Israeli airforce awards 'golden wings' to pilot who refused participation during 2003 Palestinian civil insurrection
Last week the Israeli Air Force awarded Brig. Gen (res.) Iftach Spector IAF his "golden wings" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his graduation from flight school. Unlike others honored at his ceremony, Spector was dismissed from service for refusing to bomb Palestinian targets, reports Haaretz.
Brig. Gen. Iftach Spector caused a stir in 2003 when he signed a letter with 27 other pilots refusing to take part in areal operations in the occupied territories during the second Infitada. All signatories had to leave their reserve duty position. Spector resigned his military post but continued on as a flight instructor, signifying that he did not renounce the IDF but the operations of the second Infitada. Spector was the highest ranking officer to sign the "pilot's letter."
Unlike others, Spector never retracted his signature to the "pilot's letter," and he responded critically to IDF officers to encourage what he considers to be a "culture... of compromising one's principles."
Excerpt:
The incident led to Spector's autobiography, "Loud and Clear: The Memoir of an Israeli Fighter Pilot," in which he settled scores with then IAF commander Dan Halutz for saying, famously, that when he dropped a one-ton bomb on a populated neighborhood he felt: "Nothing. Just a light buffet on the wing, that's all." Spector accused Halutz of encouraging a culture within the IDF of compromising one's principles.
...
Spector said this week that he, unlike some of his fellow pilots' letter signatories, never retracted his decision and that, to the best of his knowledge, the IAF never reversed its decision to dismiss from military service those who signed.
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Photo: Sethfrantzman - Flickr
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5 Feb 2010 6:41 PM
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