The commander of the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) highly prestigious 8200 intelligence unit has dismissed all 43 reservist soldiers who, in a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu last September, declared their refusal to serve the occupation. The letter, which caused a great deal of controversy at the time, cited Israel’s military rule over the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories as a policy of choice, rather than of self-defense, which violates basic human rights.
According to Haaretz, in a letter addressed to the reservists, the unit’s commander wrote that their choice to refuse was a mistake. “You crossed a fine line that distinguishes between politics and military service, a line which allows us in the unit to continue providing quality intelligence for all the IDF’s needs as well as those of various security organizations and the Israeli government.”
In a statement released on Monday afternoon, January 26, the reservists responded to their dismissal: “A few hours ago, we discovered that we have been dismissed from our unit after reading about it in the news. None of us have personally received any notice from the unit or the IDF. Unfortunately, the unit has chosen to cope with the claims we have raised by throwing us out, as if the harsh reality we described will disappear together with us. The testimonies that were published are not rumors, but first hand declarations about the actions we were part of during the routine of our service, from soldiers who served and believed in the unit…”
When the reservists’ refusal letter was first published, Prime Minister Netanyahu called it “baseless slander,” while opposition leader, Labor Party chairman and now head of the “Zionist Camp” Isaac Herzog – himself a former 8200 unit soldier – condemned the move as a “call for insubordination.”
8200 is considered an elite unit within the intelligence corps of the army, responsible for both domestic and foreign intelligence-gathering, alongside the Mossad and the Shin Bet (Shabak), Israel’s internal security service. Many of its members are known for their Arabic language skills, which are used to monitor life and media in the Arab and Palestinian world. Perhaps its strongest reputation is as Israel’s high-tech incubator, developing the cutting edge technology related to communications, focused on hacking, and encrypting, decoding, and transmitting information.
Related:
