- Gradually one chilling fact after the other is seeping
into the international mainstream media. We decided to send you today
the unusual news found in the ultra-nationalist Hebrew paper Hatzofeh -
about a case of conscientious disobedience inside the Air Force...
-
- The pilot of an Israeli helicopter gunship reportedly
refused an order to shoot a missile at a Palestinian home. It happened
on the early hours of Tuesday, April 9 - when an Israeli army regiment,
supported by tanks and helicopter gunships, captured the Palestinian town
of Dura, near Hebron in the southern West Bank. During several hours of
fighting when the army overcame the resistance of local Palestinian
militias,
the regimental commander ordered the pilot of a helicopter gunship to shoot
a missile at a Palestinian home, in which five alleged terrorists were
hiding, in order to "liquidate them" (sic).
-
- The pilot refused, telling the regimental commander there
might be civilians in the house. The radio debate continued for a long
time, with the helicopter hovering over the house. The commander told the
pilot that the five terrorists could be exactly pin-pointed in the house
and again ordered him to shoot. The pilot again refused, and at a certain
point left the vicinity of the house and cycled the town. When he got back
to the point above the house, the commander told him that the terrorists
had disappeared, but ordered him to shoot at the house nevertheless. The
pilot again refused. After two hours, he finally shot one burst from the
helicopter's cannon, but near the house rather than at it. Soldiers nearby
on the ground described the shot as "perfunctory, meant to hit
nothing".
-
- The story is published today (Monday, April 15) by Haggai
Huberman of the extreme-right paper Hatzofeh. Huberman's account is clearly
the regiment commander's version, accusing the pilot of "helping five
terrorists escape" and dismissing the possibility that there had been
civilians inside the house in question; the pilot's viewpoint is not
given.
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