- JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's
air force Thursday cashiered seven pilots who refused to take part in missions
in the Palestinian territories, with their commander accusing them of stabbing
their country in the back, a military source said.
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- On Wednesday, 27 reserve pilots submitted a petition
to air force commander Dan Halutz, saying they were no longer prepared
to take part in missions that they regarded as "illegal and immoral".
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- The military spokesman said Thursday that 20 of the signatories
were no longer even attached to units flying such missions, but that they
were to be grounded anyway.
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- Halutz replied to the pilots in a harsh letter in which
he accused them of having "shoved a knife in the back of combatants
and of Israeli democracy," the source said.
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- Halutz was quoted in the Haaretz daily earlier Thursday
as saying he planned to treat the signatories "in the same way as
the IDF (military) has dealt with refuseniks until now," indicating
that they would be dismissed.
-
- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also warned the pilots not
to become embroiled in politics.
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- "The army carries out the instructions of the political
echelon, and it will continue to act against terrorists and murderers whose
sole purpose is to strike at crowded population centers inhabited by innocent
citizens," said Sharon.
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- "This is a very severe matter, which will be dealt
with soon and appropriately."
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- One of the pilots, whose name was given as Alon, told
the Yediot Aharonot daily that he felt like he had "come out against
his family".
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- "I was proud to belong to the organization called
the Israel air force, and today I am ashamed," said the Blackhawk
helicopter captain.
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- "This is an organization that carries out actions
that in my eyes are immoral and patently illegal. It is an organization
that has no qualms about dropping bombs -- it doesn't matter if they are
250, 500 or 1,000 kilos (550, 1,100 or 2,200 pounds) -- on the densest
neighborhoods in the world, causing massive killing of civilians."
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- Another captain, whose name was given only as Yonathan,
said: "Does it matter to so many civilians who were killed for no
wrongdoing of their own, if the pilot meant to carry out a mission that
someone told him is important for the defense of the State of Israel?"
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- Alon said he would be prepared to fly missions which
carried the possibility of killing civilians if he felt it was vital to
the state's survival.
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- "This is not the situation in Israel 2003. We are
not in a war for our existence," he said.
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- "We are in a war for continuing the occupation in
the territories. And in light of this dubious goal, I am not willing to
be the murderer of innocent civilians."
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- Former air force commander Major General Amos Lapidot
said that while the pilots were in a minority their unease was widely shared.
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- "It's a minority but it's not just limited to those
27," he told AFP. "Others feel this in their stomach."
-
- But Major General Nati Sharoni, the military's former
head of planning, said the pilots had no right to air their grievances
in such an open way.
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- "Much of what they say, I can identify with myself
but this is not the way to do it," Sharoni told AFP.
-
- "Anyone who serves in the armed forces, whether
active or reserve, cannot, should not, must not say this is something that
I am not going to do, even if it's questionable.
-
- "One has to realise that this is not a democratic
organisation."
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- The pilots should have voiced their misgivings to other
officers but could only justify their actions if they were given patently
illegal orders such as being instructed "to slaughter kids".
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- Yael Paz-Melamed, a columnist for the Maariv daily, said
the writing had been on the wall for a long time.
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- "In private conversations, more and more pilots
voiced their disgruntlement with the assassination missions they were sent
on," he wrote.
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- "From the F-16 jet, one does not see the white in
the victims' eyes. One cannot hear the outcries, the pain, the wails of
the wounded. One does not see the children bleeding to death. But people
who do not turn their back on their conscience, know that this is not the
reason that they joined the Air Force."
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