Lulua
01-03-2002, 17:08
. RESERVISTS REFUSE TO TAKE PART IN ARMY'S BRUTALITY
[By Ferry Biedermann -- Dawn-InterPress Services -- February 17, 2002]
================================================== ===================
Al QUDS -- "There are things that are forbidden," a loudspeaker told
the crowd of peace demonstrators last weekend in Tel-Aviv. "To
humiliate people, to impoverish them, and drive them to the verge of
hunger, that is forbidden," Yishai Rosen-Tzvi said, talking about the
Israeli army's treatment of the Palestinian population in the Occupied
Territories.
Rosen-Tzvi belongs to a group of some 75 enlisted men and officers who
signed a petition last month refusing to serve in the Occupied
Territories. They stated boldly that "we shall not continue to fight
beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and
humiliate an entire people." The number of names on the petition,
under the heading "Courage to Refuse," has by now reached almost 250
and is updated regularly on the group's web site: seruv.nethost.co.il.
They, and maybe as many as 500 others who refuse to serve but have not
signed the petition, are spearheading a reawakening of the Israeli
Left. The peace camp was stunned into dormancy by the failure of Ehud
Barak's peace moves and the outbreak of the [September 2000] Intifada.
The objectors, known as 'refuseniks,' were made the central focus of a
February 9 peace rally, organized by leftist pacifist groups.
With his knitted skullcap, crew-cut and blue shirt, Rosen-Tzvi looked
more like a supporter of the National Religious camp than a refusenik,
but he made the most attention-grabbing speech of the evening: "They
duped us. When the soldiers get to the Territories they enter a
terrible reality. We see people who are humiliated and frustrated, who
are poor and sometimes hardly have anything to eat. Then you get your
orders, which are meant to push them even further into that
humiliation and poverty."
When objectors talk about not wanting to participate in war crimes it,
jars with the army's favourite oxymoron, "purity of arms" in which
most Israelis still believe. So it may come as a shock to the
government and the army brass that the latest polls consistently find
that between 20 and 25 per cent of the population sympathizes with the
objectors.
The army, however, paints refuseniks as waging a political campaign.
That is why the support from the radical Left, as it styles itself,
and the February 9 demonstration must have posed tough dilemmas for
activists of the Courage to Refuse petition.
They had, until then, studiously avoided identifying themselves with
any political direction, saying indeed that they objected to serve on
moral and legal grounds. They don't talk to foreign journalists
"because this is an internal matter" according to one of them.
They have even declined, thus far, to align themselves with that
veteran organization of army objectors, Yesh Gvul, Hebrew for "There
is a Limit," although it can also be translated as "There is a
Border." That organization sprang up at the beginning of the 1982
Lebanon war, when Ariel Sharon was Defence Minister. Since then, Yesh
Gvul has assisted countless others who objected to serving in the
Occupied Territories, particularly during the first Intifada from 1987
until 1993, when some 2000 people opted out.
Both the Lebanon war and the first Intifada ended in Israeli pullouts,
for which Yesh Gvul likes to take part of the credit. "It is part of a
cumulative effect that makes people realize something has to change,
along with demonstrations and other actions," said a spokesman.
This time, however, the peace camp is divided. The mainstream peace
group Peace Now, the Israeli Labour Party and, to its left the Meretz
Party, all declined to join in the February 9 rally and will hold one
of their own next weekend (Feb. 23/24) instead.
The objectors reject the "undemocratic" label; they call the
occupation itself undemocratic and say they have a duty to resist it.
The army itself is deeply political, asserted Edan Landau, a 34-year
old Reserve Captain from Tel Aviv who refused to serve in the
Territories last year, but who did not sign the petition. His
objection was both moral and political, he explained, saying "to
secure settlements and settlers is a political task."
He never wants to be part of that again and was prepared to go to jail
last September when he was called up. He thinks his service record and
the proximity of the Jewish holidays saved him from the jail sentence
the army first wanted to impose. Instead he served ten days doing
"boring jobs" at an army base in the country.
Army spokesman Olivier Rafowicz had one last argument, which will
weigh heaviest for most Israelis: "If we didn't do what we are doing
in the Occupied Territories, we would have thousands of Israeli
casualties from terrorist attacks, not hundreds."
The refuseniks defend their stance with what is sometimes seen as an
overly simple answer: if there were no Occupation, there would be no
terrorism either.
But few Israelis are willing to bet their life on that. At the peace
rally in Tel Aviv last Saturday, religious refusenik Yishai Rosen-Tzvi
did not offer a more palatable answer.
While trying to skirt the politically loaded question of what to do,
he did make clear, however, that continuing the Occupation is no
solution either: "the Occupation is a greenhouse for humiliation and
anger. The army is creating a greenhouse [to grow] terrorism."
