A call to conscience
Dear soldier of the Israel Defense Forces, I write to you with a broken heart and the deepest indignation. Although I live far from the horrors of the war being waged, I cannot remain indifferent to the atrocities being committed in Gaza.
Your army is not fighting Hamas, a terrorist organization whose actions I strongly condemn. However, we must not forget that Israel encouraged the creation of Hamas to weaken the Palestinian Authority.
The Israel Defense Forces are massacring Gaza’s civilian population, shooting them dead, bombing their homes and hospitals, and depriving them of food and medical care.
I understand that you follow orders, that you are a military professional obliged to defend the sovereignty of Israel. However, the invasion of Gaza does not defend your territory, your citizens or Israel’s sovereignty, which is now marred by accusations of genocide and territorial aggression.
The bestiality of war
When the human beast goes to war, it unleashes its most murderous side. The images and videos showing your actions confirm that the spirit of that beast has possessed you.
Look at the children dying of hunger because of the blockade imposed by your army. He observes the sick who die in hospitals due to lack of medicines and personnel. Contemplate the consequences of your warlike acts.
Your behavior in Gaza is that of the most ruthless killers. In your personal life, you may be kind and caring, but on the battlefield you have transformed into a beast that obeys orders without question.
Stop for a moment and listen to your own people. Look at your fellow citizens demonstrating against the slaughter. Listen to the voices of the world that condemn the war crimes that you and your comrades are committing.
blind obedience
You can claim to be following orders, but when you are ordered to shoot at a crowd collecting sacks of flour to feed their families, you know that crowd is helpless and desperate. Deep down, you know that it is inhumane to shoot civilians.
You murder journalists to silence their testimony of the genocide you are committing. However, be careful not to shoot American or European journalists. Palestinian and Arab journalists, however, are expendable for you.
The cycle of violence
When the Zionist movement fought for a Jewish state, British leaders considered them terrorists. David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir were accused of terrorism and then treated as statesmen. Perhaps one day, members of the Palestinian Authority or Hamas will also be seen as statesmen.
So, when that time comes, what use will your cruelty have been?
The real culprits
Senior military leaders rarely die in combat. They do not accompany their soldiers to the front. It is you, soldier, who fights and dies. Your prime minister, your president and politicians do not go to war.
They harangue you to die for their personal interests or delusions of grandeur, but they do not die or experience the horror. They ask you to advance, assassinate, bomb and destroy cities and refugee camps.
Once you and your companions have conquered a devastated land, the Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister will come to visit you. Photos will be taken with you and your companions. They will mention the fallen soldiers and ask for revenge. They will tell you to continue murdering civilians, who are not people, but ruthless terrorist beasts.
And you will continue killing. If you are lucky, you will be injured and taken to a well-equipped hospital, where you will have no shortage of anesthesia for your pain and, if necessary, you will be given psychotropics to combat your nightmares and prevent you from awakening your consciousness.
The genocide in Gaza
Your country is committing genocide in the Gaza concentration camp, one atrocity after another as disgusting as the cruelties of the German Nazis during World War II.
Remember that not only Jews died in the extermination camps, but also gypsies, Soviets, Poles, Spaniards, communists, German dissidents, Slavs, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and people with physical or mental disabilities.
I cannot understand how the state of Israel is capable of committing genocide. Why does the Gaza Strip today resemble the Warsaw Ghetto or Auschwitz Birkenau?
Your inhumanity reminds me of SS or Gestapo soldiers. You are as executioners as they are.
Research Holocaust statistics. It will help you disobey the masterminds of your killings.
Individual responsibility
You cannot claim due obedience. You cannot obey orders that require massacring civilians. Your behavior is sowing hatred that will germinate in more deaths.
The Nazis did not wipe out the Jewish people, and the bad conscience of the powers that won the world war led to the creation of the State of Israel. Your country takes advantage of this bad conscience to commit murders with impunity.
Your Prime Minister should be tried as a war criminal; Your defense minister, your generals and you should also be tried for crimes against humanity. The fact that you have been victims of one genocide does not give you the right to commit another.
Etty Hillesun, a Jewish woman who died in Auschwitz, wrote: ‘Give me just one line of poetry a day, my God.’ Read poetry, don’t be an executioner.