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Haggai Matar, Refusenik, Speaks in Madison, Wisconsin (Audio and Video)

by IMC-Madison (imc-madison [at] lists.indymedia.org)
Last night, 18-year-old Israeli citizen Haggai Matar spoke at the First Unitarian Society in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. Matar is part of a growing movement of "refuseniks", Israelis who refuse to serve in the military to enforce the occupation of Palestine. He faces prison time this summer for his refusal.

Haggai Matar, Israeli Army "Refusenik", Speaks in Madison

Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Haggai Matar, refusenik. On Monday night, 18-year-old Israeli citizen Haggai Matar spoke at the First Unitarian Society in Madison. Matar is part of a growing movement of "refuseniks", Israelis who refuse to serve in the military to enforce the occupation of Palestine. He faces prison time in July for his refusal.

Watch the talk in high-bandwidth real video:
video.gifPart one / video.gifpart two

Low-bandwidth modem users, video.gifstream the video.

Or listen to the talk: audio.gifMP3 audio / audio.gifreal audio

Refuse!

Reposted from IMC-Israel: Today in Israel, there is no greater moral or democratic act than conscientious objection to serving in the Occupied Territories. Those who claim that objection comes from ideological and political motivations are indeed correct, because the military oppression of the Palestinians is indeed the heart of the issue. Objection is the step which works to fix the democratic regime in Israel - and not by subversion from underneath, but by repair (and not mere undermining) of the foundations for legitimacy on which Israel is founded.


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by Anti-Propaganda
Refuseniks were Jews that were fired from their jobs, opressed, and forced to wait under oppressive conditions, often in prisons merely for applying to leave the USSR.

Those that call conscientious objectors in Israel "Refuseniks" demean those that endured Soviet oppresion solely becuase they wanted to leave Russia.

An 18 year old "trustafarian" growing up in Israel who refuses to serve is not a Refusenik.
by peacenick
Refusenick my ass, that names not even Russian. Its a ripoff of Peacenick. Speaking of which, all these stupid kids calling themselves peacenick should be ashamed of themselves. Back in the 60s we didnt have puters to print up flyers we had to make each one ourselves or get access to a press. These days those lazy trustafarians think they can just go around using their modern puters and do as they please. I had to walk five miles up hill through the snow and rain just to get to my dealer and THEN I had to spend a few minutes picking out the seeds. I tell you, these kids are just spoiled. Thats all there is to it.

These two Real Video's of this Israeli man saying the things he is saying, are needed to be heard on American TV and cable stations during Prime Time news hours. Ordinary people need to hear this and other Israeli's who are against the occupation and confiscation policies of Israel.

The President and the United States Government have chosen to be silent on the desperate needs of the Palestinian people, and the occupation and confiscation policies of the extremist Israeli government.

American broadcast tv and cable stations will not run these very much needed video's, because American medias policy it seems is to say nothing negative about Israel, and defininately don't show the American people closeup and panoramic views of the atrocities Israels government is perpetrating against a people who are in desperate need of International help on the ground.

The day to day humiliation of Palestinians is something, if happening to Americans, you would be certain, that there would be certain rebellion against such governmental actions to deprive even one person of basic civil liberties and rights as a human being.

The Palestinian people, the ordinary populations need very much to be protected against Israel's extremists, and its IDF or IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces.)

How do we break this news media and governmental silence?
by Xer
What is wrong with the rest of us? When I see a young person say such wise things it not only fills me with wonder and admiration, it puzzles me, what is wrong with the rest of 'humanity?' Are we e-volving or d-volving. Are these youngsters what is going to replace us or are we replacing them. How did we ever reach such a pinnacle of technological achievement while remaining such spiritually small narrow-minded creatures? How have we managed to survive not only the threat of nuclear destruction during the cold war, how have we not managed to wipe ourselves out long ago? It is time for the rest of us to grow up, as this young man has done. We could be far greater than we now are. If something is wrong, it is wrong. It doesn't matter whether the Germans do it, the Chinese do it, the Americans do it, or the Israelis do it. If it demeans human beings, robs them of their God given rights and lives, it is wrong. God bless this boy and all those in Israel like him! May God grant them even greater wisdom to help us see as they do, and grant us the inner peace to open our eyes and hearts. Amen.
by Kevin Convery
The word "occupation" when applied to Israel is deceptive and intellectually dishonest. The so-called "Palestinians" have no intention of living side-by-side with people they consider swine. It is sad but true that an entire generation of Israeli Arabs (the so-called "Palestinians") has been poisoned by Hitler-style anti-Semitic propaganda. I have seen no less neutral a reporter than Christian Amanpour stand mute, unable to comment, while a classroom full of Muslim schoolgirls pumped their fists into the air in unison and, as taught, shouted in Arabic, "The dirty infidel Jews must be destroyed." Their teacher interpreted the phrase with a smile on her face, herself a victim of the indoctrination against non-Muslims that is the hallmark of the present generation of Arab youth. It is important to keep in mind that there is a great chasm of difference between inadvertent civilian casualties in the midst of a legitimate military operation, and the deliberate targeting of babies in their mothers' arms, as the Muslims do regularly. It is also important to keep in mind that no political cause justifies deliberate attacks on non-military targets and civilians. As a corollary of that, we must keep in mind that there are certain crimes that, once committed, strip the criminal of any right to complain about over-harsh punishment. Repeated suicide bombings targeted at and carried out by children is certainly one such crime. The Muslims of Jenin, etc., by initiating and continuing to prosecute an urban guerilla war, by hiding bomb factories among homes and strapping their children with explosives, have militarized themselves as a people, gladly, smilingly, with a song to Allah on their lips and a martyr's fervor in their hearts. There is, therefore, no such thing as a "Palestinian civilian." They themselves have seen to this, and have no one else to blame for it. To engage in terror and then claim persecution when the people you terrorize come looking for you is dishonorable, two-faced, and ultimately doomed.
by X2
"There is, therefore, no such thing as a "Palestinian civilian."

Ah now we see the true face of the Zionists: pure racism. Suggesting that all Palestinians believe anything at all is racist. Palestinian is not a political belief. It is an ethnicity one is born into, much like being German or Russian or Chinese or even Basque or Cherokee. If you are born Palestinian, you have no choice in the matter. Likewise you cannot renounce being a Palestinian. What are you saying, that all Palestinians believe in violence against Jews because they have some sort of collective Borg-style mind?

It is the great myth of Zionism, that all Jews support Zionists and all Palestinians support Hamas. When it is pointed out to them this is impossible, they change their story to 90% for each, respectively. Both points happen to be complete bullshit. There is great division in both camps; a large number of Jews and a large number of Palestinians DO simply want to live as peaceful neighbours, as they did in that land before the creation of the Israeli state. It is worth remarking that before the arrival of the Zionists, there was much peace in the region. In fact, Jews in the region were considered lucky by Jews in Europe, because they were not persecuted as they were in Europe.
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