We being officers and soldiers in the combat reserves of the
Israeli Defense Force, having been brought up on Zionism,
self-sacrifice and contribution to the Israeli people and the state
of Israel, having always served in the front line, having always
been the first to carry out any mission, easy or difficult, to
defend and buttress the state of Israel.
We, combat officers and soldiers who serve the state of Israel for
many weeks each year, regardless of the heavy personal cost, have
done reserve service throughout the occupied territories and
received orders and instructions that had nothing to do with the
security of the state, and whose sole purpose is perpetuation of
our domination of the Palestinian people.
We, having witnessed with our own eyes the bloody toll that the
occupation takes on both sides of the divide:
• Have sensed how the orders we received erode every value we
have imbibed in this country;
• Understand today that the price of the occupation is loss
of the humane image of the IDF and corruption of the entire Israeli
society;
• Know that the territories are not Israel, and that the
Jewish settlements there will ultimately have to be
evacuated.
We hereby declare that we will no longer fight in the war for the
welfare of the settlements in the territories. We will not continue
to fight beyond the Green Line [Israel's pre-67 border] for the
purpose of dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an
entire people.
We hereby declare that we will continue to act in the Israeli
Defense Force in any assignment that will serve the defense of the
State of Israel. Occupation and repression do not serve that aim,
and we will have no part in them.
Signed by 52 reservists, specifying the signatories' reserve rank
(ranging from first sergeant to major) and combat unit (paratroops,
armor, engineers, artillery, navy, military intelligence, airforce,
Golani brigade, Givati brigade, Nahal brigade).
Editor's Note: Hundreds of additional signatures were later
received in support of this initiative.