Recommendations from CIESJ

Articles about recent sign-on letters calling for cease-fire, return of hostages and end of the war.

• Rachel Chason, Abbie Cheeseman, and Alon Rom: Thousands of Israeli reservists condemn leadership for return to war: Air force pilots were the first to express their discontent last week. Paratroopers, tank corps reservists, physicians and former Mossad members have followed.
• Yossi Melman: Why Mossad and Shin Bet Veterans Are Now Calling to End the War in Gaza: The protest movement, launched by Israeli air force reservists, has now spread to Israel’s hallowed intelligence services, fueled by intense solidarity with the hostages and deep disgust with Netanyahu. They know it’s not national security that’s driving his strategy

Sign-on letters calling for return of hostages and end of Gaza war

• On Thursday, a letter signed by nearly 1,000 Israel Air Force current and former reservists calling for the return of all hostages even at the cost of ending the war was published. Air Force reservists behind letter criticizing war say most Israelis support hostage deal, ending war. Thousands more veterans of the security services joined their call: from the 8200 intelligence unit, special forces, infantry, navy, Armored Corps, Medical Corps, the Mossad, with more petitions still circulating.
• A total of 1,525 current and former Israeli armored corps soldiers have signed a letter calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and the return of the hostages held by Hamas. The letter was also signed by two former Israel Defense Forces chiefs of staff, Ehud Barak and Dan Halutz.
• More than 3,000 educators signed a petition calling for the end of the war and the return of all hostages.
• About 3,500 Israeli academics have signed a petition calling for the return of the hostages and an end to the war in Gaza.
• Around 170 current and former reservists who participated in the IDF’s elite research and development program Talpiot have joined calls to end the war and return the hostages.
• One hundred alumni of Israel’s National Security College signed a letter calling on the Israeli government to stop the war in Gaza and bring to the release of the hostages.
• Over 250 reservists and alumni of the elite IDF intelligence Unit 8200 published a letter Friday, expressing solidarity with the call of Israeli Air Force reservists and former soldiers to return the hostages – even at the price of an immediate change in the war.
• Over 250 former Mossad employees signed a letter, calling for a hostage deal and criticizing the IDF’s decision to dismiss air force reservists over their anti-war stance.
• Over 250 reservists and alumni of the elite Israel Defense Forces intelligence Unit 8200 published a letter Friday, expressing solidarity with the call of Israeli Air Force reservists and former soldiers to return the hostages “even at the price of an immediate change in the war.”
• Hundreds of special unit reservists signed a letter of support for nearly a thousand air force reservists set to be dismissed from duty for speaking out against the war in Gaza. The letter’s authors said that 1,552 special force reservists have signed it so far and about 16 percent of them are in active reserve service.
• A group of officers and reservists from the IDF’s Special Operations and Cyber Directorates have published open letters calling for an end to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and the release of the hostages.
• One thousand seven hundred artists and cultural figures have signed a statement calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and the return of the hostages.
• A group of officers and reservists from the IDF’s Special Operations and Cyber Directorates have published open letters calling for an end to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and the release of the hostages.
• Three Nobel Prize recipients joined 3,000 Israeli health workers’ letter, calling an end to conflict in Gaza as part of a hostage deal.
• Around 250 current and former soldiers from the IDF’s Shayetet elite naval commando unit signed a letter on Tuesday supporting an end to hostilities in Gaza as part of a hostage deal.
• Hundreds of former special forces soldiers, some of them active reservists, have published a letter calling for the release of the hostages – even at the cost of halting the fighting. The letter was signed by 472 veterans of elite special ops units, including Sayeret Shaldag, Moran (Unit 214), and Unit 669.
• Over 200 Ex-senior Israel Police Officials Join Call to End Gaza War to Secure Hostage Return: Backing letters from Israeli army reservists and veterans of security agencies – which have already garnered thousands of signatures – hundreds of retired police officers, including eight former police chiefs, signed the call to end the war and secure the hostages’ return