Content area
Full Text
The Courage to Refuse
Israeli Reserve Combatants Letter
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 the IDF's human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.
We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that...