Solidarity with the Israeli refuseniks

Submitted by martin on 15 January, 2009 - 1:17 Author: Ruben Lomas

National military service, abolished in Britain in 1960, is still compulsory in Israel. From the age of 18, Israeli-Jewish men are legally obliged to serve three years in the Israeli Defense Force, whereas women must serve two.

Although it is possible to apply for exemption on religious, physical or psychological grounds — and while Israelis may apply to perform non-combatant roles within the army — there is still a social stigma attached to not becoming a “warrior” and doing your patriotic duty to protect your country.

Following this compulsory national service, men up to the age of 45 may be called up for up to a month of service per year. The impact of this on Israeli society is inestimable; it amounts to a top-to-bottom militarisation of society and the sheer psychological effect of seeing men and women wearing bullet-belts and machine guns on the beach with their bikinis and trunks teaches Israeli children to see guns, soldiers and the army as an ordinary part of every day life.

Revolutionary socialists oppose compulsory national service under capitalism; it serves to normalise an increased role for the armed wing of the capitalist state in day-to-day life and blur class distinctions within society by aggressively promoting nationalist and chauvinist ideas.

However, it is not something that revolutionaries in Britain have had to confront directly for over a generation, whereas it is a constant challenge for socialists and other radicals in Israel. The incredible hegemony of military-state ideology within Israeli society makes the courageous history of the “refuseniks”, the various movements of Israeli citizens who have faced imprisonment for refusing to serve in the IDF, all the more inspiring.

The history, and indeed the actuality, of refusenik movements should be studied very closely by those on the left who believe that all Israeli-Jews are scheming colonial-settlers, or that “Zionism” is synonymous with “Nazism”, “fascism” or “racism.” Many refuseniks, and some significant refusenik organisations such as Courage to Refuse (Ometz Le'Sarev in Hebrew) situate their refusal within what they see as a tradition of democratic, social justice Zionism.

As Marxists, we disagree with them; we are opposed to any nationalism, even when interpreted from the left. But the very fact that Ometz Le’Sarev’s activists are capable of simultaneously identifying as Zionists and taking action more threatening and undermining to the Israeli state than almost anything that most British activists could hope to achieve proves the necessity for a more nuanced understanding of Zionism than those who attend demonstrations carrying “Zionist=Nazi” placards are capable of.

The first significant movement of refuseniks dates from 1970, when a small group of high-school students wrote to Israel's then Prime Minister Golda Meir expressing their refusal to serve in the territories occupied following the 1967 war.

This was the beginning of what became a long tradition of refusal amongst twelfth-grade high-school students — Shministim in Hebrew — that continues today; dozens of Shministim have been jailed in the last month for refusing to serve in the recent assault on Gaza. Shministim refuseniks face terms of between 21 and 28 days in jail, and those who refuse to wear military uniform while imprisoned face solitary confinement. This is further evidence of the belligerent project of the Israeli ruling-class to subordinate as much of society as possible to the notion of service to, and ownership by, the military and the state.

The text of the 2008 Shministim letter should read as a message for hope to those despairing of the bloodshed in Gaza:

“Our refusal comes first and foremost as a protest on the separation, control, oppression and killing policy held by the state of Israel in the occupied territories, as we understand that this oppression, killing and routing of hatred will never lead us to peace, and they are all contradictory to the basic values a society that pretends to be democratic should have.”

The anti-war movement and Palestine solidarity movement in Britain should make solidarity with refuseniks like the Shministim a serious priority. Their very existence proves that Israeli society is not a homogeneous bloc of bloodthirsty hawks but, like any capitalist society, riven with internal divisions and contradictions. Israeli workers and movements such as the refuseniks who oppose and undermine the military might of the Israeli state have a crucial role to play in carving out a democratic, peaceful settlement in the region. We can have a crucial role to play in supporting them.


Useful websites

Courage to Refuse/Ometz Le’Sarev
Enough is Enough/Yesh G’Vul
The main Shministim refusenik website, linked to the US-based Jewish Voice for Peace


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