However, a Mall is handy. There are several (or many) different shops at the same place. It spares time.

So today, I had to buy three little things in three different shops. Therefore, I went to the Mall. The infamous Mall, where 80 Jewish adolescent tried to lynch two Palestinian youngsters from the nearby refugee camp. Just to get out of the camp, even for a walk through a Jewish (racist) neighborhood is a kind of distraction. It was in April or March 2008 – on the official Holocaust Rememberance Day! – When this occurred – and right in front of the Mall. I wrote about this some time ago.

At my arrival at the Mall, I went through the security check, which, as in every Mall in Israel is quite serious. It’s not only a check of your bags and a short check with a hand-metal detector, but one has to go through a door like x-ray metal detector. A normal “security check” is going through the metal detector and, depending on how you look and on the mood of the (private) security guard. Sometimes they wave you through, without checking your bags, especially for people like me, who definitely do not “look Arab”. Something that NEVER happens to a Palestinian woman (or man); their bags are ALWAYS thoroughly checked.

My “neighborhood” lies over the Green Line and is formally a settlement, but not treated as such, as Jerusalem “annexed” these territories in East Jerusalem in 1968. Only in the 1980s, 1990s and from then on continuously, Jewish neighborhoods were built. “My” neighborhood is therefore in the middle of at least four or five Arab neighborhoods, villages and a refugee camp. There is no doubt – “they” were there before “us”, and “we” came to live amongst “them”.

Nevertheless, my “neighbors” don’t like to see Arabs in “our” neighborhood. It’s very clear and even openly said and written in local newsletters.

So, at the Mall, just after the check, I remembered that I wanted to smoke a cigarette – and told it to the security guard, so that I won’t have to go a second time through the check. This is a very usual practice.

I wasn’t in a hurry. I smoked my cigarette slowly, absently observing the checking right next to me. One obviously pregnant Jewish woman entered the Mall without going through the x-ray. This is a very usual practice. If you’re pregnant (obviously or not), you don’t have to go through the x-ray, if you don’t want to.

But then came a group of young Palestinian women, in hijab and Islamic dress. As usual, they had to show their ID card (something that Jews, also, don’t have to do), their bags thoroughly checked. Four of them got through, but the fifth and last one didn’t want to go through the x-ray, saying that she was pregnant. I saw that this was going to be difficult, as the guards insisted that she goes through it nevertheless.

Then I approached and told the guard that pregnant Jewish women never had to go through the x-ray (which he tried to deny) that I had just seen a few minutes ago that he allowed a Jewish pregnant woman to pass without it.

The guard insisted that she should go through, that anyway – the x-ray was “nothing”. Again, I told him that Jewish women never pass through this – and why they can do this, if really it’s “nothing”. The guard became a bit nervous and confused, not knowing what he should do. A Palestinian man came along, maybe her husband, speaking perfectly Hebrew, saying assertively: “She is pregnant!” Miracle! He guards let her pass the other way, NOT through the x-ray… One exception out of many others who have no choice than to go through it, if they want to enter the mall.

As I knew that with my intervention I had made myself suspicious, I went again through the full check, although the guards knew that I had just come back to smoke, and that they had already checked me before. But now they checked my bags more thoroughly than before!

After passing, I said to the guard: “You know, if she really had been a terrorist, she would have dressed as Jewish woman, and not come with friends, with hijab and Islamic dress.” – His reply: “You never know…” – Me: “But she’s a human being, it can as well be true (that she is pregnant)” – Reply: “Well, we see that a bit differently – and concerning security… (Meaning: Who cares about a Palestinian baby, if you want to be sure that no Jews are in danger…) – I still insisted a bit about the humanness of Palestinians, and received more and more aggressive looks, expressions of doubt, and the advice not to disturb their work and not to try to teach them HOW to do their job…

There is absolutely NOTHING special about this incident. It’s completely usual. In writing this, I don’t intend to prove that Israel is increasingly racist. This is known everywhere and supported by countless testimonies. Mine is just another one. An attempt to document what happens here – in small and in “big” every single day…

Arabs, after all, are not quite as “human” as “we” are, and they are perfectly capable to blow up their friends, their babies, their toddlers, their husbands – because, “as everyone knows” their “only wish is to kill us”… – No further comment.

