Pentagon Ties Boost Clark’s Business

Reserve pilots to refuse liquidations
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By Lily Galili

A group of reserve pilots in the Israel Air Force
is planning to publicly announce their refusal to
participate in attempts to assassinate senior
wanted men in the Palestinian Authority.
Ha’aretz 9-19-03 Elul 22, 5763

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/342136.html

The group has been discussing the initiative for more
than three months and members say that they have been
badly torn. According to sources in the movement of
soldiers who refuse to serve in the territories, the
group is in the process of collecting the last
signatures and is waiting for "the right moment" to
issue its announcement.

The various refusal movements view the pilots’ planned
declaration as a big boost for their cause, due to the
special status enjoyed by pilots in Israeli society,
and hope that it will shake up Israelis in a way that
"ordinary" refusals have not. Though one pilot joined
the refusal movement at the start of the intifada, and
though there were a few incidents during the Lebanon
War of pilots refusing to bomb specific targets, a
declaration by an organized group of pilots would be
something new.

The pilots initially considered joining one of the
existing refusal movements, such as Courage to Refuse -
the group of soldiers and officers who signed a
declaration of refusal to serve in the territories more
than 18 months ago. However, they eventually decided to
form an independent group.

Since Courage to Refuse was founded, with 50 members,
more than 500 soldiers have signed its letter of
refusal. However, the group has failed in its goal of
provoking a public discourse over the continued
occupation of the territories and Israel Defense
Forces actions there. It is now hoping that the pilots’
declaration will succeed where it has failed.