SPEECH BY YONATAN SHAPIRA, A REFUSENIK,

AT THE ALTERNATIVE INDEPENDENCE DAY TORCH-LIGHTING CEREMONY,

ON APRIL 26, 2004

(Translation)

Everything I say here is based on my love of Israel and my wish to protect her and the life of all those in Israel. My name is Yonatan Shapira, and I have taken part in the Occupation for the past ten years as an officer in the Israeli Defence Forces, as an Air Force helicopter pilot.

It seems to me that it took me far too long to understand that both my great love for flying and the warm family that is the Israeli Air Force -- which spoilt me so well -- stopped me from seeing and understanding the reality I live in. Things also closing my eyes were the one-sided history lessons, the laundering of words, the lessons about the purity of arms and human dignity, and the songs of peace and bereavement that I love so much. And my eyes were also closed by a stubborn faith that above me, in the top ranks and the leadership of the country, sat people of morality pursuing peace. This was really the case. I didn‚t see the awfully simple fact that we have occupied millions of people and that for nearly 40 years they have been controlled by us ˆ the master race.

During hundreds of flights above the territories, I saw over the years how the apartheid land was flourishing, in grey with spots of red. Refugee camps. Crowded, suffocating and overseen by military bases and between them, red roofs radiating beauty ˆ settlements of the chosen people ? and although the evil and injustice shouted and are still shouting to the skies ˆ my process of awareness was long and hard, and sometimes it was in need of specific moments of perception to rid it of lingering doubts.

For this, I have to thank a man who in the past was my commanding officer, who in the near future will be sitting in the Deputy Chief of Staff‚s seat, and in the future, perhaps, in a seat reserved for the guilty.

On the evening of Yom Kippur, seven months ago, I was brought before the Commander of the Air Force because I had given notice (together with my friends and partners in the Pilots‚ Letter), that we would refuse to participate in the illegal and immoral orders that we were given. In the discussion of my dismissal, I asked General Dan Halutz if he would allow the firing of missiles from an Apache helicopter on a car carrying wanted men, if it were travelling in the streets of Tel Aviv, in the knowledge that that action would hurt innocent civilians who happened to be passing at the time. In answer, the general gave me his list of relative values of people, as he sees it, from the Jewish person who is superior down to the blood of an Arab which is inferior? as simple as that, and when the rottenness has reached the top of the ladder, it is no surprise to find it at the bottom, too.

If once they told us that „The best go into flying‰ .. I say that apparently today the best will be sentenced in court for refusing to be inducted into the services of the Occupation ˆ and will be sent to prison for a year‚s service instead.

And to my good friends in the Air Force, I say: For years we taught our students in Flying School how to analyse and think ahead. We told them that was the advantage of our soldiers, and that was what differentiated us from other armies. Today I call on them: Ilan, Tomer, Uri, Yoav, Assaf, Yair, Alon, Eitan, Zviki, Sharon, Avner, Amit, Nir, Ehud, Raz .. think about what you are going to tell your children in another 20 years. Not what people will say about you today. Don‚t be in self-denial to the human being that you are, and to the ongoing process of your heart closing down. Use the huge power of a single small word: NO.

I light this torch and in doing so, wish to be in real solidarity with the terrible tragedy of the bereaved families and bereaved mothers, those who lost and those who will lose their close ones -- who were killed and who will be killed in vain -- being sacrificed in the name of stupidity for the increasing value being placed on the sacred nature of land and the cheapness of blood and humanity.