- Many Israeli soldiers complain their army is harassing
Palestinians
-
- A reservist Israeli staff sergeant who is refusing army
duty on political grounds has been sentenced to military prison for 28
days.
-
- Tom Mehager told a military tribunal that he was no longer
prepared to participate in the ''harassment'' of Palestinians in villages
near the Rimonim checkpoint, northeast of Ram Allah.
-
- Mehager, 27, refused to serve at the military outpost
close to the Ofra settlement in the West Bank.
-
- In an interview from his prison cell, he told Israeli
military radio he was no longer prepared to carry out orders which in his
opinion had ''no military value''.
-
- After receiving his sentence, Mehager said: ''The punishment
that has been handed down to me is nothing in comparison to what we are
forcing on the Palestinians.''
-
- Demonstration
-
- Scores of Israelis staged a demonstration at the military
checkpoint, in support of declared refuseniks - those who go on record
to explain why they are refusing to join the army.
-
- ''The punishment that has been handed down to me is nothing
in comparison to what we are forcing on the Palestinians''
-
- Tom Mehager,
- Staff Sergeant
-
- Many hundreds of soldiers have signed a petition refusing
to serve in occupied Palestine.
-
- According to one news agency, some signatories have been
jailed for insubordination.
-
- Israeli human rights organisations and declared refusenik
soldier support groups claim that Mehager's story is typical of many soldiers
in Israel.
-
- Support
-
- Rela Mazali is the founder of New Profile, a movement
that works to support soldiers and other young people in Israel who refuse
to sign up to the army.
-
- ''Support for individuals such as Tom Mehager is growing,
the climate in this county is changing slowly, so more people feel they
can stand up and explain why they don't want to be part of the
- occupation,'' Mazali told Aljazeera.net.
-
- Mazali says proof of this can be seen by the number of
Israeli declared refuseniks and those who object to signing up for the
military on non-political grounds, being prosecuted by the army.
-
- ''Last year, the army didn't take a single soldier to
court, instead they were disciplined for not following orders; this year
that has changed. One in three young people who qualify for serving in
the Israeli army are now refusing to do so, for a whole range of reasons,''
said Mazali.
-
- The Israeli organisation Courage to Refuse claims that
there are 1000 Israelis who are refusing military duty for one reason or
another, and a further 562 have pledged not to sign up.
-
- ''These individuals are the tip of the submerged iceberg.
We are working towards building a truly civic society, which is against
the occupation, against militarisation and for improving the lives of all
citizens,'' said Mazali.
-
- Aljazeera and Agencies
-
- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D199E7EE-EA57-421E-8F40-3FDFFF0D0F32.htm
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