[mobglob-discuss] I AM NO OCCUPIER, FULL STOP.

[Macdonald Stainsby]

With four of the Shiministim (Highschool pupils/ Seniors) at the moment
imprisoned (apart from a huge number of jailed reservist) there is going to be a
solidarity demonstration at the Defence Ministry in Tel-Aviv, Thursday, Aug. 22,
at 6 pm. More background on the motivation of the refusers will follow. Contact:
Neta 052-830494

[Here follows the text of one of the jailed COs. A shortened version appeared in
the Ha'aretz daily, Sunday, August 18 and (full text) in the daily Ma'ariv

I AM NO OCCUPIER, FULL STOP.
Uri Ya'acobi

In another two days I am not going to enlist.
I will go the Soldiers House, and will board the bus together with all
other conscription candidates and after we get off the bus at the
Induction Center in Tel Hashomer,   I will, unlike the others,  refuse to
enlist, and I will almost certainly be sent to prison. In the prison I
will meet two of the fellow signatories of "the letter of the highschool
pupils" - Yoni Yechezkel and Dror Boimel . Those two were imprisoned
during the last week - because of their own refusal  to enlist. They, just
like me, and as it turns out: like  a lot of other Israelis, understand
that this war which the state of Israel is conducting, in the territories
that it occupied in '67, is not a war of the sons of the light against the
sons of darkness (exactly like many more of the wars which took place in
the course of history).

When one hears via foreign media of Israeli tanks rampaging in the streets
of Palestinian cities (for some reason it's hardly ever on the news of the
Israeli media), then we don't hear the whole truth. The sad truth is that
what the Israeli army does in the territories is not limited to  tanks
rampaging in the streets and the destruction of the civilian
infrastructure. The military actions are also not limited to delaying
ambulances and pregnant women at roadblocks or just insensitivity  towards
Palestinian citizens. Our soldiers find themselves in difficult
situations, and part of them do it by mistake, but they do kill children
and old people who certainly are in no way connected to any act of
terrorism. They destroy houses of whole families - and perpetrate other
acts for which "terrorism" is the most fitting definition. All these are
unforgivable acts in which I and my friends refuse to participate. These
things are against justice. And no reason in the world, certainly not the
wish  to colonise another piece of land, turns them into justified acts
from the moral point of view, just as terrorist attacks against Israeli
civilians are not right,  nor morally justified.

I don't know whether the Palestinian leadership wants peace, I don't know
whether the Palestinians want to remain for ever poor and discriminated
against (although it is difficult to believe that they would). I do know
one thing: that the Palestinians don't want us to be their occupiers. I
know that they don't want to live in a war situation  and to see the
continuous bloodshed. I know it is not them who force us to occupy them;
it's not them who turn us into occupiers. We do that quite nicely all by
ourselves, without their help.  I am not proud of my people. I am not
proud of my country, I am not proud of the acts being done in the name of
my security. I am also not proud that I will go to prison because of my
refusal to serve in the occupation army (and I am also not at all happy
about the opportunity given me to suffer for my principles). Proud I am
that I listen to the voice of my conscience, and I will be glad when there
will be more people listening to theirs, and not to what says the
commander.




-------------------------------------------
Macdonald Stainsby
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
--
In the contradiction lies the hope.
                                     --Bertholt Brecht