Bushehr nuclear facility
Photo: EPA
Flurry of petitions against strike on Iran
Groups present online petitions against Israeli strike on Iran as chatter increasingly indicating one is imminent. Meanwhile, reservists sign own petition: Keep strike decision out of public debate
While demonstrators are protesting in front of Defense Minister Ehud Barak's
home, the web has also become a tool for protesting against an Israeli military strike
in Iran.
Over 400 people signed a petition published online on Wednesday calling on air force pilots to refuse the order to bomb Iran. At the same time, the Physicians for Human Rights group sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
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In the letter the doctors called on the two not to go ahead with the attack. "We will be the ones you will seek out to heal and put together what you have broken," the doctors wrote. "We call on you: Don't break. First do no harm."
Demonstrations in front of Barak's home (Photo: Tamar Zandberg)
The letter states: "You are preparing the ground for an 'attack' or an 'offensive' washed out words for the worst word of them all – war. Such a strike, surgical as it may be, is expected to be followed by all out war the price for which, it is claimed, will be paid in hundreds of fatalities.
"Indeed we do not have all the data you have before you but that numerical dry data is far from reflecting the real and much larger number of casualties of such a war, if the nightmare scenario you and your friends in the cabinet are running amok promoting actually materializes."
The group added: "Operations research experts ignore the fact that behind those few hundred fatalities are families and friends who will be forced to deal with the pain and loss from that moment on.
"Those same experts who omitted thousands of wounded and trauma and post-trauma patients; they have also exempted themselves from dealing with the question of how hospitals… will deal with the multitude of casualties after the 'start' button is pressed and you give the OK for a war of which the consequences remain unknown?"
'Real power to avert disaster'
The organizers of a petition calling on air force pilots not to bomb Iran wrote: "We do not know your names, your family status, your views or your opinions. We do know one thing - at this moment our fate, our very future, lies very much in your hands.
"In the near future, possibly within weeks, you may get the fateful order – to man the planes and take off for the task of bombing Iran. You will have, of course, the choice of obeying the order, accepting the arguments and assertions of those who give it without questions, and striving to perform the task to your best professional ability.
"This, however, is not the only choice open to you. You also have the option of saying "no". The petitioners noted that by "saying the little word 'no' you will be rendering an important and vital service to the State of Israel and all who live here. This service would be infinitely more important than blind obedience to this particular order.
"You, the Air Force pilots - more than anyone else – have in your hands the real power to avert this disaster. No one can make the decision for you. We hope - for your sake as well as ours - that should the moment come, you will be able to make the right decision."
Meanwhile, in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a group of 20 reservist officers, lieutenants through to colonels called on the decision makers to weigh their next moves on the military strike without the public exercising pressure.
The letter stated: "We are sure that when decisions are made by the relevant echelons they are done after all the data and calculations, the majority of which are not known to the public, have been taken into consideration.
"There is no room for people not well versed in the most up-to-date data or exposed to the full situation, which is at the basis of any decision, to place pressure on the decision makers."
Major (Res.) Avi Cohen, one of the signatories told Ynet: "following the public debate and letters that have been flying around - yes pilots, no pilots, yes to strike, no to strike – we decided to write the letter. We have a leadership and we need to trust its judgment. We have no stance with regards to supporting or opposing the attack.
"We, the citizens and anyone else who isn't from the professional military and political echelons do not have the full picture or the necessary accurate and up-to-date data needed to make a decision."
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