JERUSALEM – Israeli officials denounced 43 reservists for declaring they would no longer serve in the military's main intelligence unit to protest the government's policies toward the Palestinians.
The members of Intelligence Unit 8200 sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying they refused to "take part in actions against Palestinians" and "continue serving as tools in cementing the military's control over the Occupied Territories." The letter, sent last week, singled out the unit's surveillance of Palestinians, and accused it of collecting information that "is used for political persecution" and "harms innocent people."
"Refusal to serve of any kind should be condemned," Netanyahu said in a speech to a Tel Aviv cyber conference. "The political use that was made recently, including the airing of false accusations, is unacceptable. The Israeli Defense Forces, including all of its units, is the most moral army in the world."
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, on his Facebook page late Saturday, called the protest a "vile and reprehensible attempt to aid the lies and delegitimization spread around the world against Israel and its soldiers, without any basis."
Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio on Sunday that the protest was "an act of subversion that deserves punishment."
While thousands of Israeli reservists over the years have refused on principle to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, risking military prison sentences, group protests in elite units are rare. The protest comes at a time when Israel has been criticized internationally over its recent military operation against Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, as well as militants.