There is really nothing more to say. What else could be added… ?? This is simply reality… It has happened, and can happen anytime in the Occupied West Bank – or (no more these days, though…) at Erez Checkpoint to Gaza.

But I think that nowadays private cars wouldn’t even get THAT close to the checkpoint between besieged Gaza and Israel proper.

Just something I’d want to say: Watch the video and tell others about it!

You would help us all!

Key Zionist pioneer renounces Zionism
By Helena Cobban – August 5, 2009, 11:45AM

I’ve never met Dov Yermiya, a Jewish Israeli peace activist who is now 94 years old. But I read of course the book he published in 1983 in which he wrote with anguish about the torture and other gross mistreatment of civilians he witnessed directly during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon the year before.

I have it in my hand now.

I just learned, in this open letter published today by Uri Avnery, that Yermiya recently renounced the ideology and practice of Zionism with these stirring words:

“I, a 95 year old Sabra (native born Israeli Jew), who has plowed its fields, planted trees, built a house and fathered sons, grandsons and great-grandsons, and also shed his blood in the battle for the founding of the State of Israel,

Declare herewith that I renounce my belief in the Zionism which has failed, that I shall not be loyal to the Jewish fascist state and its mad visions, that I shall not sing anymore its nationalist anthem, that I shall stand at attention only on the days of mourning for those fallen on both sides in the wars, and that I look with a broken heart at an Israel that is committing suicide and at the three generations of offspring that I have bred and raised in it.
… for 42 years, Israel turned what should have been Palestine into a giant detention camp, and is holding a whole people captive under an oppressive and cruel regime, with the sole aim of taking away their country, come what may!!!
The IDF eagerly suppresses their efforts at rebellion, with the active assistance of the settlement thugs, by the brutal means of a sophisticated Apartheid and a choking blockade, inhuman harassment of the sick and of women in labor, the destruction of their economy and the theft of their best land and water.
Over all this there is waving the black flag of the frightening contempt for the life and blood of the Palestinians. Israel will never be forgiven for the terrible toll of blood spilt, and especially the blood of children, in hair-raising quantities…”

Avnery’s response is fascinating. He too is a veteran peace activist, and of about the same generation as Yermiya. But in the letter he is, I think, pleading with Yermiya not to renounce Zionism completely, but rather to reconnect with the “idealistic” Zionism that they both experienced during their youth.

He writes,
“When I think of our youth, yours and mine, one scene is never far from my mind: the 1947 Dalia festival.
Tens of thousands of young men and women were sitting on the slope of a hill in the natural amphitheater near Kibbutz Dalia on Mount Carmel. Ostensibly it was a festival of folk dancing, but in reality it was much more – a great celebration of the new Hebrew culture which we were then creating in the country, in which folk dancing played an important role. The dancing groups came mainly from the kibbutzim and the youth movements, and the dances were original Hebrew creations, interwoven with Russian, Polish, Yemenite and Hassidic ones. A group of Arabs danced the Debka in ecstasy, dancing and dancing and dancing on.
In the middle of the event, the loudspeakers announced that members of the UN Commission of Inquiry, which had been sent by the international organization to decide upon the future of the country, were joining us. When we saw them entering the amphitheater, the tens of thousands spontaneously rose to their feet and started to sing the “Hatikva”, the national anthem, with a holy fervor that reverberated from the surrounding mountains.
We did not know then that within half a year the great Hebrew-Arab war would break out – our War of Independence and their Naqba. I believe that most of the 6000 young people who fell in the war on our side, as well as the thousands that were wounded – like you and me – were present at that moment in Dalia, seeing each other and singing together.

What state did we think of then? What state did we set out to create?
What has happened to the Hebrew society, the Hebrew culture, the Hebrew morality that we were so proud of then?”

Then, he pleads this:
“You, Dov, have invested in this state much too much to turn your back on it in a gesture of anger and despair. The most hackneyed and worn-out slogan in Israel is also true: “We don’t have another state!”
Other states in the world have sunk to the depths of depravity and committed unspeakable crimes, far beyond our worst sins, and still brought themselves back to the family of nations and redeemed their souls.
We and all the members of our generation, who were among those who created this state, bear a heavy responsibility for it. A responsibility to our offspring, to those oppressed by this state, to the entire world. From this responsibility we cannot escape.

