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A group of Israeli young people are refusing to serve in the IDF as a sign of their opposition to the Occupation. Some of them currently are serving jail sentences for honoring their convictions. Jewish Voice for Peace is campaigning on their behalf, seeking 30,000 signatures by tomorrow, December 18th, for a petition to be presented to defense minister Ehud Barak, asking that their status as conscientious objectors be recognized.
Omer Goldman, daughter of a retired senior Shin Bet officer, explains her act of resistance thus:
Why I am one of the Shministim:
“I believe in service to the society I am part of, and that is precisely why I refuse to take part in the war crimes committed by my country. Violence will not bring any kind of solution, and I shall not commit violence, come what may.”
I encourage my readers to sign the petition if you wish to support young, principled Israelis who are speaking truth to power.
When I was their age I was the first Jew ever to come before my local draft board as a conscientious objector. My application for CO status was approved. It’s not so easy for these young people, which is why we must stand behind them. Join Ed Asner, Ronnie Gilbert, Howard Zinn, Adrienne Rich and other prominent Jewish progressives in endorsing this campaign.
B”H
Incitement to treason is a very old left wing political strategy.
Russian communists financed by the German government already had much success using it to gain power while sabotaging the Russian war effort.
Likewise currently the left wing groups such as Peace Now a subversive group
financed by foreign powers:
http://www.news1.co.il/archive/002-D-322-00.html?tag=6-24-32#PTEXT714
employ the same tactics
indoctrinating young idealistic Israeli kids.
I signed the petition and made a modest monetary contribution several weeks ago. I wish that I had possessed their moxie when I was their age!
@Ariel: This is yr most despicable comment yet. But I congratulate you. You’ve just become little better than the Russian Putinites who criminalize foreign NGOs in Russia for attempting to get Russia to honor democratic principles. Putin’s stooges use precisely the same language “financied by foreign powers” to make it appear that the NGOs are attempting to eat away from within at pure Russian values and governance. THis line of propaganda accusing Peace Now of “incitement,” “treason,” and linking it to Communists is despicable.
I’ve grown quite tired to this narischkeit. It really does belong in yr Chabad world & not in mine. Several times I’ve considered banning you but not done so because I don’t believe in doing so unless a flagrant list of abuses has happened. But accusing Peace Now of being in the sway of a foreign power has just done it for me.
BTW, Peace Now is “indoctrinating young idealistic Israeli kids” in the values of Israel as a western democracy. I understand this is terribly threatening to you since you wish Israel to be an authoritarian Arabrein theocracy. But your views are not mine & not those of 98% of my readers nor those of the vast majority of world Jewry. So I bid you fond farewell.