From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Feb 08 2002 - 00:09:24 MST
[Hermit] Cross-list post. I'm not certain of the source. I submit it here as
it seems to address some of the issues raised by Joe Dees' attack on
Blunderov.
[Hermit] I would suggest that this is good news. When even Israelis begin to
realize that their actions are unconscionable - despite their years of
exposure to very good propaganda, perhaps the rest of the world (excluding
you Joe, I doubt you are going to change) will follow.
[hr]
[quote]
The petitioners refuse to take part in "dominating and humiliating" Another
125 Israeli army reservists have signed a petition saying that they refuse
to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The petition, which was first published about a week ago, has posed the
biggest internal domestic challenge to the Israeli army since the intifada,
or Palestinian uprising, began 16 months ago.
General Mofaz doubts the petitioners' moral concerns. At least 48 of the
reservists who signed the original letter have already been suspended from
their positions in the reserves.
On Tuesday, the army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Shaul Mofaz, said
that in a state involved in war, there was no room for refusal by its
soldiers to serve.
General Mofaz said the army could not afford to have some officers only
agree to serve in the occupied territories, and others who would serve only
along the northern border.
No end in sight
The signatories of the original petition said they had "received orders and
instructions that had nothing to do with the security of the state and whose
sole purpose is the perpetuation of our domination of the Palestinian
people."
Peace activists say the reservists have begun to protest now because they
have come up for their second round of service during the intifada and there
is no end in sight.
We understand today that the price of the occupation is loss of the humane
image of the Israeli Defence Forces and corruption of the entire Israeli
society.
Reservists' petition
The Israeli army relies on reserves, who do a month's duty every year after
they finish their mandatory conscript service. Now they are needed to man
roadblocks and guard Jewish settlements built on land occupied by Israel in
1967 and wanted by the Palestinians for their own state.
The dissenters say this goes beyond their duties to defend Israel.
"We hereby declare we will no longer fight in the war for the welfare of the
settlements in the territories," they said in the petition.
"We will not continue to fight beyond the Green Line (Israel's pre-1967
border) for the purpose of dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating
an entire people. "
Wide support
The left wing group Yesh Gvul (in Hebrew "There is a Limit, or Border") says
the army suspends the rebellious reservists rather than puts them on trial
because it fears that "a formal trial would allow the defendant to challenge
the legality of the order given".
The group emerged after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon to back reservists
who refused to serve there.
Peace groups are supporting the petitioners. It says its phone lines are
swamped now with people thinking about a similar stand on the West Bank and
Gaza.
The reservist petitioners, however, are more of a threat than the Lebanon
rebels, a BBC correspondent says. They cannot be dismissed as left wing
radicals - Most are officers from combat units who have served on front
lines.
And their refusal is couched in patriotic terms.
"We have sensed how the orders we received erode every value we have imbibed
in this country," they wrote.
"We understand today that the price of the occupation is loss of the humane
image of the Israeli Defence Forces and corruption of the entire Israeli
society."
[/quote]
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