Even at your respectable age, and precisely because of it and because of what you represent, you must be a compass for the young and tell them: This state belongs to you, you can change it, don’t allow the nationalist wreckers to steal it from you!
True, 61 years ago we had another state in mind. Now, after our state has tumbled to where it is today, we must remember that other state, and remind everybody, every day, what the state should have been like, what it can be like, and not allow our vision to disappear like a dream. Let’s lend our shoulders to every effort to repair and heal!”

These are very weighty issues that these two longtime Zionists are debating.

I remember the evening I had back in early March with longtime Jewish-Israeli nonviolence activist Amos Gvirtz. Gvirtz is “only” in his late 60s or early 70s. But like Avnery and Yermiya he grew up in Israel.

He told me in March,
“I became an anti-Zionist after Oslo, when the government expelled the Arabs of Jahhaleenn to make room for the big new settlement area if Maale Adummim… Like the Zionists, I believe we Jews need a state of our own. But unlike the Zionists I don’t think this should be built on the ruins of someone else’s home. So our state need not necessarily be right here.”

Gvirtz, too, like Avnery, identified a strong link between the events of 1947-48 and the situation today– though the nature of the link Gvirtz identified was very different from Avnery’s: “The Nakba wasn’t really a single event that happened in 1948, so much as a long-drawn-out process, that continues to this day.” In other words, he was quite unwilling to neatly divide Israeli history, as Avnery still does, between the idealized, pre-lapsarian days of the 1947 Dalia festival and the post-lapsarian era that was inaugurated– in Avnery’s view– only by Israel’s conquest of the West Bank.

Obviously, this is a very weighty issue for Zionists and their supporters to grapple with. Did 1967 mark a notable break between a laudable past and a troublesome present? Or were there indeed, as Gvirtz and many other current non- and anti-Zionists have argued many elements of continuity from the 1947 period right through to the present?

Anyway, I’d love to see the whole text of the latest Yermiya letter from which Avnery is quoting, if anyone can provide a link to it, preferably in English. The only recent English text that I could find by him online was this letter, published in the Communist weekly Zo Haderekh in June 2008.

In it, Yermiya was returning to Defense Minister Barak the invitation he had been sent to attend a ceremony to honor all veterans of Israel’s 1948 “War of Independence”.

He wrote,
“As a veteran of the 1948 war, who was already wounded in face to face combat two weeks before the Declaration of the State, I feel, obliged herewith to return the invitation to you, as Minister of Defense. I do so regretfully but see this as my duty.
I consider you, Ehud Barak, as one of the top military commanders and prominent political leaders who were responsible for converting the army from “the Israeli Defense Force” to an army of occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people and defender of the criminal settlements in their country.
40 years of occupation have utterly corrupted the Israeli army and all strata of Israeli society. They are both characterized by the nationalist ‘east wind’ [the east wind brings the chamsin and locusts - C.A.] which blows and kindles conflagrations of endless wars, which threaten our people and land with the third and final destruction. Your share in the responsibility for all this is enormous, and therefore I return your invitation to you, without thanks…”

What should I add to this?

Maybe because I’m rather of the generation of Gvirtz, maybe because my own way was much shorter – having arrived only 14 years ago to Israel with dreams that were (still) close to those described by Avnery, but having seen the “truth”, as Yermiya and Gvirtz describe it, 10 years later (already.. or “only” as one would like to see it) and have been fighting in my own little way to stop this development in the last 4 years, I rather agree with Yermiya and Gvirtz: “Like the Zionists, I believe we Jews need a state of our own. But unlike the Zionists I don’t think this should be built on the ruins of someone else’s home. So our state need not necessarily be right here.”

And of course – I don’t think that there are 2 separate stages in the history of Israel – before and after 1967 – but a continuous development, probably accelerated by the conquest of 1967 and the ensuing settlement movement. Obviously (for me) “The Nakba wasn’t really a single event that happened in 1948, so much as a long-drawn-out process, that continues to this day.” as Gvirtz says.

Whatever is “the truth” – Avnery’s view or Gvirtz, Israel NOW has become what Yermiya states, a “Jewish fascist state”, and me too, I feel that “Israel is committing suicide”.

