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Refuseniks provide a glimmer of hope
by Faisal Kutty
A friend of mine who recently spoke on a panel
on the Israeli-Palestinian issue suggested that
one of the problems faced by Palestinians is
that they have been unable to universalize
their plight. The anti-apartheid activists did
a wonderful job in this quarter. Once they
succeeded in putting their plight on the radar
screen of leading international and local human
rights groups and activists, it was game over
for the apartheid regime.
With the ruthless invasion of the Occupied
Territories and the high profile resistance by
a growing number of Israeli youth and reserve
soldiers, the “refuseniks”, the Palestinians
now have a great opportunity to push forward
their plight more than ever before.
“There will never be a military answer to
suicide bombers. They are the result of the
despair produced by the occupation,” wrote
Sarah Shartal, a former member of the Israeli
Defence Forces (IDF). “People with hope for the
future do not blow themselves up.” She
continued in a letter to the editor last
month published by the Toronto
Star. “Palestinians need land, work, bread
and dignity. This cannot happen without an end
to the occupation. But, instead, we invade and
terrorize.”
This was the same message delivered a few weeks
earlier in Toronto by nineteen-year-old Israeli
Matan Kaminer, one of the 62 high school
seniors who last fall signed the widely
publicized letter to Ariel Sharon expressing
their refusal to take part in Israeli Defence
Forces operations in the Occupied Territories.
The September 3rd letter, the brainchild of
Matan and five other students, addressed to the
Israeli PM, the Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-
Eliezer and Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz,
stated:
“We the undersigned, youths who grew up and
were brought up in Israel, are about to be
called to serve in the IDF [Israel Defence
Forces]. We protest before you against the
aggressive and racist policy pursued by the
Israeli government and its army, and to inform
you that we do not intend to take part in the
execution of this policy.
We strongly resist Israel's pounding of human
rights. Land expropriation, arrests, executions
without trial, house demolitions, closure,
torture and the prevention of health care are
only some of the crimes the state of Israel
carries out, in blunt violation of
international conventions it has ratified.
These actions are not only illegitimate; they
do not even achieve their stated goal
increasing the citizens' personal safety.
Such safety will be achieved only through a
just peace agreement between the Israeli
government and the Palestinian people.
Therefore, we will obey our conscience and
refuse to take part in acts of oppression
against the Palestinian people, acts
that should properly be called terrorist
actions. We call upon persons our age,
conscripts, soldiers in the standing army and
reserve service soldiers to do the same.”
Born and raised in Israel until the age of
seven, his family moved to California and then
back to Israel when Matan was fourteen.
Currently doing a year of service with the
Re’ut Sedaka movement for Jewish-Arab
coexistence, he says within a few years of his
return he began to think about what he would do
when it came time to serve in the army. All
Israeli men must serve three years with the
IDF, and then must report for reserve duty
until they reach the age of 40 for about 30
days each year.
"I knew I could not serve in the Occupied
Territories, it was wrong and I could not
enforce the occupation,” said the articulate
teenager to thunderous applause at the packed
Victoria House auditorium in Toronto.
With this principled decision, Matan followed
his father’s footsteps to join the refusenik
movement which got its start during Israel’s
invasion of Lebanon in 1982. The movement
began to lose momentum after Israeli withdrawal
from Lebanon and the signing of the Oslo
accords, as many felt that it was only a matter
of time when Israeli troops would withdraw from
the Occupied Territories. In what some
commentators suggest is a tacit rejection of
Israeli policy, the number of reservists who
sought to defer their tour of duty doubled in
the wake of the current intifadah triggered by
Ariel Sharon’s march to the Al Aqsa mosque.
"Many women in the peace camp would be pleased
if their children refused to serve in combat
units," says Matan’s mother, Smadar
Nehab. "I've been blessed by a son who has
chosen not to serve in the territories,” she
recently told Haaretz. “This is the strongest
possible statement against the occupation. My
son, Matan, is a patriot. He prefers not to
serve there so that the state will continue to
be able to exist."
