After dozens of reserve soldiers from an elite Israeli intelligence unit publicly declared in a letter Friday that they refuse to eavesdrop on Palestinians for moral reasons, members of the same elite unit issued a counter-letter distancing themselves from their colleagues' grievances. The counter-letter has gathered at least 200 signatures so far. On Friday, 43 soldiers from Unit 8200 of the IDF Intelligence Corps sent their letter to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, "We veterans of Unit 8200, reservists past and present, declare that we refuse to take part in activity against Palestinians and refuse to be tools to deepen the military control in the occupied territories." The counter-letter, which was also addressed to the prime minister and the IDF chief as well as Military Intelligence Director Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, reads: "We veterans of Unit 8200, reservists past and present, want to voice our shock and disgust and completely remove ourselves from the unfortunate letter written by our fellow unit members, who chose the path of political insubordination." "We are saddened by our friends' cynical and politically motivated use of their legal and moral duty to serve the unit in the reserves," the letter continued. "We cannot accept the accusations of the absence of ethical and moral standards guiding the unit's intelligence-gathering. We will continue to serve with honor and pride at any time we are required to do so." Capt. H., a veteran of Unit 8200 and one of the authors of the counter-letter, said Saturday that "we read the letter of declaring insubordination and we were appalled. It is full of lies. We decided to expose the truth about how the unit actually works, and the extremely high moral and ethical standards applied there. It is important to show the public that this is not the face of the unit. They are sullying our unit's name." In the original letter, the reservists wrote that "there is widely accepted perception that serving in the Intelligence Corps does not involve moral dilemmas, and only contributes to minimizing the violence toward innocent people. But during the course of our service we learned that the Intelligence Corps is an inseparable part of the military control over the [Palestinian] territories." "There is no supervision over the collection of information, surveillance or use of classified material against the Palestinians, whether they are involved in violent activity or not. This information allows us to control millions of people, to thoroughly monitor them and invade most aspects of their lives. This prevents them from leading normal lives, fuels more violence and prevents the resolution of the conflict," the letter goes on to say. The letter concludes with a call to all members of the intelligence community to "make their voices heard against these injustices and take action to bring them to an end." In response, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit issued a statement on Sunday saying that only 10 of the 43 signatories take part in active intelligence gathering. IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz said Sunday that the letter was an "exploitation of military service to present a political stance. We in the IDF view this with the utmost severity. The disciplinary response will be sharp and clear." The letter sparked a flurry of responses, with Netanyahu posting words of support for Unit 8200 on his Facebook page, saying, "The citizens of Israel owe you a debt of gratitude for your dedicated service to the State of Israel. Continue doing your work, which is so important to the security of the citizens of Israel." Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said that "Unit 8200 perpetuates the existence of the State of Israel. This attempt to harm the unit and to undermine its activity by calling for insubordination on the basis of claims that don't correspond with the unit's vision or the morality of its members is a stupid and offensive effort. It contributes to the unfounded and undeserved delegitimization efforts against the State of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF. The soldiers of Unit 8200 are moral, value-driven men and women who modestly perform their various jobs, and I want to support them." The chairman of the Intelligence Subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Yariv Levin (Likud). said that "as someone who served in Unit 8200, I reject the content of the letter of insubordination. Anyone who refuses to help protect the country essentially crosses the line from being a supporter of democracy to being a supporter of Palestinian terrorism. The IDF is the most moral army in the world, and it certainly does not waste resources on harming innocent civilians or monitoring them. The military must remove these conscientious objectors from the reserves rosters immediately." The letter also elicited harsh responses from within the defense establishment. "This incident has been blown out of proportion. We are talking about a small percentage of people out of tens of thousands who served and currently serve in the unit. This unit does amazing things for the benefit of the security of Israel, and certainly did during the intifada years, as well as during Operation Protective Edge," said Brig. Gen. (res.) Yuval Halamish, a former intelligence commander. "What they did was completely inappropriate, for the IDF in general and specifically for a member of Unit 8200. It is a shame that they disgraced their unit." Amos Gilad, director of the Defense Ministry's Political-Military Affairs Bureau, told Channel 2 News on Saturday that "their arguments are untrue and outrageous. The descriptions [in the letter] are unfair to a lot of soldiers in the Intelligence Corps."
