Refusing to serve the occupation! We are Israeli teenagers who refuse to take part in an army that illegaly and brutally occupies the Palestinian Territories and are willing to pay the price for our struggle against the occupation and in favor of peace.
THE SHMINISTIM TOUR. Young Israelis speak their conscience
Dear friends,
On February 1st, Emelia Marcovich is going to military prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli army
Because we can’t understand why having a conscience is a crime, we’ll be holding a demonstration in support of Emelia.
When- Thursday, January 28th, 18:30
Where- We’ll meet in Dizengoff sq.
You can bring banners, musical instruments or any other thing you want.
We ask you to help us to arrange demonstrations that will take place simultaneously in different locations, including the one that will be in Israel,
The demo will take place on January 9th.
We suggest non-violent protest in front of Israeli embassies and consulates in different places around the world.
If you would like to arrange such a demo, or if you know someone who will, please contact us: shministim10@gmail.com
We’ll be happy to answer your questions and help you to organize.
The event on facebook -
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=228763641008&ref=mf
Thank you for your time.
Happy holidays,
Shministim Letter 2009-2010
Or Ben-David returns to prison after being sentenced for 34 days. This is her 3rd prison term in a row. Further information and recommended action follows.
After completing a second prison term, Or Ben-David, of the 2009-2010 high school seniors letter of refusal, was sentenced earlier today, Dec. 15th, to 34 days in prison. She will serve her sentence in the military prison for women (no. 400) in Tzrifin/Sarafand.
Or is expected to be released on Jan. 21st and is likely to be imprisoned again soon afterwards. Her address in prison is:
Or Ben-David
Military ID 6054025
Military Prison No. 400
Military Postal Code 02447, IDF
Israel
Fax: +972-3-9579389
Since the prison authorities often block mail from reaching imprisoned objectors, we also recommend that you send your letters of support and encouragement via e-mail to shministim10@gmail.com and they will be printed out and delivered during visits.
Or Ben-David returns to prison for a second 20-day term in a row. Full information and recommended action follow.
After completing her first prison term, Or Ben-David, of the 2009-2010 high school seniors letter of refusal, was sentenced earlier today (16 Nov.) to 20 more days in the military prison for women (no. 400) in Tzrifin. This is her second term in prison and the third time she has been tried and sentenced for her refusal to enlist. She is due to be released from prison on 3 December and is likely to be imprisoned again soon afterwards. Continue reading »
Title: Demo in support of CO Or Ben-David
Location: Prison #400, Tzrifin/Sarafand
Description: We will meet in front of military prison No. 400 and protest against the imprisonment of CO Or Ben-David and in support of her actions.
Or is paying a price for her opinion, just because it differs from the majority’s. Continue reading »
Or Ben-David, 19, from Jerusalem, a signatory of the 2009-2010 high school seniors letter of refusal, was sentenced earlier today (29 Oct.) to 20 days in military prison. This sentence follows a sentence of seven days of confinement to base given her a week ago (on the evening of 22 Oct). She is now held in the military prison for women (no. 400) in Tzrifin.
Or originally requested to appear before the so-called “Conscience Committee” (an internal military committee reviewing requests for exemption from military service on grounds of conscience in Isarel), but was never summoned to appear before it.
In a letter explaining her decision to refuse (the full text of this statement can be read here), Or wrote:
To refuse means to say no! No to the military rule in the West Bank, no to the use of violence as a means of defence, no to patriarchy, no to violence against innocent people, no to abuse against soldiers, no to war and no to a society that claims to be democratic, but forces youths to carry weapons, kill and be killed.
…
I refuse because I want to make a difference. I want all those Palestinian youths who have lost hope to see that there are Israelis who care and who make a different choice. I want all those of my friends who became soldiers or who are about to become soldiers to see that things don’t have to be the way they are and that doing all those immoral things is not something to be taken for granted, that another way is possible, that you don’t have to suffer inside a military system that oppresses you (most soldiers suffer while they’re in the army). Maybe they too will open their eyes and their minds a bit more to what is going on around them.
Or Ben-David is due to be released from prison on November 15th, but is likely to be imprisoned again soon afterwards. Continue reading »
A new collective declaration of refusal by Israeli youths, the 2009-2010 high school seniors letter, went public last week. Today (22 Oct.), two of its signatories, Efi Brenner and Or Ben-David, came to the military induction base in Tel-Hashomer and there refused to enlist. Efi was indeed sent to prison, while Or has not yet been sentenced (she was told that the military prison for women was full), and will have to return to the induction base tomorrow, probably spend the weekend there and be sent to prison on Sunday. We will run a separate update on her case once she is in prison.
Efi Brenner, 18, from Rishon Le Zion (a suburb of Tel-Aviv), is a familiar figure among young anti-Occupation and animal rights activists in Israel. He was sentenced today to his first prison term of ten days (more terms in prison are likely to follow), which he serves in Military Prison no. 6 near Atlit. Following the media exposure that the Seniors’ Letter has received after it was made public, Efi was kicked out of home by his father, and spent the last days before imprisonment at a friend’s house. In prison he has already been transferred to the isolation ward for refusing to obey the military dressing code. In addition, the prison authorities decided (against all known regulations) not to allow him to take books with him into prison.
