It has been ten years since the publication of the Combatants’ Letter. In January 2002, in the midst of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, 50 combat soldiers and officers in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) reserve signed a public statement in which they pledged to refuse to serve in the occupied territories. Their protest was made at great personal cost to themselves because of the almost religious devotion most Israelis feel toward the army. The declaration boldly protested the IDF’s campaign to “dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.”
The reservists vowed loyalty to the defense of the Jewish State, but not to the “war of the settlements.” Led by two young reserve officers, David Zonsheine and Yaniv Itzkowitz, who together composed the letter, the original group of signatories founded the organization Courage to Refuse. The group was quickly joined by more than 400 reservists. That caught the attention of the Israeli media and government, partially because the protest came from the core of the army. Arguably, the most significant support for the refusers came from a group of Air Force reservists who signed a similar letter stating they would no longer participate in missions in Gaza and the West Bank. In 2005, Dov Weissglass, who was one of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s closest advisors, told the daily newspaper, Ha’aretz, that the refusers’ rebellion was one of the factors that influenced Sharon’s decision to evacuate the settlers and “disengage” from Gaza.
In the United States, Courage to Refuse was the subject of a sympathetic segment on “60 Minutes” hosted by Bob Simon (pt. 1, pt. 2; H/T to Annie Robbins) who at that time lived with his family in Israel. The dissident soldiers were hosted at various venues by the fledgling self-identified pro-Israel, pro-peace American Jewish organization, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom (Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace). Brit Tzedek has recently been incorporated into the Washington-based lobbying organization, JStreet, who shares the same American liberal Zionist orientation. However, I doubt very strongly if any local J Street groups will be showcasing soldiers who refuse to serve in the territories any time soon. Times have changed, and not always for the better.
Mr. Zonsheine, who owns and operates his own software company (Wikipedia, Hebrew), stated in an email to me that close to 1000 reservists have signed the Combatants’ Letter. Although more than 300 have removed their names for various reasons, most continue to refuse to serve in the territories. Currently there are 627 signatories to the letter. Zonsheine writes that 500 of the signers [including Mr. Zonsheine] have served time in military prison for their refusal. He reports that Courage to Refuse closed its office five years ago, but continues to function on “a volunteer basis.” Members of the group “are active within many organizations, participate in demonstrations and by writing, and [we] contribute to ending the occupation in various other ways.”
Mr. Zonsheine bemoans the fact that currently the Israeli public views the “refusal of the right” e.g., soldiers who will not obey orders to evacuate settlement outposts, in the same way it understands the “refusal of the left.” He believes the “the only way to return the State of Israel to political, military and moral sanity is to refuse to serve in the territories. That is the most Zionist action an officer can contribute to the nation for which he has pledged to fight.”
In 2002, I was part of a Brit Tzedek group in Northampton, MA which hosted a speaking appearance by Res. Major Stav Adivi of Courage to Refuse. His commitment, courage, optimism and his belief that his organization would succeed in stopping the settlement enterprise, electrified the audience of over 100 listeners. The previous evening he spoke before an equally enthusiastic crowd of over 400 students at the neighboring University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Sadly, Courage to Refuse has not grown to be the force for sanity that Mr. Adivi had predicted. Today, even most Jewish-American Israel/Palestine activists are not aware of Courage to Refuse and the Combatants’ Letter which once rocked Israel and its armed forces. That is too bad. These Israelis are a group of men of conscience worth recognizing, both for what they have done and what they continue to do.
Yesh Gvul. The Shministim of 1987. The Shministim of 2000. Courage to Refuse. It never seems to end.
I always thought that for every refusenik, there must be thousands who support them, and that an increase in the number of refuseniks must mean that the end of the occupation is near. But it seems that these brave action signal the desperation and isolation of the Israeli left, who are unable to move the needle using legal, electoral, protest, solidarity, or internationally based strategies.
That’s not a criticism. It’s a sad comment. We’ve been trying for years using almost every possible means, and everything seems worse than ever.
There’s no mystery to the lack of support in Israel for these men: their thesis, whereby if Israel evacuates Arab land it will then live in peace, has been empirically tested and refuted time and again: in 1956, in 1985, in 1997, 2000, and 2005. The only successful case, in 1979-81, has been cast in serious doubt by the events of 2011.
Tne more interesting part about your post, Ira, is the resounding silence with which it has been greeted here at Mondowiess. If one assumes the IDF are brutal, bloodthirsty monsters, as many of the local commenters openly say they do, there’s no way they’ll warm to a post which describes good IDF men.
“The reservists vowed loyalty to the defense of the Jewish State, but not to the “war of the settlements.””
The governments of the world should outright refuse any communication with Netanjahu and Lieberman, and instead treat those brave and moral reservists as the interim government of the real Israel.
US society could put icing on the cake, tell Abe Foxman and Malcolm Hoenlein to go to hell and from now on only accept Jesse Lieberfeld as the sole spokesman for American Jewry.
I am surprised to hear that ” most Jewish-American Israel/Palestine activists are not aware of Courage to Refuse and the Combatants’ Letter “. In Australia , among peace activists, these men and women are heroes and inspirational. Even average Australians have heard of the refuseniks.
U.S. Justice Department getting ready to deal with troublesome veterans in this country: Police get help with vets who are ticking bombs: