- JERUSALEM (AFP) -- An Israeli
air force general who signed a petition refusing to take part in strikes
in the Palestinian territories has been dismissed from his position as
an instructor, Israeli media reported Wednesday.
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- Reserve Brigadier General Yiftah Spector was sacked from
his post at the air force training academy by air force commander General
Dan Halutz after refusing to retract his views, the reports said.
-
- Spector was the most senior of the 27 pilots who signed
the petition last month in which they said they no longer wanted "to
obey illegal and immoral orders" and they refused "to take part
in aerial raids against populated civilian centers" in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip.
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- "The continuation of the occupation endangers the
security of the state of Israel, as well as its moral fiber," the
pilots added in their letter.
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- The petition has attracted the support of Israeli peace
activists and a group of academics but infuriated top brass.
-
- 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."
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