“Over all this there is waving the black flag of the frightening contempt for the life and blood of the Palestinians. Israel will never be forgiven for the terrible toll of blood spilt, and especially the blood of children, in hair-raising quantities…”

Dov Yermiya speaks out the feelings that are in my heart…

No?? Ooops!!

Well anyway, Gazan children should never believe that Israelis could maybe be good people, with whom it would be possible to live in peace…

Or… did I get something wrong???

________________________

“Items banned by the Israeli authorities last week included jam, biscuits and tomato paste, resulting in 498 boxes of USAID cargo and 2,488 boxes of World Vision cargo stopped from delivery to Gaza. According to COGAT*, food parcels containing these foodstuffs, as well as tea, sweets and date bars, will be rejected in the future”.

UN – OCHA, Field update on Gaza from the humanitarian coordinator, 10-16 March 2009

The American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights Foundation (AAPER Foundation) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to inform the American public about the human and national rights of the Palestinian people and the role of the United States in the Middle East.

AAPER Foundation was formed in 2003 by an attorney who, while studying human rights law just a few blocks from Capitol Hill during the second Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, became concerned by congressional resolutions that failed to hold Israel’s government either responsible or accountable for violations of Palestinian human rights.

As an Israeli I support this initiative, and if you value Palestinian human rights and peace then you should too.

The killing in Gaza continues. Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured, air-strikes have caused utter devastation and entire families are left homeless.

Civilians in the south of Israel are being held captive by a government which lies to them and abuses them. Destruction and death in Gaza will not ensure their future, but rather lead to more violence and killings.

 

Join us in protest this coming Saturday, 3.1.2009, in Tel Aviv. Together we will call out:

Stop the Killing! No to the Siege! Yes to life for both peoples!

 

In these dark days, let us stick to our message:

Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies!

 

Our demand: A full truce and the lifting of the siege on Gaza NOW!

 

We meet at the corner of Frishman St. and Khen Boulevard at 18:30

 

* Information about transportation from across the country will be published shortly.

 

 

Please note: For the past week mass arrests have been carried out amongst Palestinian citizens of Israel who are exercising their democratic right to protest. On Saturday, at 13:00, before the Tel Aviv demonstration, a mass protest rally will be held in Sakhnin by the High Committee of Arab Israelis against the killing in Gaza. Please make an effort to join – your presence is of the essence!

 

————-

For donations, crucial for our demonstration, please send checks made out to “Matte Hacoalitsia” at PO box 1335, Kfar Saba 44113

The message of the article still stands:

Since then, I have watched on television as young Jews in Hebron assaulted their neighbors, including defenseless families – vandalizing property, destroying, burning and defacing sites holy to others. And my words in Bern are ringing in my ears. I told myself: I, too, am keeping silent. And I was ashamed.

Therefore, I am breaking my silence. Because I believe that the individual is also obligated to make his voice heard – his personal voice, not a political voice – in order to warn against atrocity. I will not be drawn into the unnecessary debate over whether there was or was not a “pogrom” in Hebron, because what happened in Europe in the past cannot be likened to anything; it has no parallel in human history. The lawbreakers’ use of similar terms against our security forces is also an unforgiveable crime.

It is not only the world that must learn the lessons; so must we. Every one of us. Including myself. And I must do so honestly, publicly. To tell the public what I have held back for so long.

I am ashamed of my silence. I saw the uprooting of olive trees, the overturning of market stalls, the attacks on property, and sometimes on innocent people, and I kept silent. I heard the words of incitement, I identified the messages and I was ashamed, but I kept silent.

The 20th century proved that words can become a strategic weapon that threatens the entire world, I said in Bern. It is a weapon that our enemies still use against us today. It has been proven that incitement always precedes action – that in a place where one can say anything, one can also do anything. The actions were preceded by brainwashing: statements that planted messages masquerading as ideology, in the name of which everything is permissible, in the hearts of young people trying to find their way. That is how they silenced the voice of conscience. And these young people unhesitatingly perpetrated ruthless deeds.

Here’s a link to the full article.

Here below I’ll post the mail as I received it, but there is more background information at the IPCRI site – under “What’s NEW in IPCRI”:

A Museum of Tolerance built on top of a Muslim Cemetery in Jerusalem?

