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http://www.metimes.com/2K1/issue2001-8/reg/female_israeli_soldiers.htm

Female Israeli soldiers refuse 'war zone' duty
JERUSALEM

A group of female Israeli soldiers have been sentenced to probation for refusing to carry out duties in the West Bank and Gaza where violence has raged for nearly five months, the Israeli army said on February 19.

The female soldiers, members of the army's educational unit responsible for lecturing troops on issues ranging from Israeli history to human rights, were ordered on February 18 to teach units in the West Bank and Gaza, the army said.

The women refused the orders and were tried and sentenced by a military court the same day. The sentence means they will go to jail if they break their probation orders.

The parents of the female soldiers were infuriated that their daughters were expected to go to areas that have been at the heart of the nearly five-month-old Palestinian uprising.

They insist that female soldiers, especially those whose job is to educate troops, should not be sent to "war zones".

"There is a war there, there is shooting, there are roadside bombs... there is no reason to send girls into Gaza or the West Bank," one father, whose name was not given, told Israel Radio.

"These girls are not fighters, they are not combat supporters, do not protect civilians and are in the field for entertainment only. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the military provides educational activities to troops serving in all sectors.

"The schedule of activities is decided, including the use of protective gear, and sometimes the activity is even cancelled, in keeping with the situation," she said.

Another father noted women were not allowed into Lebanon during Israel's 22-year occupation, which ended in May 2000. "There should be equal ruling today regarding these violent territories here," he told Israel Radio.

Reuters

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http://www.ccmep.org/hotnews/israeli012802.html

Israeli Soldiers Refuse to Serve in West Bank, Gaza


By Lee Hockstader

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, January 28, 2002


JERUSALEM, Jan. 28 – More than 60 Israeli army reservists, half officers and all of them combat veterans, have publicly refused to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the grounds that Israeli occupation forces there are abusing and humiliating Palestinians.

"We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people," declared the petition signed by the reservists and published in Israel's best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

Over the years there have been instances of eligible Israelis declining to serve in the army at all, or refusing to serve in certain places for reasons of conscience or politics. What makes the current case unusual is that so many combat reservists, both soldiers and officers, have come forward publicly at one time.

Moreover, the organizers of the petition – a pair of reserve lieutenants in their twenties who have served previous stints in the Israeli-occupied territories – say their goal is to collect 500 signatures in the coming weeks and launch a broad social campaign.

"We all have limits," reserve Lt. David Zonshein, 28, a software engineer and one of the two men who drafted the petition, told Yedioth. "You can be the best officer, always be first .‚.‚. and suddenly you are asked to do things that should not be asked of you – to shoot people, to stop ambulances, to destroy houses in which you don't know if there are people living."

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