‘It’s become immoral’. Israeli officers, reservists prepare another open letter against war in Gaza

Smoke billows over destroyed structures in the Gaza Strip on 26 May 2025

Bar Peleg reports in Haaretz on 27 May 2025:

Israel Defense Forces officers, both reservists and those currently serving, are preparing an open letter calling on the government and the military’s chief of staff to stop the fighting in Gaza, saying it has become a political war that “doesn’t serve Israel’s national security and is therefore immoral.”

The new open letter has been distributed to current and past reserve officers in all military units and has received to date some 1,200 signatures, the organizers said.

“We, former and current reserve IDF officers and commanders, demand the government and chief of staff stop the political war in Gaza and immediately return all the hostages,” the letter reads.

It adds that “continuing the war goes against the will of an overwhelming majority of the public, will result in the deaths of hostages, IDF soldiers and innocent civilians, and may even lead to the commission of war crimes.”

It continues, saying that “this is a war to prepare for the occupation of Gaza and is intended to implement the messianic vision of a small minority in Israeli society.”

“We are confident that the chief of staff will refuse any order that waves a ‘black flag’ and that could cause soldiers to carry out orders whose consequences will haunt them for the rest of their lives,” the letter says and that “our existence as a society and as a country is conditioned by belief in the justice of our path, mutual guarantees, upholding the values of Jewish morality and a deep commitment to human life.”

The letter’s authors are the same people who penned an open letter issued last month calling for the return of the hostages, even if it meant ending the war.  The April letter was signed by about a thousand Air Force personnel, some of whom were active reservists who were subsequently dismissed from their reserve service after a decision by Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir and Air Force Commander Tomer Bar.

Following this, about 1,500 veterans of special units and the infantry issued a letter of support in which they also called for the return of the hostages without delay, even at the cost of ending the war.  “At this time, the war serves mainly political and personal interests, not security interests,” said the April letter, most of whose signatories signed with their full names, although some only with initials.  “Continuing the war does not contribute to any of its stated goals and will lead to the deaths of hostages, IDF soldiers and innocent civilians, and the attrition of reservists,” it added.

Earlier this week, a reserve officer who refused to report for duty began serving a 20-day prison sentence. The officer, Capt. (res.) Ron Feiner, had done more than 270 days of reserve duty since the start of the war as a platoon commander in the Nahal Brigade.  Feiner, 26, from Haifa, was the second reservist to be sentenced to prison for his opposition to the continued war and refusal to report for reserve duty, since the war was renewed in March.

“I am appalled by the never-ending war in Gaza, the neglect of the hostages and the relentless death of innocents,” Feiner said before entering prison. “I am morally unable to continue serving as long as there is no change. Prison will not silence me or intimidate me, neither me nor my friends.”

Dozens of protesters accompanied him on his way to a military prison in Beit Lid, where he is now serving his sentence.

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