, IAF sources said that
the signatories were all inactive or veteran
pilots who were never asked to carry out
targeted assassinations in the territories. 

Among the signatories is Brigadier General
Yiftah Spector (res.), who was a squadron
leader during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. 

Several of the signatories have spoken out
against operations in the territories in the
past.