Elite Israeli Officers Decry Treatment of Palestinians

[Purveyor]

Last edited Fri Sep 12, 2014, 03:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: New York Times

By JODI RUDORENSEPT. 12, 2014

JERUSALEM — Decrying Israel’s treatment of Palestinians under occupation, a group of veteran officers in an elite, secretive military intelligence unit have declared they will no longer perform their required reserve duty because of what they called “our moral duty to act.”

In a letter sent Thursday night to their commanders as well as Israel’s prime minister and Army chief, 43 veterans of the prestigious but clandestine Unit 8200 complained that Israel made “no distinction between Palestinians who are and are not involved in violence” and that information collected “harms innocent people.” Intelligence “is used for political persecution,” they wrote, which “does not allow for people to lead normal lives, and fuels more violence, further distancing us from the end of the conflict.”

The letter, revealed Friday in Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper as well as The Guardian in Britain, echoes similar periodic protests by reservists over the years, including a group of 27 pilots who refused to participate in what Israel calls targeted assassinations, and 13 members of the vaunted commando unit known as Sayeret Matkal, both in 2003. But it is the first public collective refusal by intelligence officers rather that combat troops. Unit 8200 has a special role in Israeli society as a coveted pipeline to its flourishing high-technology industry.

“After our service we started seeing a more complex picture of a nondemocratic, oppressive regime that controls the lives of millions of people,” said one of the group’s organizers, a 32-year-old sergeant major who was on active duty from 2001 to 2005, and spoke on the condition of anonymity because the military prohibits Unit 8200 members from being publicly identified.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/world/middleeast/elite-israeli-officers-decry-treatment-of-palestinians.html?_r=0

[Fantastic Anarchist]

1. There's no link. n/t

[countryjake]

2. Here's that link...

Elite Israeli Officers Decry Treatment of Palestinians By Jodi Rudoren Sept. 12, 2014

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/world/middleeast/elite-israeli-officers-decry-treatment-of-palestinians.html?_r=0


And here's where the NYTimes got that info:

IDF intelligence soldiers refuse to serve: We won't work against innocent Palestinians by Elior Levy 9/12/14
Letter to the prime minister signed by 43 intelligence soldiers accuses military of immoral practices against Palestinian community.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4570256,00.html

Officers and soldiers in the IDF's largest, and most elite intelligence unit, known as 8200, addressed a letter to the prime minister Friday, in which the 43 signatories said that they refuse to take part in action against Palestinians or, "to be tools to deepen the military regime in the occupied territories."

It was unclear in the letter if the soldiers were refusing to follow specific orders they felt to be immoral, or if they intended not to appear for duty at all. Either action could potentially result in court martial and time in military jail.

Unit 8200 is the IDF's central intelligence gathering body and the largest unity in the Israeli military. Soldiers in 8200 are responsible for collecting and intercepting signals intelligence (SIGINT) including telephone calls, texts, e-mails and faxes among various populations.

"There is a perception that service in military intelligence is free of moral dilemmas and only contributes to the reduction of violence and harm to innocent people," the servicemen wrote in the letter. "But during military service we learned that intelligence is an inseparable part of military control in the territories."

[Fantastic Anarchist]

5. Thank you.

[Duval]

4. Why does the NYT put "Elite"

in the head lines? Oh, never mind. Read the article here without the slant!

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/12/israeli-intelligence-reservists-refuse-serve-palestinian-territories