[Peace-discuss] Don’t Let Israeli Army Brainwash You, Warns Powerful Short Film

Wed Jun 11 08:10:34 EDT 2014

  Don’t Let Israeli Army Brainwash You, Warns Powerful Short Film

Screen Shot 2014-06-10 at 3.00.11 PM
Resist! <http://www.popularresistance.org/category/resist/> Israel 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/israel/>, Palestine 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/palestine/>, Wars and Militarism 
<http://www.popularresistance.org/tag/wars-and-militarism/>
By Maureen Clare Murphy, www.electronicintifada.net 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/dont-let-israeli-army-brainwash-you-warns-powerful-short-film-watch>
June 10th, 2014
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A new dark, psychological short film by Nadim Hamed produced by Eyad 
Barghouti in cooperation with the Palestinian civil society groups 
7amleh and Baladna <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/baladna> makes a 
bold statement against Israel’s latest attempts to enlist Palestinian 
citizens of Israel 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinians-israel> in the 
occupation army.

/Project X/ features Samer Bisharat (star of Oscar-nominated /Omar 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/paradise-now-director-tackles-taboo-collaboration-new-film/12806>/) 
as a youth who is brainwashed into serving in the army. But instead of 
gaining the privileges promised by a Palestinian collaborator, the young 
man realizes only devastating psychological and social costs as a result 
of his choice to serve.

The artistically potent short takes up one of the most pressing issues 
facing the nearly 1.7 million Palestinian citizens of Israel who face 
daily systematic discrimination from education to employment and severe 
restrictions on land ownership.

    Repression

Israel has long sought to repress national identity amongst the 
Palestinians who managed to remain on the land conquered by Zionist 
forces in 1948 when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically 
cleansed from approximately 500 villages and cities.

The latest effort aims to drive a sectarian wedge between Palestinian 
Christians and Muslims in present-day Israel. In February, Israel’s 
parliament, the Knesset <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/knesset>, 
approved a law identifying Palestinian Christians as a non-Arab 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinian-christians-not-really-arabs-says-senior-israeli-lawmaker> 
minority group.

According to journalist Jonathan Cook 
<http://www.merip.org/mero/mero051314>, “The measure is a minor one: It 
provides Christians with separate representation in the national 
employment advisory council. But it lays the foundations for a much 
greater scheme declared by [chairman of the ruling Likud-Yisrael 
Beiteinu faction Yariv] Levin to create a Christian nationality, leaving 
the traditional ‘Arab’ one to refer to Muslims only.”

Meanwhile, Israel has groomed 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-army-recruitment-plan-aims-incite-christian-muslim-tensions/12645> a 
handful of clergy and members of the Christian community to promote 
military service among Christians, and recently sent out recruitment 
papers to Palestinian Christian youths.

Except for minority groups such as the Druze 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/druze>, Palestinian citizens of 
Israel, who comprise approximately 20 percent of the state’s population, 
are not required to perform army service.

Many state benefits are tied to army service, including employment, and 
“Israel may be banking on desperation driving some youths into the 
army’s hands,” as Ali Abunimah has noted.

    Resistance

However, the reruitment efforts are being met with resistance by 
Palestinian students at Israeli universities 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/hebrew-university-sets-police-students-protesting-army-recruitment/13379> 
and anti-enlistment campaigning 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinians-call-refusal-israel-army-service> 
by Palestinian civil society organizations.

Meanwhile, a growing number 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-tried-brainwash-us-says-druze-pioneer-who-refused-army-service/13047> 
of Druze youths are refusing to serve in the army and the state is 
facing an organized campaign within the community against the compulsory 
enlistment.

Eighteen-year-old Omar Saad 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/omar-saad> has served approximately 
150 days in prison since 4 December, when he reported to an Israeli 
military induction center 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/druze-youth-military-prison-refusing-israeli-army-draft> 
to declare his refusal to serve in the army.

Saad, one of the longest-serving conscientious objectors in Israel, is 
currently recovering at home from a liver infection which his father has 
blamed 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/rights-groups-call-israel-free-druze-army-refuser> 
on the poor conditions of the military prison where Saad was being held.

Another conscientious objector 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/rights-groups-call-israel-free-druze-army-refuser>, 
18-year-old Orthodox Jew Uriel Ferera, was given a second ten-day prison 
sentence on 25 May for his refusal to serve in the military, the 
anti-militarization group New Profile reported 
<http://www.newprofile.org/english/node/437>. [UPDATE: shortly after 
this post was published, New Profile reported 
<http://www.newprofile.org/english/node/439> that Ferera was handed down 
a third sentence yesterday — this time twenty days — of imprisonment.]

New Profile and a number of other human rights, community and political 
organizations, including Amnesty International 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/amnesty-international>, Baladna and 
the Druze Initiative Committee, have launched an online petition 
<http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/moshe-ya-alon-minister-of-defence-israel-put-an-end-to-the-imprisonment-of-omar-sa-ad-and-all-other-individuals-who-are-detained-solely-for-their-conscientious-objection-to-military-service?recruiter=21606283&utm_campaign=mailto_link&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition> 
calling on Israel to end the detention of conscientious objectors.

      Related Posts:

  * New Short Film On Peace Mothers
    <http://www.popularresistance.org/new-short-film-on-peace-mothers/>May
    14, 2014
  * EPA’s Carbon Rule Falls Short
    <http://www.popularresistance.org/epas-carbon-rule-falls-short-of-real-emissions-reduction/>June
    3, 2014
  * Army Admits: Counter-Recruitment Works
    <http://www.popularresistance.org/army-admits-counter-recruitment-works/>March
    21, 2014

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