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IDF soldiers who refuse to serve in West Bank,Gaza, garner international support

BBC reports that the decision by more than 100 Israeli reserve officers and soldiers to refuse to serve in the Palestinian territories has sparked a furious row inside the Israeli military, and is garnering growing international support through an online petition.
Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in occupied West Bank /Gaza gain international support

BBC reports that the decision by more than 100 Israeli reserve officers and soldiers to refuse to serve in the Palestinian territories has sparked a furious row inside the Israeli military, and is garnering growing international support through an online petition.

Another 125 Israeli army reservists have signed a petition, saying that they also will refuse to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The petition, which was first published about a week ago, has posed the biggest internal domestic challenge to the Israeli army since the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, began 16 months ago.

Background Stories:

Reservists' rebellion highlights cracks

Israeli reservists join petition protest

Sign the civilian petition supporting Israeli reserve soldiers who refuse to serve in Occupied Territories.

- English translation of petition text:

• We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.

• We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.

• We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.

• We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.

• We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.

• We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.

• We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.

The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.

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