Shapira is one of the several dozen Israeli active, reserve, and veteran pilots who signed a letter to the Israel Defense Forces protesting ““illegal and immoral orders”” for operations against civilians in the occupied territories and, in the case of the active and reserve pilots, refusing to take part in further such operations. The pilots' initiative is a continuation of the Refusenik movement that first surfaced in 1982, in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. The term refers to combat soldiers who will not fight in the occupied territories as well as to conscientious objectors who refuse all service in the IDF. During the first intifada, several hundred soldiers disobeyed orders. Since the start of the al-Aqsa intifada, nearly 600 soldiers have signed the ““Courage to Refuse”” petition, similar to the pilots letter, that began circulation in January 2002 (see Doc. C4 in JPS 123), and more than 1,000 have refused military duty in one form or another. Shapira's testimony was posted on the Internet publication Counterpunch on 23 January 2004.
University of California Press