[E-rundbrief] Info 1307 - Israeli Youth refuse to serve in Occupation Army

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 1307 - Sarah Lazare/ Common Dreams: Israeli Youth: 
'We Refuse to Serve in the Occupation Army'. Sixty young people sign 
open letter resisting the draft in biggest wave of refusal since 2008

Bad Ischl, 11.3.2014

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

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Israeli Youth: 'We Refuse to Serve in the Occupation Army'

Sixty young people sign open letter resisting the draft in biggest 
wave of refusal since 2008

- Sarah Lazare, staff writer

Published on Monday, March 10, 2014 by Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/10-5

Dafna Rothstein Landman told Common Dreams she'll go to jail before 
she'll serve in the Israeli Army. (Photo courtesy of Dafna Rothstein 
Landman)"If necessary, I will go to jail."

Those are the words of 17-year-old Dafna Rothstein Landman, one of 60 
and counting Israeli youth who signed an open letter sent to Israeli 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the weekend declaring their 
refusal of compulsory service in the Israeli military — the biggest 
wave of conscientious objection the country has seen since 2008.

Under the banner of Shministim — Hebrew for 12th graders — the group 
of conscientious objectors condemns the dehumanization of Palestinians 
living under occupation. In the Palestinian territories, "human rights 
are violated, and acts defined under international law as war-crimes 
are perpetuated on a daily basis," their letter states. "These include 
assassinations (extrajudicial killings), the construction of 
settlements on occupied lands, administrative detentions, torture, 
collective punishment, and the unequal allocation of resources such as 
electricity and water."

Entitled We Refuse to Serve in the Occupation Army, the letter charges 
that this dehumanization hurts Israelis as well. "The problem with the 
army does not begin or end with the damage it inflicts on Palestinian 
society. It infiltrates everyday life in Israeli society too: it 
shapes the educational system, our workforce opportunities, while 
fostering racism, violence, and ethnic, national, and gender-based 
discrimination."

"We refuse to forsake our principles as a condition to being accepted 
in our society," reads the joint letter, penned by people aged 16 to 
20 who are eligible for compulsory service in the Army. "We have 
thought about our refusal deeply and we stand by our decisions."

Dafna, who helped write the letter, told Common Dreams she was only 15 
years old when she began questioning her military service — a process 
she says was catalyzed when she reflected on the imprint of Israeli 
militarism on her own schooling experience. "I realized to what extent 
the education system is geared towards the Army and not towards 
further education, the job market, personal interests, etcetera," she 
said.

Soon after, she began traveling from her home in Tel Aviv to the West 
Bank, where she participated in Palestinian demonstrations against 
Israeli occupation. Here, she witnessed the "violence of the Army" 
first-hand. "I met people from those Palestinian villages," she said. 
"That meant that instead of names in a newspaper they became people, 
with faces and personalities."

She added that she became aware of the way "the Army perpetuates an 
ideal of male violence," within Israeli society.

When she and her friends received letters about their Army draft last 
summer, they became "worried" and began taking steps towards their 
joint refusal.

This year's crop of public resisters follows a history of joint draft 
refusal in Israel, which has been waged since 1970, when a group of 
students declared their refusal of the draft in an open letter to 
then-Prime Minister Golda Meir. The term Shministim caught on in 2008 
when 100 young people signed an open letter refusing the draft, and 
the years since have seen waves of conscientious objection.

This includes resisters from the Druze religious community — a 
conscientious objection movement that is reportedly growing, as well 
as ultra-orthodox draft refusers. According to the Committee for the 
Druze Initiative, a Druze organization that supports conscientious 
objectors, since compulsory service was imposed on Druze men in 1956, 
approximately 5,000 have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in the 
Army.

“We stand in solidarity with the ultra-orthodox youth and the Arab 
youth – Christian and Druze, some of whom are currently in an army 
prison,” said Roni Lax, a 20 year old signatory from Bnei Brak, in a 
statement about the letter emailed to Common Dreams.

The Israeli military makes it near-impossible to declare conscientious 
objector status, and refusers are often jailed for multiple 
consecutive terms for refusing an order. Meanwhile, many Druze 
resisters face horrific conditions in prison, including religious and 
ethnic discrimination. Several Palestinian citizens of Israel from the 
Druze community are currently incarcerated for refusing the draft.

"The Army serves the people in power and not the civilians, who are 
only a tool," said Shaked Harari, a 17-year-old signatory from Bat 
Yam. "My friends and I refuse to be cannon fodder."

"My refusal is a way of expressing my opposition to the wrongs done 
daily in our name and through us," said Mandy Cartner, a 16-year-old 
signatory from Tel Aviv.

Says Dafna, "In a society where Army service is taken for granted, we 
wanted to shake this concept and make people think about the 
implications of serving in the Army."

_____________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 
3.0 License.


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