Hard to Believe? It must be stopped!!!!

Join the Campaign

October 29, 2008

Can you even imagine the possibility of the State of Israel and the Jerusalem municipality building a Museum of Tolerance on the site of a Muslim Cemetery in the heart of Jerusalem? Well it is happening. We tried to fight it in court but we lost.

Imagine what would happen if someone in Europe – in Germany or Austria for instance, tried to build a Museum of Tolerance on top of Jewish graves.

The legal battle has been lost, now we must move on to the political battle. We must prevent this museum from being built on that site. Jerusalem will never be a city of peace if this is allowed to move forward.

Jerusalem is the one city in the world where there is a real potential to demonstrate that Jews, Christians and Muslims can live together in peace, understanding and real tolerance. Jerusalem is the place where we can learn to celebrate the diversities of our civilizations. If the construction of this museum is allowed to resume on top of a Muslim cemetery of religious and historical importance in the center of Jerusalem, this Holy city, will never realize its potential.

For the peace of Jerusalem, for the chance of peace, understanding and tolerance between Jews, Muslims and Christians we must stop this dangerous act.

We call on the Government of Israel and the Municipality of Jerusalem to stop the construction of the Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in name of public safety and in protection of the reputation of the State of Israel and the safety of Jews all around the world.

We call on Jerusalemites, Israelis and Palestinians to join our campaign.

We call on the candidates for Mayor of Jerusalem and for the Jerusalem City Council to speak out during the remaining days of the campaign – promise us that you won’t let this Museum be built in the Mamilla Cemetery.

We call on the Chief Rabbis of Israel not to let this shame on Judaism take place. In the name of Judaism, do not allow this Museum to built on top of Muslim graves.

We call on Israelis and Palestinians alike to send letters to your Presidents, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers urging them to stop the construction of the Museum in that location.

We call on Jews all over to write to the Wiesenthal Center Director Rabbi Hier urging him to change the location of the Museum. We urge Jews everywhere to write to the Government of Israel voice your objection to building a Museum of Tolerance on top of Muslim graves.

We call on Rabbis around the world to join the campaign. We are looking for several Rabbis who will coordinate organizing a Rabbis letter against the building of the Museum over Muslim graves.

We call on citizens of the world to join the campaign – raise your voices, – write to your own governments urging them to pressure the Israeli government to cease the construction of the Museum in that location.

Useful addresses and contacts:

President Marvin Hier, Dean, Wiesenthal Center
Fax: ++1-310-553-4521
email: information@wiesenthal.net

President Shimon Peres
Fax: ++972-2-567-1314
email: president@president.gov.il

Prime Minister Olmert
Fax: +972-2-670-5475
email: pmo.heb@it.pmo.gov.il

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
Fax: ++972-2-530-3367
email: sar@mfa.gov.il

Mayor of Jerusalem
Fax: ++972-2-629-6014
email: mankal@jerusalem.muni.il

Sfardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Amar
Fax: ++972-2-537-1305
email: rabbis@rabbinate.gov.il

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi
Fax: ++972-2-537-7872
email: rabbia@rabbinate.gov.il

President Mahmoud Abbas
Fax: ++972-2-240-9648

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
Fax: ++972-2- 295-0970

Foreign Minister Riad Malki
Fax: ++970-2-240-3372 or ++972-2-240-3372
email: mofapal@gmail.com

I immigrated to this country 12 years ago, as an adult, with 2 babies. I did it for “Zionist” reasons – not to “settle the land” beyond the Green Line, but because I wanted to live in a Jewish environment and saw many advantages in living here, concerning this goal.

So, for ten years I lived here as a completely “regular” Israeli, having doubts about my governments policies, but no big contestation or no big questioning. Essentially I believed what most Israelis believe: That we were “only” defending ourselves against Arab/Palestinians aggressions. That our army was doing it’s best to be “human”, despite all the adversity and all the atrocities committed by the enemy. That our Secret Service was here to protect us (Israelis) and doing it’s best as well to be as “human” as possible.

I was proven wrong.

By whom?
By the Secret Service itself.

I cannot enter in detail into what happened to me in a completely surprising and unexpected way – you’ll have to take my word for what I say about this.

