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by Ishai Menuchin
Jerusalem, New York Times Op-Ed,
March 9, 2002
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 prepared 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.
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