Yonathan_Shapira-Mary_Hughes2.mpg

Part 2 of 4. Approximately 48 minutes total.
Yonathan Shapira, 42, is a captain in the Israeli Air Force reserves. He is also a military refusnik who joined the IDF in 1991 and graduated from the Israel Air Force flight course in 1993. He served as a regular in the Air Force until 1999. While a regular, Yonatan flew primarily as a rescue and assault helicopter pilot, completing well over 100 missions, including missions in Lebanon.

In 2001, while a civilian pilot and member of the Reserves, Yonatan was called back to service to become one of the founding members of the Israel Air Force's new Black Hawk squadron, for which he received specialized training in Alabama. Following initiation of the squadron, Yonatan resumed his status in the reserves. As a reservist, he served as a pilot, operations leader and instructor. In October 2003, Yonatan, along with 26 others, signed a declaration refusing to participate in aerial attacks on populated areas in the Palestinian Territories because of the belief that these attacks are illegal, immoral and do not serve the security of Israel. Following this act, Yonatan was dismissed from service by the Israeli Air Force commander, General Dan Halutz. Yonatan lives in Tel Aviv and, in addition to his work as a pilot, volunteers for "SELA," the Israeli Crisis Management Center, an organization dedicated to aiding new immigrants and victims of terror. He is a co-founder of Combatants for Peace, currently working with the BDS movement.

Mary Hughes-Thompson recently returned from Greece where she was a delegate on board the Tahrir, the Canadian boat to Gaza. A retired TV documentarian, Mary is a member of Women in Black Los Angeles and a co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement. Before helping break the Siege of Gaza on board the Free Gaza in August 2008, Mary visited the West Bank six times during the current intifada. In 2002 she was beaten and robbed by American-Jewish youths from the illegal settlement of Itamar near Nablus. In 2010 Mary worked in the Cyprus press office covering Freedom Flotilla voyage and the Mavi Marmara massacre. She is a licensed pilot, grandmother, a citizen of both U.S. and U.K. and a long time non-violent activist for Palestine.

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