Such courageous words and actions appear to
have had some effect. In fact, within the IDF
itself, a mini-revolt by 52 reservists, who
refused to serve in the Occupied Territories in
January of this year, has grown to more than
400. The outspoken refuseniks appear to be
gaining momentum as support groups pop up
within and outside Israel. Most recently, in
response to Operation Protective Wall, Israel’s
largest military mission in 20 years, for which
the IDF has called up 30,000 reservists, the
refuseniks and their supporters took out an ad
in Haaretz early this month.
"The mobilization of reservists for a new
reoccupation of the territories is not an
operation destined to defend the interests and
borders of Israel and we won’t take part,”
announced the ad. "The Israeli government has
unleashed a destructive operation whose
magnitude and consequences are difficult to
estimate. It’s a fool’s war conducted by an
administration that prefers to bury its head in
the sand and drag the Israeli army through the
mud of the territories,” the ad continued.
Echoing the position of Matan and the other
students who signed the “Seniors’ letter.” The
reservists, in their own “Officers’ letter”,
take the position that they "will not continue
to fight beyond the Green Line [separating
Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip] with
the aim of pressing, expelling, starving and
humiliating an entire people.”
Matan believes that this movement is targeted
at the very evil within Israeli society –
militarism. Displaying wisdom and insight
beyond his age, he argues that the military is
the sacred cow in Israel. The Israeli
establishment relies on the military and
military in turn benefits from unequivocal
establishment support.
The initial reaction from the Israeli
establishment was hysterical and
confrontational. When this backfired, the
government and the media tried to keep quiet
about it, says Matan. The Israeli government
dismisses the opposition as being a tiny
fringe movement. In fact, the Israeli consul
general in Toronto told this author during a
televised panel discussion that these
refuseniks are simply “leftists”
and “communists”. The facts appear to
contradict this. A poll conducted by Israeli
radio last February revealed that 31 percent of
Israelis supported the refuseniks.
Moreover, Matan pointed out that the movement
is getting support from various quarters and he
urged all peace loving people to show
solidarity with refusenik support groups such
as New Profile (www.newprofile.org) and Seruv
(www.seruv.org.il).
"This is a strong social statement," says Gor
Ziv of New Profile, the Movement for the Civilization of Israeli Society. "Our young people
are voting with their feet and it is worth
paying attention to their voice. The trend of
non-conscription is on the rise. This is the
spread of a broad resistance movement that the
military-governmental system is trying to
blur."
The Refuseniks appear to have also energized
the Four Mothers movement – a group of military
mothers who believe that the Occupation is
unjust.
There is also some evidence to suggest that
this most recent refusenik crisis is not the
only worry for the IDF. Over the years,
according to IDF’s own numbers, a record of 22
percent of all Israeli males eligible for the
draft are granted exemptions. This is up from
12 percent 20 years ago. In addition, only one-
third of all men eligible for reserve duty
complete their tour. The recent allegations of
war crimes and serious human rights violations
is bound to make it worse for the IDF.
During his brief visit to Canada, Matan called
for solidarity with the Palestinian people “who
have been deprived of their basic human rights”
and the refuseniks. He also urged people,
wherever they lived, to put pressure on their
elected officials to end military aid to
Israel, particularly from the U.S. He
concluded by reminding the audience that
criticizing Israeli policies is not the same as
anti-semitism. “Ending the occupation is in
the best interest of Israel and the Jewish
people,” says Matan.
Palestinians and their supporters must do all
they can to promote and support this growing
resistance from within the occupation army.
And perhaps the gory images beamed into our
homes from the Occupied Territories and the
principled and courageous resistance of
Matan, and those of his ilk, will force each of
us to initiate or join the campaign to bring
dignity and justice to the Palestinians.
Faisal Kutty is a Toronto-based lawyer and
writer. He is also a columnist for the
Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs. He contributed above article
to Media Monitors Network (MMN).
Source:
by courtesy & © 2002 Faisal Kutty
by the same
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