A former Israeli Air Force pilot, Yonatan Shapira, has described the Israeli government and army as “terrorist organizations” run by “war criminals.”
Captain Shapira, who had resigned from the Israeli army in 2003 at the height of the Palestinian Second Intifada, explained in an exclusive interview with Anadolu News Agency why he realized after joining the army that he was “part of a terrorist organization”.
I realised during the Second Intifada what the Israeli Air Force and the Israeli military are doing are war crimes, terrorizing a population of millions of Palestinians. When I realized that, I decided not to leave but to organize other pilots who will publicly refuse to take part in these crimes, he said.
“As a child in Israel, you are being brought up in very strong Zionist militaristic education. You don’t know almost anything about Palestine, you don’t know about the 1948 Nakba, you don’t know about ongoing oppression,” Shapira said.
“We sent to throw missiles and bombs in centers of Palestinian towns. killing innocents. At some point, I realized that this is an act of terrorism,” he said, referring to pilots in other squadrons who were engaging in the mass killing of civilians.
Ever since leaving the Israeli army, Shapira has launched a campaign that encouraged other military members to disobey orders to attack Palestinians.
The campaign has led 27 other army pilots to be discharged from their posts in the Israeli Air Force since 2003.
In the last week, Israeli warplanes have waged hundreds of airstrikes against the Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least 188 Palestinians, including 55 children and 33 women, wounding 1,230 people.