Ramallah: In the latest indication that it is not only the Arab world and the wider world beyond which is convinced that Israel is targeting civilians in Gaza, a number of Israeli reservists are refusing to enter military service to fight in Gaza.
The Washington Post has published a petition signed by 51 former military force members (some of whom continue to serve in reserve units) that states that they refuse to participate in the ongoing conflict and that they support Israelis who will not serve.
The petition is critical of the Israeli army’s policies against the Palestinians. “The Israeli Army, a fundamental part of Israelis’ lives, is also the power that rules over the Palestinians living in the territories occupied in 1967,” it reads.
“The Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are deprived of civil rights and human rights. They live under a different legal system from their Jewish neighbours. This is not exclusively the fault of soldiers who operate in these territories. Those troops are, therefore, not the only ones obligated to refuse. Many of us served in logistical and bureaucratic support roles; there, we found that the entire military helps implement the oppression of the Palestinians.”
Israeli daily Haaretz has stated that the significance of the petition is that the writers’ criticisms extend beyond the actions of the Israeli military forces in the occupied territories, but also attacks the army’s role in Israeli society. The authors claim that the army seeks to erase the culture and struggles of minority group members and also to maintain the continuity of divisions between groups within minorities.
In the petition they say, “The military tries to present itself as an institution that enables social mobility — a stepping-stone into Israeli society. In reality, it perpetuates segregation. We believe it is not accidental that those who come from middle- and high- income families land in elite intelligence units, and from there often go to work for high-paying technology companies. We think it is not accidental that when soldiers from a firearm maintenance or quartermaster unit desert or leave the military, often driven by the need to financially support their families, they are called “draft-dodgers”.
The military enshrines an image of the “good Israeli,” who in reality derives his power by subjugating others. The central place of the military in Israeli society, and this ideal image it creates, work together to erase the cultures and struggles of the Mizrachi, Ethiopians, Palestinians, Russians, Druze, the Ultra-Orthodox, Bedouins, and women.”
“For us,” the signatories state, “the army is flawed for reasons far broader than “Operation Protective Edge,” or even the occupation.”