On a bright summer morning in June 2006, I woke up unusually early, and more unusually, I got up and went straight to my computer. From one minute to another (actually it took about half an hour) I, who until then was a completely “innocent”, “naive” and good willing Israeli mother, was thrown right into the middle of the conflict in a way that very few people are able to grasp.

I did nothing wrong, nothing at all. In my own eyes – and in the eyes of all those who know about it – what I did was something I just had to do and was good for both sides (not kidding).

What I had found on my computer made me see immense humanity in my “enemy”. This has forever changed my life. I did a lot of personal inquiry about who and how and why – sometimes even in anger, because this event has had many very serious and very unpleasant consequences for me. Nevertheless, I’m forever thankful for what happened – it made me see the deepest humanity I ever saw in my life – except for history books and accounts of events that didn’t touch me directly.

Naturally I was questionned how and why and so on – how I came into this position – and truly, I was warmly thanked for the tiny little thing I had done, that finally didn’t matter very much in the course of history. Yet, I was told that my action had been good and courageous.

Fine – but what happened next was that my privacy was violated completely and the real “thank you” was nothing but abuse.

It was then that I realized that “something was wrong”: That if I, the perfect Zionist Israeli citzen, was “thanked” in such an abusive way (although what I received as “abuse” was tiny compared to what Palestinians usually get), how must it be for a Palestinian “suspect”?

It was then that I began to investigate and have a closer look into what was going on, as I call it “on the other side of the Wall”.

This was more than 2 years ago. I slowly got in contact with “real Palestinians” – meaning that I met and talked to Israeli Arabs and Palestinians and learned to understand their perception, their feelings and what actually was “going on” on their side.

I found out that Palestinians where not the “devils” as they are seen in mainstream Israeli minds. I naively thought that by telling my friends and colleagues about my “discovery” I would bring them “good news”.

The complete opposite happened.

While these people had known me for 10 years, liked/loved me and trusted me, in very little time I was categorized as “crazy”, “manipulated” and the like. Most friends dropped me completely. One of my bosses, a very educated and intelligent man, officially left-wing, told me (I quote, because I’ll never forget that sentence!!): “But Eva, what happened to you? A normal Israeli doesn’t know any Arabs!”

In the meantime I have learned that indeed, I’m not “normal” any more.

About 95% of all Jewish Israelis never talked (deeply and on a basis of mutal respect) to any Palestinians in their whole life. Palestinians almost don’t exist in the life of “regular” Israelis. “They” are somewhere – in Gaza, in Jenin – just thinking of how best to kill us. I’m barely exaggerating – I’m talking about what “regular” Israelis think. (I’ve written a report about this matter, called “From Jerusalem to Auschwitz”).

Yet, as Israeli living where I do, I am subjected to exactly the same conditions as all my Israeli neighbors. Terrorist do not distinguish between a “good Israeli” or a “bad Israeli” when they’re out to kill.

I, my husband and my children travel on public busses in Jerusalem every day. We go to malls, we go to the pedestrian streets, we go to movies – we live here, every single day. Many people I know have bought cars just to avoid to take busses. I never could afford a car, and will not be able to buy one in the near future.

My and my husbands bus line goes through ALL the main and “favorite” spots for terrorist attacks. Even the next to last “bulldozer attack” was on a bus station I use many times. It’s been more than once that I’ve (Thank God!) escaped a bombing by a minute – once it was not more than 30 seconds. Our bus left the station at French Hill station, moved away, and right behind us, a young woman blew herself up in the remaining crowd.

French Hill Junction has been the target of at least 15 attacks in the 12 years I’ve been living here, and I have to go with my bus line EVERY DAY through that junction.

The father of a friend of mine was killed in a bus bombing at French Hill Junction in exactly MY bus line – the one I need to take to get to town at all. My bus goes through Jaffa road, through the spots where 4 busses have been blown up within a few weeks in 1996. My bus passes Machane Yehuda Market, where I often stop to do some shopping.

If I would make a list of people I know who have been killed or wounded in such attacks, and of friends of friends I know very well, this list would be long.

In not many years, my two children will have to join the army. I would love to stop this war as soon as possible. I would say that I would love to stop it “yesterday”.

