Israel’s top military electronic surveillance unit expelled dozens of veterans on Monday for refusing to spy on Palestinians living under occupation, Army Radio said.

The commander of Unit 8200, named as Brigadier-General “A”, barred the 43 reserve soldiers who wrote to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top army chiefs in September, saying they could no longer serve in the unit, the radio said.

Coming a few weeks after Israel’s 50-day war against Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip, the letter was seen as an unprecedented rebuke of Netanyahu’s security policies but the military dismissed it as a publicity stunt by a small fringe.

By decrying the sweep of eavesdropping on Palestinians, and the role such espionage plays in setting up air strikes that have often inflicted civilian casualties, the move opened a window on clandestine practices.

That’s not the only window they opened. In this interview (https://embed.theguardian.com/embed/video/world/video/2014/sep/12/israeli-intelligence-agents-palestinians-surveillance-video), where their identities remain anonymous, they open up a whole new can of worms for Israel regarding charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The problem is, the goal of what the unit does, in regard to Palestinians, is not just self defense. Its upholding a military regime, which means to oppress the population and the political system of Palestinians so that they can’t improve their situation, so that the military regime continues.

That’s pretty damning testimony coming from a veteran of an army whose defense for killing thousands of civilians rests on ‘self-defense.’

[They] complained about what they described as the gathering of Palestinians’ private information – for example, sexual preferences or health problems “that might be used to extort people into becoming informants”.

So much for Israeli gay pride. Maybe thats part of why these veterans started identifying with Palestinians.

“I started seeing Palestinians as people, not just as sources.”

There’s the problem right there, folks. You can’t consider Palestinians human AND do your job in the IDF. The two are incompatible. Remember, racism is a vital weapon employed by governments, making it possible to invade countries and occupy them. Hopefully, this is a trend.