(This article was slightly edited for the Friday Bulletin)
[By Ferry Biedermann -- Dawn-InterPress Services -- February 17, 2002]
================================================== ===================
Al QUDS -- "There are things that are forbidden," a loudspeaker told
the crowd of peace demonstrators last weekend in Tel-Aviv. "To
humiliate people, to impoverish them, and drive them to the verge of
hunger, that is forbidden," Yishai Rosen-Tzvi said, talking about the
Israeli army's treatment of the Palestinian population in the Occupied
Territories.
Rosen-Tzvi belongs to a group of some 75 enlisted men and officers who
signed a petition last month refusing to serve in the Occupied
Territories. They stated boldly that "we shall not continue to fight
beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and
humiliate an entire people." The number of names on the petition,
under the heading "Courage to Refuse," has by now reached almost 250
and is updated regularly on the group's web site: seruv.nethost.co.il.
They, and maybe as many as 500 others who refuse to serve but have not
signed the petition, are spearheading a reawakening of the Israeli
Left. The peace camp was stunned into dormancy by the failure of Ehud
Barak's peace moves and the outbreak of the [September 2000] Intifada.
The objectors, known as 'refuseniks,' were made the central focus of a
February 9 peace rally, organized by leftist pacifist groups.
With his knitted skullcap, crew-cut and blue shirt, Rosen-Tzvi looked
more like a supporter of the National Religious camp than a refusenik,
but he made the most attention-grabbing speech of the evening: "They
duped us. When the soldiers get to the Territories they enter a
terrible reality. We see people who are humiliated and frustrated, who
are poor and sometimes hardly have anything to eat. Then you get your
orders, which are meant to push them even further into that
humiliation and poverty."
When objectors talk about not wanting to participate in war crimes it,
jars with the army's favourite oxymoron, "purity of arms" in which
most Israelis still believe. So it may come as a shock to the
government and the army brass that the latest polls consistently find
that between 20 and 25 per cent of the population sympathizes with the
objectors.
The army, however, paints refuseniks as waging a political campaign.
That is why the support from the radical Left, as it styles itself,
and the February 9 demonstration must have posed tough dilemmas for
activists of the Courage to Refuse petition.
They had, until then, studiously avoided identifying themselves with
any political direction, saying indeed that they objected to serve on
moral and legal grounds. They don't talk to foreign journalists
"because this is an internal matter" according to one of them.
They have even declined, thus far, to align themselves with that
veteran organization of army objectors, Yesh Gvul, Hebrew for "There
is a Limit," although it can also be translated as "There is a
Border." That organization sprang up at the beginning of the 1982
Lebanon war, when Ariel Sharon was Defence Minister. Since then, Yesh
Gvul has assisted countless others who objected to serving in the
Occupied Territories, particularly during the first Intifada from 1987
until 1993, when some 2000 people opted out.
Both the Lebanon war and the first Intifada ended in Israeli pullouts,
for which Yesh Gvul likes to take part of the credit. "It is part of a
cumulative effect that makes people realize something has to change,
along with demonstrations and other actions," said a spokesman.
This time, however, the peace camp is divided. The mainstream peace
group Peace Now, the Israeli Labour Party and, to its left the Meretz
Party, all declined to join in the February 9 rally and will hold one
of their own next weekend (Feb. 23/24) instead.
The objectors reject the "undemocratic" label; they call the
occupation itself undemocratic and say they have a duty to resist it.
The army itself is deeply political, asserted Edan Landau, a 34-year
old Reserve Captain from Tel Aviv who refused to serve in the
Territories last year, but who did not sign the petition. His
objection was both moral and political, he explained, saying "to
secure settlements and settlers is a political task."
He never wants to be part of that again and was prepared to go to jail
last September when he was called up. He thinks his service record and
the proximity of the Jewish holidays saved him from the jail sentence
the army first wanted to impose. Instead he served ten days doing
"boring jobs" at an army base in the country.
Army spokesman Olivier Rafowicz had one last argument, which will
weigh heaviest for most Israelis: "If we didn't do what we are doing
in the Occupied Territories, we would have thousands of Israeli
casualties from terrorist attacks, not hundreds."
The refuseniks defend their stance with what is sometimes seen as an
overly simple answer: if there were no Occupation, there would be no
terrorism either.
But few Israelis are willing to bet their life on that. At the peace
rally in Tel Aviv last Saturday, religious refusenik Yishai Rosen-Tzvi
did not offer a more palatable answer.
While trying to skirt the politically loaded question of what to do,
he did make clear, however, that continuing the Occupation is no
solution either: "the Occupation is a greenhouse for humiliation and
anger. The army is creating a greenhouse [to grow] terrorism."
(This article was slightly edited for the Friday Bulletin)