ISRAEL: Increasing numbers say they will not go to the occupied territories, writes Nuala Haughey in Jerusalem
Growing numbers of Israeli soldiers and reservists are risking imprisonment and public scorn for their controversial stance of refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories, a mission they say is one of oppression which threatens the very future of the Jewish state.
In the past month, 13 members of the ultra-elite SAS-style unit, Sayeret Matkal, announced they would no longer serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the third such high-profile declaration by reservists since the outbreak of the current Palestinian intifada more than three years ago.
"Out of concern for the future of Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, democratic state, and out of fear for its moral character we declare that we shall no longer lend a hand in the occupation of the territories," wrote the reservist soldiers and officers in an open letter to the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon.
"We shall no longer take part in the deprivation of basic human rights from millions of Palestinians, we shall no longer serve as a shield in the crusade of the settlements, we shall no longer corrupt our moral character in missions of oppression."
Such sentiments have not endeared the men to the largely right-of-centre Israeli public, for whom lengthy compulsory military service, followed by annual reserve duty, is considered a duty and an honour. The Sayeret Matkal members - drawn from one of the most respected and daring units in the Israeli army - have been accused of being anti-democratic and using their military service as a political stick to beat the government.
The Courage to Refuse or "refusenik" movement which they have added their names to remains small, although it has gathered considerable momentum in the two years since it was formed after 50 reserve officers and soldiers signed an open manifesto against taking part in "missions of occupation and oppression" in the territories.
These are not conscientious objectors, but selective objectors who refuse to serve in the territories, while pledging to continue to serve in Israel.
Courage to Refuse currently claims almost 600 members, including 27 Israeli air force pilots who declared last September that they would not participate in assassination strikes on suspected Palestinians in the territories.
"We want to demoralise the occupation. We colour it in black," says Courage to Refuse founding member, Mr Itai Swirski. "We cannot stop it with our own hands but we hope there will be a critical mass that will effect the decision-makers." Mr Swirski, a reserve lieutenant with the paratroop brigade, proudly served his country in the late 1990s, including in Lebanon. He has also served two separate military prison terms of 21 and 28 days for his refusal in the past two years to carry out his annual reserve duty in the territories.
For him, the occupation is not only illegal, but also contradicts the vision of the founders of this Zionist country as a safe haven for persecuted Jews worldwide, rather than an oppressor of others.
"We are ready to serve at any time," says the lean and soft-spoken 29-year-old labour lawyer from Tel Aviv, who completed one year's officer training after his thee year compulsory military service.
"Whatever it takes we are willing to sacrifice ourselves like we did earlier for our country. But we won't serve beyond the green border [inside the territories] and we won't be part of this occupation. We won't occupy 3.5 million Palestinians for no reason and in a manner that is damaging our own country and is against all the values we were taught as children and as grown men and as soldiers."
Mr Swirski, a platoon commander, took his lonely refusenik stance in December 2001, a month before Courage to Refuse was set up. By way of explanation, he details the orders for opening fire in the territories during the current Palestinian Intifada.
"We were ordered that if we see even Palestinian kids throw stones at a settler's car on the road we had permission to shoot them in the legs. Not to kill, but you know that one can miss, with all the excitement and if it is a bit far away. . . If it was the other way around with settlers throwing stones or making trouble to Palestinians, we had to protect the settlers from the angry Palestinians." The army's ground rules in the territories fly in the face of the basic universal values, with soldiers forced to discriminate between Palestinians and Jewish settlers, maintains Mr Swirski.
"We are there to protect 5,000 Israelis in Gaza living amongst 1.2 million Palestinians," he says.
"How do we discriminate? We treat the person by the colour of his skin, by the colour of his ID card, by the colour of the licence plate on his car, by whether he wears a kippa [Jewish skullcap] or not. . . If the person is not a settler you will see him immediately as an enemy and you will stop him at the checkpoint and make him wait for hours, losing a large part of his school time, not being able to reach a hospital, his daughter's school, his workplace. If it's a settler he's gone in a minute."
The Israeli Defence Forces takes a harsh view of refuseniks. Courage to Refuse says 327 serving refuseniks have been jailed for up to 35 days for refusing to go to the territories. In the past fortnight six of the 13 Sayeret Matkal reserve combatants who signed the dissenting letter were ousted from their unit.
Yet the public outrage which greeted the announcement by the first 50 refuseniks to go public two years ago has mellowed. And there has even in recent months been strong criticism of government policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by senior members of the military. Four former chiefs of Israel's powerful domestic security service Shin Bet as well as the military's chief of staff, Gen Moshe Ya'alon, have publicly voiced concerns about the damage caused to both Israel and Palestinian society by the harsh treatment of Palestinians.
An IDF spokesman said that if the military allowed soldiers to selectively refuse to serve "we wouldn't have an army but individual militias each of which would operate according to what it perceives to be its own interests and values.
"We cannot allow for a situation where soldiers would be able to dictate to their commanders where and when they want to serve. If a soldier is concerned about a certain aspect of their service or mission there are appropriate channels for them to communicate and address their concerns." He said the appropriate place for soldiers in a democracy like Israel to express their political views is through the ballot box or other means, but not through refusing to obey an order.
But the refuseniks refute this. At a recent Courage to Refuse rally, a Sayeret Matkal member who would only be identified by his first name, Avnel, translated a one page statement for The Irish Times, while insisting that he would not do an interview with a foreign journalist for fear of being accused of betraying his country to the outside world.
"They say we did an anti-democratic act," went his statement. "They say we damaged Israeli democracy. But this democracy has a backyard. This democracy has a basement and in this basement 3½ million people \ are in prison and they do not take part in this wonderful democratic show that is being played on stage.
"This democracy sends our solders to make sure that those people who stay behind the scenes do not interrupt the show. We will not take part in this show any more."
Mr Swirski says his decision to refuse to serve in the territories was the most difficult thing he has done in his life.
"This is a big part of my identity, being in the IDF, being an officer in the paratroopers. It still is today, but others don't see it that way. I see it as a continuation of my loyalty to the basic values of this country and the IDF.
"Most Israelis see me as a lunatic, a traitor, as someone divorced from the army, which is of course not true."