May
2002
Other
Voices
Soldiers Take a Stand
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The news that we hear about the Middle East conflict
is predominantly from the viewpoints of U.S. politicians and activists,
Israeli government
and officials of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and Palestinian Authority
Representatives. As such, we sought out a few voices that you may
not
have heard.
There is a growing movement of Israelis who are refusing to participate
in the violence. Early last month, the IDF called in 20,000 more reservist
soldiers to support its operations in the West Bank. As of writing,
over 400 soldiers have signed the Courage to Refuse campaign petition
(www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp) stating their refusal to participate
in the activities of the IDF in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.
These are experienced soldiers—many of them ranking and decorated—who
have served in the past, and are willing to risk their lives for their
country. A smaller number of young Israelis are refusing to report
for
their mandatory military service. Many of both groups have been jailed.
The following is a letter from longtime Israeli refusenik, Sergio Yahni,
to the Israeli Minister of Defense Ben Eliezer on the eve of his recent
sentencing.
An officer for whom you are responsible has sentenced me today to 28
days in military prison for my refusal to serve in reserve duty. I did
not refuse only to serve in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as
I have for the past 15 years, I refused to serve in the Israeli army
in any capacity.
Since September 29, 2000, the Israeli army has waged a ‘dirty war’ against
the Palestinian Authority. This dirty war includes extra-judicial killings,
the murder of women and children, the destruction of the economic
and social infrastructure of the Palestinian population, the burning
of agricultural fields and the uprooting of trees. You have sowed fear
and despair but failed to achieve your ultimate objective; the Palestinian
people did not give up their dream of sovereignty and independence.
Neither did you provide security for your own people despite all the
destructive violence of the army over which you have responsibility.
In light of your great failure, we are now witness to an intellectual
debate amongst Israelis of the worst kind: a discussion about the possible
deportation and the mass killing of Palestinians.
The failed attempt of leaders of the Labour Party to impose a settlement
on the Palestinian people has dragged us into a ‘dirty war’
for which Palestinians and Israelis are paying with their lives. The
racist violence of the Israeli security establishment, who do not see
people but only ‘terrorists,’ has deepened the vicious cycle
of violence for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Israelis are also the victims of this war. They are the victims of the
irresponsible and failed aggression of the army over which you are responsible.
Even when you waged the most deadly attacks on the Palestinian people,
you did not fulfill your duty: giving security to the citizens of Israel.
Tanks in Ramallah cannot stop your most monstrous creation: the desperation
which explodes in coffee shops.
You, and the military officers under your command, have created human
beings whose humanity disappears out of desperation and humiliation.
You have created this despair and you cannot stop it.
It is clear to me that you have risked all of our lives only in order
to continue building illegal and immoral settlements, for Gush Etsion,
Efrat and Kedumim: for the cancer which eats away at the Israeli social
body. For the past 35 years, the settlements have turned Israeli society
into a danger zone. The Israeli state has sowed despair and death both
for the Palestinians and Israelis.
Therefore I will not serve in your army. Your army that calls itself
the ‘Israeli Defense Force’ is nothing more than the armed
wing of the settlement movement. This army does not exist to bring
security
to the citizens of Israel, it exists to guarantee the continuation
of the theft of Palestinian land. As a Jew, I am repelled by the crimes
this militia commits against the Palestinian people.
It is both my Jewish and human duty to resolutely refuse to take any
part in this army. As the son of a people victim to pogroms and destruction,
I cannot be a part of your insane policies. As a human being, it is
my duty to refuse to participate in any institution which commits crimes
against humanity.
Sergio Yahni (35) was sentenced last month to 28 days for refusing
reserve duty in the Israeli military. Yahni is co-Director of the Alternative
Information Center and a longstanding activist with Yesh Gvul. Yesh
Gvul (“There is a limit”) is an Israeli peace group that
supports refuseniks. To learn more visit www.yesh-gvul.org.
Black Flag
By Itai Haviv
As a fighting officer of the Israel Defense Forces, I served all over
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. I am not naive. Sometimes you must kill
to survive. In the name of the State of Israel, I chased after children
who threw stones at me. I patrolled the alleys of refugee camps. I banged
on tin doors in the wee hours of the night. I looked for inciting texts
between mattresses and blankets. I heard babies cry. I pulled people
out of bed to erase slogans off the walls. I enforced curfews. I fought
against Palestinian flags hanging on electricity poles. I stopped vehicles.
I confiscated ID cards. I transferred handcuffed detainees in the back
of my jeep. I shot rioters. I stopped hundreds of cars at checkpoints.
I placed an observation post on the roof of a cake shop on Gaza’s
main street. The Occupation’s routine. Day after day. Hour after
hour. Thirty five years.
I believed it was a ‘no choice’ war. After all, we’ve
turned every stone on our quest for peace.
We have built over 100 settlements. We have settled 200,000 people in
them. We have lost warriors, children, mothers. All for the state’s
security. For peace. To stop the next suicide bomber. For 35 years a
black flag was proudly hanging over our heads, but we have refused to
see it.
No more.
Captain (res.) Itai Haviv is a signatory of the ‘courage to
refuse’ petition.
Translation note: ‘Black Flag’ is an allusion to a famous
Israeli court ruling following the 1956 Kafr Qasm massacre. In this
ruling, the judges said that any soldier has the right and obligation
to refuse clearly illegal commands, above which ‘hangs a black
flag.’ In the 45 years that passed since then, not even a single
soldier was protected by a military court for refusing to obey a command
because it was a ‘black flag’ command. [emphasis from original
text]
The Courage to Refuse Petition
• We, combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces,
who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving
to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always
served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission,
light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen
it.
• We, reserve combat officers and soldiers who have served the
State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost
to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied
Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing
to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose
of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes
have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.
• We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories,
destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.
• We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss
of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli
society.
• We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all
settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.
• We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War
of the Settlements.
• We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order
to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.
• We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel
Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.
• The missions of occupation and oppres- sion do not serve this
purpose—and we shall take no part in them.
The Courage to Refuse campaign is currently sponsoring a U.S. tour
of Israeli refuseniks, giving them the opportunity to tell their stories
in person. To learn more about the campaign, to get involved, and for
tour dates and details, visit www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp
or call 972-(0)3-7651002.
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