We Are Israeli (Women) Reservists. We Refuse to Serve
By Yael Even Or,
The Washington
Post
24 July 14
Whenever the Israeli army drafts the
reserves — which are made up of ex-soldiers — there are dissenters, resisters,
and AWOLers among the troops called to war. Now that Israel
has sent troops to Gaza
again and reserves are being summoned to service, dozens are refusing to take part.
We are more than 50 Israelis who were once soldiers and now
declare our refusal to be part of the reserves. We oppose the Israeli Army and
the conscription law. Partly, that’s because we revile the current military
operation. But most of the signers below are women and would not have fought in
combat. For us, the army is flawed for reasons far broader than “Operation
Protective Edge,” or even the occupation.
We rue the militarization of Israel and the
army’s discriminatory policies. One example is the way women are often
relegated to low-ranking secretarial positions. Another is the screening system that discriminates against Mizrachi (Jews whose
families originate in Arab countries) by keeping them from being fairly
represented inside the army’s most prestigious units. In Israeli society, one’s
unit and position determines much of one’s professional path in the civilian
afterlife.
To us, the current military operation and the way
militarization affects Israeli society are inseparable. In Israel , war is
not merely politics by other means — it replaces politics. Israel is no
longer able to think about a solution to a political conflict except in terms
of physical might; no wonder it is prone to never-ending cycles of mortal
violence. And when the cannons fire, no criticism may be heard.
This petition, long in the making, has a special urgency
because of the brutal military operation now taking place in our name. And
although combat soldiers are generally the ones prosecuting today’s war, their
work would not be possible without the many administrative roles in which most
of us served. So if there is a reason to oppose combat operations in Gaza , there is also a
reason to oppose the Israeli military apparatus as a whole. That is the message
of this petition:
We were soldiers in a wide variety of units and positions in
the Israeli military—a fact we now regret, because, in our service, we found
that troops who operate in the occupied territories aren’t the only ones
enforcing the mechanisms of control over Palestinian lives. In truth, the entire military
is implicated. For that reason, we now refuse to participate in our reserve
duties, and we support all those who resist being called to service.
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. As long as it exists in its current structure, its language
and mindset control us: We divide the world into good and evil according to the
military’s categories; the military serves as the leading authority on who is
valued more and who less in society — who is more responsible for the
occupation, who is allowed to vocalize their resistance to it and who isn’t,
and how they are allowed to do it. The military plays a central role in every
action plan and proposal discussed in the national conversation, which explains
the absence of any real argument about non-military solutions to the conflicts Israel has been
locked in with its neighbors.
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 neighbors. 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.
Many soldiers who serve in non-combat roles decline to
resist because they believe their actions, often routine and banal, are remote
from the violent results elsewhere. And actions that aren’t banal
— for example, decisions about the life or death of Palestinians made in
offices many kilometers away from the West Bank
— are classified, and so it’s difficult to have a public debate about them.
Unfortunately, we did not always refuse to perform the tasks we were charged
with, and in that way we, too, contributed to the violent actions of the
military.
During our time in the army, we witnessed (or participated
in) the military’s discriminatory behavior: the structural discrimination against women, which begins with
the initial screening and assignment of roles; the sexual harassment that was a
daily reality for some of us; the immigration absorption centers that
depend on uniformed military assistance. Some of us also saw firsthand how the
bureaucracy deliberately funnels technical students into technical positions,
without giving them the opportunity to serve in other roles. We were placed
into training courses among people who looked and sounded like us, rather than the mixing and
socializing that the army claims to do.
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.
We all participated, on one level or another, in this
ideology and took part in the game of “the good Israeli” that serves the
military loyally. Mostly our service did advance our positions
in universities and the labor market. We made connections and benefited from
the warm embrace of the Israeli consensus. But for the above reasons, these
benefits were not worth the costs.
By law, some of us are still registered as part of the reserved
forces (others have managed to win exemptions or have been granted them upon
their release), and the military keeps our names and personal information, as
well as the legal option to order us to “service.” But we will not participate
— in any way.
There are many reasons people refuse to serve in the Israeli
Army. Even we have differences in background and motivation about why we’ve
written this letter. Nevertheless, against attacks on those who resist
conscription, we support the resisters: the high school students who wrote a
refusal declaration letter, the Ultra orthodox protesting the new conscription
law, the Druze refusers, and all those whose conscience, personal situation, or
economic well-being do not allow them to serve. Under the guise of a
conversation about equality, these people are forced to pay the price. No more.
Yael Even Or
Efrat Even Tzur
Tal Aberman
Klil Agassi
Ofri Ilany
Eran Efrati
Dalit Baum
Roi Basha
Liat Bolzman
Lior Ben-Eliahu
Peleg Bar-Sapir
Moran Barir
Yotam Gidron
Maya Guttman
Gal Gvili
Namer Golan
Nirith Ben Horin
Uri Gordon
Yonatan N. Gez
Bosmat Gal
Or Glicklich
Erez Garnai
Diana Dolev
Sharon Dolev
Ariel Handel
Shira Hertzanu
Erez Wohl
Imri Havivi
Gal Chen
Shir Cohen
Gal Katz
Menachem Livne
Amir Livne Bar-on
Gilad Liberman
Dafna Lichtman
Yael Meiry
Amit Meyer
Maya Michaeli
Orian Michaeli
Shira Makin
Chen Misgav
Naama Nagar
Inbal Sinai
Kela Sappir
Shachaf Polakow
Avner Fitterman
Tom Pessah
Nadav Frankovitz
Tamar Kedem
Amnon Keren
Eyal Rozenberg
Guy Ron-Gilboa
Noa Shauer
Avi Shavit
Jen Shuka
Chen Tamir
