Letters: 'michtav shministim'

 Letters: 'michtav shministim'

The letter below was written by a group of Israeli youths (aged 15-18),declaring their intention to object to participating in the atrocities committed by the Israeli army. It is a so called 'michtav shministim' (twelfth-graders' letter). For those of you who live in Israel or used to live here the term would be familiar, as three such letters (in fact, three letters with a much less clear phrasing) sent by youths in the early 70s and late 80s received great media attention and started major public debates.


19 Aug, 2001

To: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon

We, the undersigned, youths who grew up and were brought up in Israel, are about to be called to serve in the IDF. We protest before you against the aggressive and racist policy pursued by the Israeli government's and its army, and to inform you that we do not intend to take part in the execution of this policy.

We strongly resist Israel's pounding of human rights. Land expropriation, arrests, executions without a trial, house demolition, closure, torture, and the prevention of health care are only some of the crimes the state of Israel carries out, in blunt violation of international conventions it has
ratified.

These actions are not only illegitimate; they do not even achieve their stated goal - increasing the citizens' personal safety. Such safety will be achieved only through a just peace agreement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian people.

Therefore we will obey our conscience and refuse to take part in acts of oppression against the Palestinian people, acts that should properly be called terrorist actions. We call upon persons our age, conscripts, soldiers in the standing army, and reserve service soldiers to do the same.


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See related story on the Refuseniks, including 18-year-old political objector YAIR KHILOU, one of the initiators, formulators and signatories of the "Letter of the 12th-graders", was sent to prison for the 3rd time in a row this Monday (1 Apr.) He was sentenced once more to 28 days of imprisonment, and is held in Military Prison No. 4.

Full story http://uk.indymedia.org:8081//front.php3?article_id=26829&group=webcast

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A letter to Yediot Achronot following the interview with Minister of Police, Shlomo Ben Ami

To Letters to the Editor 24.1.2001 Yediot Achronot
Were the slain really victims of "a tragic dynamic on the ground" or were they in fact shot dead by members of Israel's police force?

Following Michal Greyevsky and Mali Kempner-Kritz's interview with Shlomo Ben-Ami
In Yediot Aharonot weekend supplement Jauary 19, 2001

"Except for going there myself and placing my body between the Arabs and the policemen, I have done everything" claimed Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami , referring to the murder of 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel last October.

Really? Were they actual victims of "the tragic dynamic on the ground" or were they in fact shot dead by members of Israel's police force?

He whose good fortune it has been "to be present where the important decisions are made", as he says, could have transformed work procedures in the ministry for which he is accountable, and even, perhaps, discharged a racist officer. As the minister in charge of the police force, Ben Ami should have seen to "appropriate civil standards within the police ranks in matters of public order".
At the very least, he should have unequivocally condemned the police's conduct, brought those responsible to trial, and immediately taken clear steps to prevent this from reoccurring.

Mr. Ben Ami did none of these things. Indeed, Mr. Ben Ami accurately diagnosed the source of the problem: "Within Israel's police force? there are militaristic power-conduct patterns which are extremely hard to eradicate, part of an age-old militaristic dominator-mentality which sometimes regards a district as though it were a military command facing enemy territory."

But as the minister in charge, it is not enough to make a correct diagnosis. He should initiate treatment as well. The death of 13 citizens of Israel at the hands of policemen (at least one of them shot in the back of the neck, at least one shot point-blank as he lay on the ground, unarmed) was not a "terrible failure", as you put it, Mr. Ben Ami. These were 13 abominable murders.

To this day, 3 months after the demonstrations, hundreds of youths, Palestinian citizens of Israel,
are being held in custody, some of them having been driven to jail in the same school-buses which were taking them to school, or from which they were removed. If the courts too will embrace the police approach, which you yourself term "power-oriented" and "militaristic", most of them will be jailed for months or years instead of going back to school.

Searches and arrests are still executed in homes of "Arab Israelis" by your policemen who burst in at all hours of the night, some masked, others leading dogs, scaring sleeping children, at times arresting their older brothers or other family members. Is this too "the tragic dynamic on the ground" for which you are not responsible?

The terrible failure was your own, as you were among those decision-makers and still did nothing, not prior to these murders and not after. Acts of persecution and oppression of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel by policemen and soldiers of the border-police are still going on daily (and nightly).


