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The Roses Smell
By William C. Carlotti, Vermont
Doris Abramson is either oblivious to the realities of the situation in Palestine or has acquired the rose-colored glasses of the ethnocentric when she writes: "Israel does not use its military to inflict civilian damage." [Palestinians Have Brought War on Themselves, January 10]
Every action of the Israeli military not only has an immediate and devastating effect on the civilians of occupied Palestine, but is specifically and intentionally designed to have such a devastating effect—i.e. to terrorize, to intimidate, to demoralize, to subordinate, to subjugate Palestinian civilians to Israeli authority, to clear areas for the Israeli establishment of Jewish settlements in Palestine and, when it is deemed necessary to assassinate those who form the leadership of the resistance to Israeli occupation, to kill not only the leadership of the resistance but any hapless other civilians who happen to be in the target area. It is an endeavor that Hollywood moguls have popularized with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Collateral Damage, but which is more aptly proscribed in the law for severe punishment as an act of reckless disregard.
Some 516 Israeli Jews serving (as required) in the military who have refused to participate in the carnage, and who thus have become known as Refusniks, have stated: "We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people … We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country; We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF’s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society; We, who know that the Territories are not Israel … We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements. We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people. We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense. The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose—and we shall take no part in them."
In an open letter of support for the Refusniks, over 300 faculty members from 14 Israeli universities (including the most prestigious Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, Ben Gurion University, Hebrew University, and Weitzman Institute) wrote the following: "We … wish to express our appreciation and support for those of our students and lecturers who refuse to serve as soldiers in the occupied territories. Such service too often involves carrying out orders that have no place in a democratic society founded on the sanctity of human life. For thirty-five years an entire people, some three and a half million in number, have been held without basic human rights. The occupation and oppression of another people have brought the State of Israel to where it is today. Without an Israeli declaration of an end to the occupation, accompanied by appropriate action—unilateral, if necessary—the present war is not being fought for home but for settlements beyond the green line and for the continued oppression of another people."
The organization B’Tselem describes itself as "the Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories … established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel."
In a recent statement B’Tselem advises us that: "Over the years of the occupation, the Israeli authorities have been guilty of widespread and severe violation of human rights of Palestinians, while at the same time have given preferential treatment to Israeli settlers, whose settlement in occupied territory is itself a breach of international law."
In its summary of this year’s activity, the organization states that: "B'Tselem has published scores of reports, some comprehensive in scope, covering most kinds of human rights violations that have occurred in the Occupied Territories. The reports have dealt, for example, with torture, fatal shootings by security forces, restriction on movement, expropriation of land and discrimination in planning and building in East Jerusalem, administrative detention, and settler violence." Its reports are generated by on-the-spot observations and confirmations. For more information, you can visit <www.btselem.org>.
The horrible, inhuman details of the Israeli occupation are inestimable and impossible to describe in the context of the constraints of the available space in The Voice. Yet sufficient voices are being heard in the Jewish community, in and out of Israel, that make it clear that the occupation has taken on the realities, for Israel and Israelis, of experiences similar to the United States in the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union in the Afghanistan War, and South Africa in the days of apartheid.
Ms. Abramson needs to smell the roses of "A Jewish Voice for Peace," as described by Ken Cornet in The Voice on January 1. Others who are interested may visit <www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org>.
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