By Benny Gefen
Message sent to personal email list
April 28, 2008
Sent from `Beny Gefen`
Translation Adam Keller
Bney Dror, April 28, 2008
To the Minister of Defence
Regretfully, I am hereby returning to you the
`Condolences Letter` you have sent me for the Memorial Day
to the Fallen Soldiers. You conclude that letter by writing of
`the need to bring to our people the blessings of peace` and
to `preserve the moral character and values` of the State of Israel.
Nice words - but in your acts as the Minister of Defence
you are perpetuating death, hatred, vengefulness and
bloodshed, while completely abandoning all moral values.
My son Eliav suffered a damaged knee while serving in
the elite Golani Reconnaissance. I would never have
considered suggesting to him to ask for a transfer to
where service was easier; due to the education he got,
neither did he. I did take him to see an orthopedist,
but only to ask advice on how to avoid pain in his knee
while remaining at his unit. After he had fallen at the
Lebanese border, his fellow soldiers told me that from
the expression on his face they felt that he must have
suffered pain, but he never talked about it.
I have served five years in the Palmach before the
state of Israel came into being as well as during the
War of Independence; five years as a Golani reservist
followed by 27 ones in the Paratrooper reserves; my
other son and my daughter have both served as officers
in the IDF.
Nowadays, I support wholeheartedly the moral,
conscientious youths who refuse service in your army,
an army which had lost all moral restraint. At exactly this
moment I have heard you on TV, following the killing of
the four children and their mother in Gaza; a cold, rational
analysis, without the slightest expression of regret.
In the course of my humanitarian activity on the West Bank
I have seen many times the provocative and aggressive
behaviour of your soldiers in the Palestinian villages and on
the roadblocks. I saw how they are preventing poor
peasants from cultivating their lands, thereby increasing
hatred and vengefulness.
It is completely impossible that you, as well as the commanding
officers, are unaware of the numerous `excesses` which have
become a norm. It is impossible that you remain unaware of the
severe findings contained in the reports by such human rights
organizations as `Machsom Watch`, `Betselem`, `Physicians
for Human Rights` and `Breaking the Silence`.
Quite impossible!
Many officers remark, on various occasions, that most of the
roadblocks located deep inside the West bank have no military
value whatsoever, while they do make life very hard for the
local people. Certainly, you are well aware that extension of
the settlements and appeasing the thugs of the illegal
`outposts` is a sure way of preventing any peaceful
solution. And you also know full well how destructive
to psyche of young soldiers is the shameful and
eroding service in the Territories.
Knowing all these, you perpetuate the routine of death and
hatred, and do you worst to foil any effort to achieve a
peaceful solution.
Therefore, I regretfully send back your letter.
In sorrow and shame
Benny Gefen,
IDF Serial Number 52997
Source Occupation Magazine
A.K.http://www.kibush.co.il/
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