So – when someone on mepeace or anywhere else tells me that in claiming for basic Justice for Palestinians to obtain the Peace (means non-violence) that Israelis need I’m inciting and calling for War, I slightly get “mad” (sometimes ).

In these two years of investigating what is going on “on the other side of the Wall”, I’ve seen too many almost unbelievable abuses of basic rights of civilians (not “fighters” in any way). I’ve learned about incredible injustices, witnessed never imagined racism and more and more.

While I can’t judge what has been done or not in the past – I admit that this whole issue is way to complex and complicated to come to any clear conclusion – I can see what is going on now.

And whatever others say or believe – and while I am totally aware of Quassams falling on Sderot and all other violences committed – even among Palestinians themselves – I came to the conclusion that there is – now – a very clear inequality of power.

That – now, at present – there is, as someone said in a discussion, a bully and a victim, that there is an abuser and an abused. The abuser may have all the reasons in the world for having become what he is – he’s still an abuser.

I believe that Israel is the “one” in power – much more in power than Palestinians. That Israel must do the first step to stop this completely inequal situation. That the human rights abuses must stop. That justice and basic rights for Palestinian civilians must be restored.

I never claimed that Israel should stop to defend itself against real aggressions, but it must stop to aggress those who do NOT aggress us.

There is extremely little knowledge within the Israeli public about what is “really” going on on “the other side of the Wall”. As I said before, only about 5% of all Israelis ever had any serious contact with a Palestinian. (I’m quoting Gershon Baskin from his introduction to the first IPCRI work-shop I attended).

CO Udi Nir sentenced to 21 days in military prison

- Please distribute widely -

Dear Friends,

CO Udi Nir, 19, from the Tel-Aviv suburb of Hertzlia, has been sentenced yesterday (20 Aug. ) to 21 days in military prison.

Udi Nir is the first conscientious objector to be imprisoned among a new group of high school seniors, who signed a collective declaration of refusal to serve in the Israeli army of occupation. He has been called up to enlist this Monday, 18 Aug., but planned to delay his imprisonment (technically – by going AWOL) to join other signatories of the letter. This intention, however, was noted by the press (Udi appeared in a TV feature and a negative newspaper feature over the weekend). This resulted in what was arguably the quickest operation of its sort in Israel’s history. On Tuesday, one day after he has not showed up at the Induction Base, Udi Nir was arrested by civilian police (itself an unprecedented move), and was subsequently given a conditional sentence of 6 days in prison. The following day he was again tried, this time for refusing an order to enlist, and was sentenced to 21 days in prison.

A small demonstration to protest Udi’s imprisonment was organised by other members of the high school seniors group (see images below), and has received some media coverage.

In a brief statement made on the day of his arrest, Udi Nir said:

I cannot take part in the activities of an occupying army, which constantly violates human rights. As an Israeli citizen and as an adolescent liable for enlistment I feel a sense of extensive responsibility for the cycle of violence and for all the choices I am making. It is out of this sense of responsibility that I refuse to enter the cycle of bloodshed and to add fuel to the fire of hatred raging here. I refuse to enlist into an occupying army so that I will not lend my own hand to the occupation and to acts that contradict my most basic values: human rights, democracy and the personal responsibility each and every human being bears towards fellow human beings.

Udi’s full declaration of refusal, sent in a letter to the Minister of Defence, can be read here.

Udi’s intention is to refuse to wear a military uniform in prison, which means he would be, or has already been, transferred to the Isolation Ward of the prison. He is due to be released from prison on 7 Sept. and is very likely to be imprisoned again several times after his release.
His prison address is:

Udi Nir
Military ID 6022372
Military Prison No. 6
Military Postal Code 01860, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-4-9540580

Since the prison authorities often block mail from reaching imprisoned objectors, we also recommend you to send your letters of support and encouragement to Udi via e-mail to shministim@gmail.com, and they will be printed out and delivered to him during visits.
In addition, you may want to follow some of our recommendations for action below.

Recommended Action

First of all, please circulate this message and the information contained in it as widely as possible, not only through e-mail, but also on websites, conventional media, by word of mouth, etc.

Other recommendations for action:

1. Sending Letters of Support

Please send Udi letters of support (preferably postcards or by fax) to the prison address above.

