Source: Courage to Refuse http://www.seruv.org.il/english
January 2002, a group of Israeli reserve officers and combat soldiers returned from their duty in the Gaza strip, and drafted a letter that would change the way Israelis conceive the military control of the occupied territories. This document came to be known as the Combatant's Letter.
• We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, self-sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.
• We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty in the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people.
• We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides,
• We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Occupied Territories destroy all the values that we were raised upon,
• We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society,
• We, who know that the Territories are not a part of Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated,
• We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.
• We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
• We hereby declare that we shall continue serving the Israel Defense Force in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.
The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.
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