[Peace-discuss] Resistance

[Carl Estabrook]

[In regard to the discussion at the AWARE meeting last night, about
Israeli army resistance, the following article appeared on the NY Times
op-ed page Saturday.]

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/09/opinion/09MENU.html

Saying No to Israel's Occupation By ISHAI MENUCHIN

JERUSALEM.  In this past week of madness and carnage, hope for peace
between Israel and the Palestinians appears impossible. After 35 years of
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the two sides seem only to
have grown accustomed to assassinations, bombings, terrorist attacks and
house demolitions. Each side characterizes its own soldiers as either
"defense forces" or "freedom fighters" when in truth these soldiers take
part in war crimes on a daily basis. Daily funerals and thoughts of
revenge among Israelis tend to blur the fact that we, the Israelis, are
the occupiers. And as much as we live in fear of terrorism and war, it is
the Palestinians who suffer more deaths hourly and live with greater fear
because they are the occupied.

Twenty years ago, when I was first inducted into the Israeli Army, to
serve as a paratrooper and officer for four and a half years, I took an
oath to defend Israel and obey my commanders. I was young, a patriot,
probably naive, and sure that as a soldier my job was to defend my home
and country. It did not occur to me that I might be used to carry out an
occupation or asked to fight in military engagements that are not
essential for the defense of Israel.

It took me one war -- the Lebanon war -- many dead friends, and some
periods of service in the occupied territories to find that my assumptions
were wrong. In 1983, I refused to serve in acts of occupation, and I spent
35 days in military prison for my refusal. Today, as a major in the
reserves of the Israel Defense Forces, I still defend my country but I
will not participate in a military occupation that has over the decades
made Israel less secure and less humane. The escalating violence is
evidence of this truth.

Being a citizen in a democracy carries with it a commitment to democratic
values and a responsibility for your actions. It is morally impossible to
be both a devoted democratic citizen and a regular offender against
democratic values. Depriving people of the right to equality and freedom,
and keeping them under occupation, is by definition an antidemocratic act.
The occupation that has now lasted a generation and rules the lives of
more than 3.5 million Palestinians is what drives me, hundreds of other
objectors in the armed forces, and tens of thousands of Israeli citizens
to oppose our government's policies and actions in the West Bank and Gaza.

My commitment to democratic values caused me to act against the occupation
-- to sign petitions, write ads, and take part in demonstrations and
vigils. But those acts of opposition were not enough to absolve me of
having to make a moral choice about participating in the occupation as an
officer and ordering others to do so. So while I continue to serve in the
defense force, I selectively refuse military orders if they require my
presence in the territories outside the pre-1967 Israeli borders. I will
not obey illegal orders to execute potential terrorists or fire into
civilian demonstrations. (Since October 2000 more than 850 Palestinians
have been killed by my army: 178 were minors, and 55 were executed.) And I
will not take part in "less violent" actions like keeping Palestinians
under curfew for months, manning roadblocks that prevent civilians moving
from town to town, or carrying out house demolitions and other acts of
repression aimed at the entire Palestinian population.

As our government prepares to increase military action in the West Bank
and Gaza, Israelis need a true debate about the nature of Israel's
presence in these territories. Israeli and international human rights
groups have raised their voices about the persistent violation of
Palestinian human rights. I believe it is my duty as a citizen of a
democratic nation to protest this conduct, which cannot be justified.

I and others who serve in the defense forces cannot by our actions alone
change government policies or make peace negotiations more likely. But we
can show our fellow citizens that occupation of the territories is not
just a political or strategic matter. It is also a moral matter. We can
show them an alternative -- they can say no to occupation. When we begin
to see Israel's situation in that light, perhaps we will be able to let go
of our fear enough to find a way forward.

	***

Ishai Menuchin is a major in the Israel Defense Forces reserves and
chairman of Yesh Gvul, the soldiers' movement for selective refusal

  ============================
  Carl Estabrook
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  Champaign IL 61820 USA
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  ============================
  "There are no magic answers, no miraculous methods to
  overcome the problems we face, just the familiar ones:
  honest search for understanding, education, organization, 
  action that raises the cost of state violence for its 
  perpetrators or that lays the basis for institutional change
  -- and the kind of commitment that will persist despite the 
  temptations of disillusionment, despite many failures and
  only limited successes, inspired by the hope of a brighter 
  future."      --Noam Chomsky
  ============================