2. Letters to Authorities

It is recommended to send letters of protest on Udi’s behalf, preferably by fax, to:

Mr. Ehud Barak,
Minister of Defence, Ministry of Defence,
37 Kaplan St.,
Tel-Aviv 61909 – Israel
E-mail: sar@mod.gov.il or pniot@mod.gov.il
Fax: ++972-3-696-27-57 / ++972-3-691-69-40 / ++972-3-691-79-15

The War Resisters’ International set up a web-based mailing service, through which you can send a standard e-mail letter (with added comments) to the Israeli Minister of Defence on Udi’ behalf. The form is available on the WRI website

Copies of your letters can also be sent to the commander of the military prison at:

Commander of Military Prison No. 6,
Military Prison No. 6,
Military postal number 01860, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-4-9540580

Another useful address for sending copies would be the Military Attorney General:

Avichai Mandelblit,
Chief Military Attorney
Military postal code 9605, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-3-569-43-70

It would be especially useful to send your appeals to the Commander of the Induction Base in Tel-HaShomer. It is this officer that ultimately decides whether an objector is to be exempted from military service or sent to another round in prison, and it is the same officer who is ultimately in charge of the military Conscience Committee:

Gadi Agmon,
Commander of Induction Base,
Meitav, Tel-HaShomer
Military Postal Code 02718, IDF
Israel.
Fax: ++972-3-737-60-52

For those of you who live outside Israel, it would be very effective to send protests to your local Israeli embassy. You can find the address of your local embassy on the web.
Here is a sample letter, which you can use, or better adapt, in sending appeals to authorities on the prisoners’ behalf:

Dear Sir/Madam,

It has come to my attention that Udi Nir, Military ID 6022372, a conscientious objector, has been imprisoned for his refusal to perform military service, and is held in Military Prison No. 6.

The imprisonment of conscientious objectors such as Udi Nir is a violation of international law, of basic human rights and of plain morals.

I therefore call for the immediate and unconditional release from prison of Udi Nir, without threat of further imprisonment in the future, and urge you and the system you are heading to respect the dignity and person of conscientious objectors, indeed of all human beings, in the future.

Sincerely,

3. Letters to media in Israel and in other countries

Writing op-ed pieces and letters to editors of media in Israel and other countries could also be quite useful in indirectly but powerfully pressuring the military authorities to let go of the objectors and in bringing their plight and their cause to public attention.

Here are some contact details for the main media outlets in Israel:

Ma’ariv:
2 Karlibach st.
Tel-Aviv 67132 – Israel
Fax: +972-3-561-06-14
e-mail: editor@maariv.co.il

Yedioth Aharonoth:
2 Moses St.
Tel-Aviv – Israel
Fax: +972-3-608-25-46

Ha’aretz (Hebrew):
21 Schocken St.
Tel-Aviv, 61001- Israel
Fax: +972-3-681-00-12

Ha’aretz (English edition):
21 Schocken St.
Tel-Aviv, 61001 – Israel
Fax: +972-3-512-11-56
e-mail: letters@haaretz.co.il

Israel Hayom:
2 Hashlosha St.
The B1 Building
Tel-Aviv – Israel
e-mail: hayom@israelhayom.co.il

Jerusalem Post:
P.O. Box 81
Jerusalem 91000 -Israel
Fax: +972-2-538-95-27
e-mail: news@jpost.co.il or letters@jpost.co.il

Radio (fax numbers):
Kol-Israel +972-2-531-33-15
and +972-3-694-47-09
Galei Zahal +972-3-512-67-20

Television (fax numbers):
Channel 1 +972-2-530-15-36
Channel 2 +972-2-533-98-09
Channel 10 +972-3-733-16-66

We will continue updating on further developments.

Thank you for your attention and action,
New Profile.

________________________________

UPDATE:

I just finished this post 2 minutes ago when I received another mail with the same content, about a second young man imprisioned – the second of the same group:

CO Avichai Vaknin, 18, a pacifist conscientious objector from the town of Yehud, near Tel-Aviv, has been sentenced on 20 Aug. to 21 days in military prison.

Avichai Vaknin
ID number 030146277
Military Prison No. 6
Military Postal Code 01860, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-4-9540580

The same actions as proposed for Udi are recommended here as well !!