|
Israeli Soldiers Who Say No
[The above is] From the declaration of combat officers and soldiers of the IDF published in the Ha'aretz on the 27th of January 2002. My name is Benjamin von Mendelssohn and I work at the "Institute for Global Peace Work" in Tamera, Portugal. We in Tamera read the declaration quoted above and hope began to rise. I am not a young Israeli soldier who is asked to fulfil the inhuman orders of the occupation. I do not know what I would do if I were in this situation. I live in the relative safety of a peace project in Portugal. From here I want to express my deep respect, my gratitude and my solidarity to the growing number of young men who refuse to serve in the occupied territories. It is a service of peace to the world to take on the consequences that this decision brings along in a militaristic society. I know the story of a friend of mine who served in the IDF. He realized the insanity of it when his best friend was blown to pieces right next to him. He quit the army and quit the country. But he also told me about the fascination to hold a gun, the surge of power that one feels when you "can take somebody down from a 100 meters distance as a sniper". This is the disease of a male society. We get trained what it means to be a man right from the beginning. We hardly get trained what it means to be a human. But we young men should grow up instead of just growing old. We need to quit using violence to compensate the fear that we have inside. Fear that we project to the outside and then run fighting against it. Fear that threatens to strangle the whole globe. I hope more and more young men start to become fighters against that fear, freedom fighters. What about using all our male strength in body and mind for the protection of our planet? If this movement of courageous soldiers who say "NO!" to war - inside or outside - as the first Israeli soldiers do right now, would grow bigger, big enough that the discriminating punishments can not be kept up, then I could believe in a beginning peace process. They need our support now. The support of their mothers, who do not want to loose their sons, of their fathers, who might serve in the army themselves but nevertheless recognize the new, of their friends who know that it is easier to be courageous together. They need the support of international peace workers and peace initiatives who can provide rest, healing and a new orientation - simply through the advantage of not being involved directly. And then we all need a perspective, a peace plan in which we can believe. We need models for this peace. Places where peace can be researched, seen and felt. Places where peace and trust can grow between humans, between humans and animals, plants and all of creation. May these courageous soldiers be the beginning of a stronger global peace movement. May they grow into part of a movement for a free earth. Shalom and Salaam! Benjamin von Mendelssohn The homepage of the objectors and their declaration: http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp * We, reserve 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, 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 IDF¹s 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 Israel¹s defense. * The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose -and we shall take no part in them. There are 398 current signers of this Israeli soldiers' petition. If you go to the site therre are links to addtional petitions to lend support to their cause. http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp See also: "The Courage to Refuse" - campaign http://www.couragetorefuse.org
Monte do Cerro P-7630 Colos http://www.www.tamera.org mailto:igf@tamera.org Tel: +351-283 635 3-06, Fax: -74
|