Rela Mazali, Sergeiy Sandler and Vered Shomron

"New Profile", Movement for the Civil-ization of Society in Israel


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The Wisdom in Fear
Deby Birnbaum

In Israel, mothers who are fearful (men are never fearful) are defined as "over-anxious" - irrational, and unable to think clearly. This is an Israeli way to be dismissive of fear, an emotion linked to facts, fear; an emotion that is rational and essential for survival. Mothers are regarded as "incapable of understanding" because "their anxiety clouds clear thinking".

I would like to give my fear an opportunity to speak up:
I am fearful when I think of my oldest son being drafted to the army because I know that in the army he will undergo basic training designed to strip him of his identity, his independence, his feelings, fears, hopes, and his ability to engage in creative and critical thinking. All this as a part of the effort to turn him into an efficient soldier who obeys orders unconditionally.

I am fearful because I know , that the moment my son will place his soul and feelings inside a" sealed room", his chances of getting them out are almost nil.

I am fearful because I know that my son will take on the speech and behavior patterns of power, that dialogue will become a battle that must be won, because this will be the only way to become one of the guys, and survive the missions of death and destruction that require a belief in one's invincibility.

I am fearful because I know that he will engage in dehumanization of whoever the current enemy is. This will be the only way my son would be capable of bringing himself to kill, or being killed.

I am fearful because I know that he will adopt the view that "there is no alternative but to fight", and the belief that power and violence are legitimate ways to solve political and social conflicts, otherwise he would not be willing to oppress, to endanger his life, and to kill.

I am fearful because I know that he will come to believe that the right to life of the Jews in Israel takes priority over that of other faiths or nationalities. And that it is impossible to share resources, but only to defeat or be defeated. Only with these beliefs he would be capable of endangering his own life and killing others.

I am fearful because I know that despite the songs of praise and heroics, the army is an institution designed for killing and destruction in the most efficient manner possible.
I am fearful because I know that those who make policy about security matters in Israel have never been civilians, have never been "fearful", have only been generals and, before that, soldiers. These people have learned the sweet taste of command, of having immense power with virtually no civilian oversight, of the privileges of class, and of the omnipotent feeling of having subordinates who obey you unquestioningly.

I am fearful because the decision-makers are preoccupied with trivial matters - , power games and prestige, the politics of religion - treating everything with the same weighty seriousness. I have not seen the courage and wisdom that are required for leading a confused and fragmented society to the transformation of thought and deed needed for a just solution in the region. They are wasting time and wasting lives. I know that this time is paid in bloodshed.

I am fearful because I know that continued conflict with the Palestinians, Syrians, and Lebanese is a cover for not dealing with the rotten core, caused by the negligence of all the previous governments - poverty, racism, flawed education, unemployment, extremism, discrimination, and oppression of the weak. In the face of these complex difficulties, the safest thing has always been to repeat the myth of our being small, vulnerable, under threat, in a world that hates and wants to destroy us.

I am fearful because I know that we have enough conventional, chemical and atomic warfare to "feel safe". And yet so-called knowledgeable military sources say that this is inadequate - inadequate for the military and inadequate for those who gain from the spoils of war. The enormous resources that could be applied to the solution of real problems are being diverted to imaginary projects and to continue feeding the illusion of security.

I am fearful because my son was educated in an ideological system that infuses him with messages like "war is inevitable", "there is no other alternative", and "it's great to be a hero".

I am fearful because my chances of convincing him that alternatives exist are not great.

I am fearful because there is no hope that the army will do any real soul-searching or examination of the need for the draft, or will agree to transparency and disclosure of the numbers of those who are not drafted, or consider a cut in its size or resources.

I am fearful because there is no civilian leadership responsive to my call to seriously examine the make-up and objectives of the army.

Fear has been an opportunity for me. I look at it every time it comes up, and discover new facets. It is the voice that signals me to stop and listen. To bring together mind and heart.

With knowledge, one can choose how to act. Certainly I have presented only part of the matter, and much more could be said.

For myself, I have decided that today I know enough. I am not willing to wait for "knowledgeable sources in security matters" to make peace.

I am not willing to cooperate. I refuse as a matter of conscience to be part of the oiled machine that is turning my son into a soldier. I refuse to close my eye and to hope for the best, and to repeat the familiar Israeli-Jewish mantra, "There is no alternative and the fight must go on".



"Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)" <info [at] gush-shalom.org>