BY GILAND OMRI
An outsider may observe the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and see Israel as an oppressive military occupier — confiscating land, bulldozing houses, imprisoning thousands of poverty-stricken people in their homes through curfews, and besieging them in their villages. However, in this case, as in so many others, the oppressor sees itself in a completely different light from the rest of the world.
The mental universe of many Israelis is dominated by an ethnic nationalism which has a particularly fearful and militaristic dimension — being shaped by the horrendous traumas of the recent Jewish past. They see themselves as continuing victims of irrational "anti-Semitism" that will not cease until "they" have "thrown us into the sea".
Even once pro-peace Israelis have since the outbreak of the recent intifada gone through an orgy of self-chastisement for their "naivety" and have reverted to these old formulas.
For Jewish Israelis, military service (for three years from the age of 18 for males, shorter for females) is the centrepiece of a young person's life. For boys, army service is a near obsession throughout childhood and adolescence. The military is paramount in national life and military service is a youngster's initiation into adulthood and license for full citizenship.
While exemptions from service are automatically granted to students in Jewish religious seminaries, there is no recognition of conscientious objectors (absolute or selective) in law — objectors face military trials and imprisonment. In addition, the current "us or them" climate in Israel can make life cruel for the small minority of kids who refuse to take part in the military occupation and oppression of Palestinians.
To shed light on this quiet dissent, Green Left Weekly spoke with Noam Zamir, an 18-year old member of the Jerusalem branch of the Israeli Communist Youth League, known by its Hebrew acronym "Banki". The group is the youth wing of Hadash, a party of both Jews and Arabs with three members in the Israeli parliament.
What is the response of the Israeli army to a young person who is ideologically opposed to what the army is doing to the Palestinians?
The military has a certain fear of youth who refuse to serve in the army of occupation. Jewish Israeli youth undergo a long preparation process so that they'll be motivated and ready to serve regardless of their political views. It starts already in kindergarten with songs about the state and the brave soldiers. In primary school you learn the historical "facts" about the Zionists who settled in Palestine and transformed it from a swamp into a successful enterprise. It continues in high-school history classes. We are taught that the Arabs wanted to destroy the Jews without any real reason while the Zionists were always trying to reach a compromise.
So the army sees those who refuse to serve for ideological reasons as evidence of a failing system and as a danger to society's consensus. On the other hand it understands they are intelligent people who cannot accept injustice. So it prefers not to confront them but simply to push them even further away from mainstream society and exempt them for mental health reasons. This is something that will cause problems for the person in the future — in things like finding a job or even getting a driver's license. Occasionally the army offers them service in non-combat units.
If objectors reject reject both non-combat service and mental health exemption, the army sends them to prison. At the end of the day, if objectors haven't given in, they will be released on the grounds of "unsuitability". This is the exemption they give to people who have criminal records or behavioural problems. To this day there has not been a case of the army exempting somebody on grounds of conscience.
Are you worried about your own army service?
With my upcoming army service, I was full of dilemmas. But in the end I understood that I couldn't confront the army if I didn't have full support from my family and unfortunately I don't. My father, who thinks of himself as a man of the left, sees the army as a supreme value. It shows how the left here has taken on a semi-fascistic outlook when it comes to Israel. My service will be near home in a non-combat unit. Even so, I'm not sure that I will complete my full term. If I decide that I can't do it any more, I will just leave no matter what the consequences.
It must be very difficult on a personal level to voice one's opinions. Do you keep quiet among your friends at school?
In my school I can voice my non-Zionist opinions and discuss my communist beliefs freely but my school is not really representative. I go to a music high school where the political views range from the Labour Party leftward. I do raise my voice in history class when we are taught certain "facts". Also in civics class I have a big argument with my teacher. I can say that civics classes in the Israeli school system are the biggest form of brainwashing. For these classes they bring all sorts of intellectuals and professors who justify the discrimination against minorities and there is no voice for the real left.
For my fellow Banki members, voicing their opinions in school can be dangerous. Most of the Jewish population is right wing. And since the outbreak of the recent intifada there has been a shift to the right even among Meretz [a "left-wing" Zionist party] voters. I am choosy about who I debate with outside school, but generally we haven't been attacked except by verbal abuse. We have received threats from the extreme right, but we are committed not to abandon the street to the fascist groups.
Here we see the terrible damage that [former Prime Minister Ehud] Barak has done. He proposed all sorts of final offers to end of the conflict that were actually proposals for a Palestinian surrender. When the Palestinians refused, he adopted the right-wing line that there was "no partner for peace". He has just about destroyed the left.
[The interview was translated from Hebrew for Green Left Weekly.]