Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Fighting on a different front

They are just out of school and would rather go to jail than serve in the Israeli military

Ben White
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 December 2008

"This Thursday, a group of Israeli young men and women, barely out of school, will bring home some important truths about the situation in Israel/Palestine for those who care to listen. The Shministim (Hebrew for twelfth-graders) are Israelis who, having been called up for compulsory military service, have refused to serve in an occupying army and are thus sent to prison for refusing the draft........

In the last few weeks, as some Israeli youth refused to "hurt in the name of defence or imprison in the name of freedom", the IDF killed and arrested Palestinians, and raided and vandalised occupied villages. By the end of October, more than 3,300 Palestinians in the West Bank – and more than 700 in the "non-occupied" Gaza Strip – had been arrested in 2008 alone, with a weekly total of around 100 IDF search operations. In the same period, 1,204 hours of curfew were imposed on Palestinian communities across the OPT; the 600 roadblocks and obstacles augmented by a weekly average of 76 "flying" (ie unpredictable) checkpoints.

In contrast to the cliché-trapped media, and policy papers and peace plans that are a grand exercise in missing the point, the Shministim remind us that as you read this, the Palestinians are living another day corralled into enclaves, overlooked and encircled by colonies of settlers who exist in a parallel legal realm of privilege and domination. They remind us of the occupation, and also of hope, for they are some of the Israelis who choose to exchange the "privilege" of the IDF call-up, for the "great privilege of saying 'No'"."

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