Efi has prepared the following statement upon entering prison:
I object to oppression, whether it is commited by a hierarchical organisation, such as the military is, or whether it is commited by the human species against animals. The Israeli government and military conduct a policy of occupation and oppression against the Palestinian people since 1948. It began with the expusion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948, which continues to this day, and continued with the imposition of an oppressive military rule on Palestinians, with the restriction of the freedom of movement of all people, with roads for Israelis only, with administrative detentions, house demolitions, land thefts, etc. We must act in peaceful ways and refuse to take part in the crimes commited by the military. That is our true duty. All the things mentioned above stand agaist the basic values of freedom and justice in which I believe and for which I struggle. I therefore refuse to enlist to the Israeli military and indeed to any military force of any kind.
Efi Brenner is due to be released from prison on 30 October, but is likely to be imprisoned again soon afterwards. Continue reading »
We, the undersigned young women and men, Jews and Arabs from all parts of the country, hereby declare that we will toil against the occupation and oppression policies of the Israeli government in the occupied territories, and in the territory of the land of Israel, and therefore refuse to take part in actions related to such policies, which are carried out in our name by the Israeli Defence Force.
We are all community activists and contribute in various ways to a variety of sectors in the Israeli society. We believe that contribution, cooperation and volunteerism are a way of life, and should not be limited to just two or three years. Our conscientious objection stems directly from our volunteer experience, from the values we believe in, from our love of the society that we are a part of and in which we live, from our respect of every human being, and from the aim of making our country a better place for all of its inhabitants.
The occupation creates an unbearable actuality for the Palestinians in the occupied territories. The checkpoint policy, land annexation, the building of the apartheid wall, paving of roads for Israeli’s only, settlement projects, and assassinations – all these have been sowing destruction in the West Bank for over 4 decades. The siege on Gaza and the prevention of importing materials, including basic food products and humanitarian aid, undermines the basic minimal living conditions of Gaza’s residents. We cannot tolerate such a reality.
The claim put forth by the spokespersons of the government and the army, that the continuation of the occupation arises from security reasons, has no substance. No country that has fought for its independence has ever been defeated by military means. The suffering of the Palestinian people and their subjugation is the cause of violent resistance. Israel’s public will never be safe as long as the Palestinian nation is under occupation. There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – only peace will ensure life and security for Jews and Arabs in this country.
The Israeli government frequently boasts that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East”. The occupation is a complete contradiction to this claim. Can a government that controls the lives of millions of people who did not take part in elections be called a “democracy”? Can military rule of a civilian population be considered anything other than a dictatorship?
The Israeli Army claims that it is “the most ethical army in the world”. However, time and again reality proves that occupation and ethics cannot stand together. When young armed men are sent on policing missions in the midst of occupied disenfranchised persons, when the government attempts to repress the struggle of the disenfranchised for independence by force – the stage is set for the injury of civilian population and committing of war crimes. Those who carry out such actions are not “exceptions” or “bad apples”. The occupation is the cess pool from in which such actions fester. The occupation has led the Israel Army to breach international treaties, UN decisions, and recommendations of the international court, and even Israeli law, time and again.
Settlement policy is racist in principle. In the name of a Messianic ideology, it has created a reality of apartheid in the West Bank. Disenfranchised Palestinians and privileged settlers live contrastive lives side by side. Settlers participate in the election of the government that administers their affairs, while the Palestinians live under military rule. Settlers enjoy social security benefits, and economic benefits, while Palestinians live a life of poverty and enslavement. Settlers are tried under Israeli law in Israeli courts, while Palestinians are tried at military courts with out the basic right of a fair proceeding. Any human opposed to racism finds this reality repulsive and untenable.
There are those who claim that we are objectors, although the Israeli government is the most consistent objector – in objecting to peace. The Israeli Army is not a “defence force”, but an aggressive occupation force. The Israeli government does not extend an olive branch, rather it upholds violent nationalism.
The occupation is a continuous crime against Israeli society. Employment of Palestinians under slave conditions in the Israeli job market causes a deterioration of conditions for all workers in the market and brings about a violation of their rights. Instead of investing in social budgets, the Israeli government has been investing for more than 40 years in the building of villas and by-pass roads in the settlements, in order to alter ground reality. The warped norms and the violence that young soldiers confess to in the territories have permeated the green line, and are expressed in a rise in violence and racism throughout Israeli society.
Out of sense of responsibility and concern for the two nations that live in this country, we cannot stand idle. We were born into a reality of occupation, and many of our generation see this as a “natural” state. In Israeli society it is a matter of fact that at 18, every young man and woman partakes in military service. However, we cannot ignore the truth – the occupation is an extreme situation, violent, racist, inhuman, illegal, non democratic, and immoral, that is life threatening for both nations. We that have been brought up on values of liberty, justice, righteousness and peace cannot accept it.
Our objection to becoming soldiers of the occupation stems from our loyalty to our values and to the society surrounding us, and it is part of our ongoing struggle for peace and equality, a struggle whose Jewish-Arab nature proves that peace and co-existence is possible. This is our way, and we are willing to pay the price.
The Undersigned,
Members of the Seniors’ Letter Group 2009-2010