An Israeli military official said on Thursday that some 1,000 reserve and retired pilots who signed a petition calling for securing the return of captives from Gaza at the cost of ending the war, would be dismissed from the air force.
“With the full backing of the chief of the General Staff, the commander of the Israeli Airforce has decided that any active reservist who signed the letter will not be able to continue serving in the Israeli military,” the official told AFP.
Nearly 1,000 Israeli retired and reservist fighter pilots called in an open letter on Thursday for the government to prioritize freeing the remaining hostages held in Gaza, even if that meant halting the war against Hamas.
According to the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth newspaper, the pilots’ letter read, “At this time, the war serves primarily political and personal interests, not security ones.”
It added, “Continuation of the war doesn’t advance any of the declared goals of the war, and will bring about the deaths of the hostages, of Israeli soldiers and innocent civilians, while further eroding the strength of the reserve forces.”
The newspaper said prior to that, several fighters met with Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar and Israeli army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to prevent the letter’s publication.
Bar, backed by Zamir, then decided that active reserve service members who signed the letter cannot continue to serve, although they claim that this is a protest against the government and not against the army.
Responding to the letter, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz slammed the reservists who signed it, saying: “I strongly reject the letter by the Air Force reservists and the attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the just war that the Israeli army is leading in Gaza for the return of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”
He added, “I trust the judgment of the chief of staff and the Air Force commander and am convinced that they will handle this unacceptable phenomenon in the most appropriate way.”
Last March, two Israeli soldiers, including an army intelligence officer and a pilot, were dismissed after they refused to serve in protest of the renewal of fighting in Gaza.
According to Israeli reports, those incidents were seen by the Israeli army as isolated cases, but a number of senior officials were reportedly concerned that refusal to serve could become a larger phenomenon among reservists.
The two soldiers, Air force combat navigator Alon Gur and military intelligence officer, Mikhael Mayer, said in social media posts that their decision to refuse to participate in the ongoing military operations in Gaza is in protest to the Israeli government’s policies. Their statements had sparked debate and highlighted internal tensions within the Israeli armed forces.
The history of Israeli warfare suggests that large-scale insurgencies at the army began with individual cases.
During the first Lebanon war in 1982, Eli Geva, an Israeli brigade commander had refused to lead his forces into Beirut for moral reasons which he termed “endangerment of both soldiers and civilians in urban warfare.” Geva was therefore dismissed from the Army. He then founded the movement “There is a Limit” that raised the slogan of refusing to serve in occupied territories.
