Download PDF of this full issue: v13n2.pdf (6.1 MB)

Israeli Veterans Against the War: Pressure from the Streets

By Chris Deisinger

"I was the last Israeli out of the Sinai" says Harel. "I served there for 3 years with the army, then stayed on to do some work as a tour guide and then I got a job teaching American officers from the 82nd Airborne about the desert." Harel is sitting on the bed in a small apartment belonging to his brother in a kibbutz near Beersheva, in the northern part of the Negev desert. As he talks, his brother nonchalantly takes a gallill assault rifle out of the close and starts to clean it.

"For me the Sinai, at the time, was our border, and occupied place, but still our border. I have no argument with keeping the country's borders safe, but I will not go serve in Lebanon."

Harel is, like almost all Israelis, both a veteran and a continuing soldier. Every Israeli must join the Israeli Defense Force, the IDF, at age 18--men for 3 years, women for 2--and then service in the reserves until 55. Normally, reservists serve on active duty for 30 days a year, although this is often broken into smaller blocks of time. Since the war in Lebanon, the amount of service required of reservists has increased.

Harel is an example of a new phenomena in Israeli society. While committed to the existence and defense of Israel he is an opponent of the Begin's government's policies in the occupied territories, the West Bank and Gaza, and of the war in Lebanon. He is a military resister. His unit has been mobilized to serve in Lebanon and he has refused to go. He is waiting to see if his commanding officer can arrange alternative service for him. Otherwise, he is willing, like others, to spend the term of his reserve duty in jail and forfeit his pay.

"This is my way of having an argument with the government," says Harel.

The growing peace movement in Israel is a veterans and soldiers movement. This is what many feel give it its credibility. According to Hillel Schenker of the Tel Aviv based International Center for Peace in the Middle East, a Peace Now activist, "it is a general principle in Israel that the country is threatened. Up until now the peace movement could not be a pacifist movement. We had to admit the threat--that the return of the Jews to the Middle East was not welcomed. But now we are saying, "Look, we have defended the country in the past, but now we believe there are options to continuing ware and bloodshed."

Schenker points to the Sadat initiative for Israeli-Egyptian peace and Camp David as the beginning of the modern Israeli peace movement.

"At first everyone was euphoric. Seeing Sadat in the Knesset caused a break in the feeling of being in a state of siege. But it wasn't so simple; Begin began to stall. It was at that moment the Peace Now evolved in order to make sure there was no breakdown."

One of the first acts of the movement was the circulation of a letter signed by over 300 reserve army officers calling for peace negotiations. In March of 1978, Peace Now organized its first demonstration: 40,000 took part.

"Begin admits that when he was at Camp David he was haunted by the image of thousands of Israelis in the street demanding peace; this was definitely a factor that made him sign," says Schenker.

The pressure from the streets continued until the actual signing of the treaty a year after Camp David. In the spring of 1979, Carter visited Israel to prod Begin. Peace Now organized a demonstration. So did the Gush Emunim and Kach Party of Rabbi Melr Kahane--fanatic religious nationalists who were opposed to the peace treaty.

"For some of us ex-Americans it was almost surrealistic. We had demonstrated against the war in Vietnam and against the American government; yet, here we were demonstrating in support of an American president in support of peace."

Schenker views the conclusion of the Egyptian-Israeli treaty as a victory for the peace movement, but dealing with "the heart of the problem." The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has proved more difficult. Giving up the occupied territories, the West Bank and Gaza, in return for peace is much more sensitive a problem for Israelis than giving back the Sinai: because it is so close to the heart of Israel, and perceived by many as a military danger; because of the religious and mystical attachments they have to the area; and because of the presence of over a million Palestinians in the territories.

Begin's right-wing Likud government, which was first elected in 1978 and taken by surprise by the Sadat initiative and the public support of it, was now determined to pursue a policy of expansion and suppression of Palestinians. The pace of settlement on the West Bank was increased and settlers allowed to run wild, harassing and killing Palestinians. The Spring of 1982 saw a reign of terror on the West Bank. Fifteen Palestinians were killed by Israelis. Peace Now held a demonstration of 25,000 against the repression and the settlements.

Then, in early June, came the invasion of Lebanon. The government gold the people and the soldiers, that it was only going to go 45 kilometers in order to clean PLO fighters out of an area within shooting range or northern Israel. But even on the first day some units were far beyond that, and eventually the IDF sat on the door of Beirut, 110 kilometers away.

The occupation of Lebanon continues with over 600 Israeli dead. Arab casualties--both fighters and civilians--number in the tens of thousands. A nasty guerilla war has begun and there are casualties daily. Begin is stale-mating the negotiations for withdrawal, hoping to buy time to settle the West Bank and not willing to admit that the invasion was an enormous mistake.

The peace movement grew enormously during the war--the first Israeli war that saw open opposition from within Israeli society. Besides Peace Now, the Committee against the War in Lebanon formed. Soldiers resistance groups developed: Soldiers Against Silence is a group of reservists returning from the front who denounced the continuation of the was; and Yesh Guvol.

Yesh Guvol has two meaning in Hebrew: "there is a limit," and "there is a border." It is a group of reservists who have refused to serve in Lebanon. By early March, 1 940 soldiers had signed Yesh Guvol's petition; 200 were officers; 31 spent time in jail for their refusal.

Roni, a Yesh Guvol activist and lecturer at Tel Aviv University, points out that the movement has levels of support beyond those who have signed the petition. There are some like Harel, who don't publically sign, but resist, and there are many soldiers in military jailed due to actions they took or didn't take during occupation. "We meet them when we go in," he says.

Roni feels that the invasion of Lebanon parallels the war in Vietnam and the resistance to it. "Israelis who don't accept the comparison want to deny the shock in Israel of what the Lebanon war did. They agree that the national consensus is broken, but not like it was in America during Vietnam."

"The Americans were told that they had to fight in Vietnam to protect their own security. We are told we must fight in Lebanon. Maybe we will have to fight someday, but our system is not in danger. Everybody should remember that it was Israel that started the bombardment in Lebanon. There has been a ceasefire for the last 11 months which the PLO observed. It was Israel that broke it."

"We should not have to sacrifice even our little finger for something that can be negotiated."

Roni does not feel threatened by the idea of negotiating with the PLO and feels that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state would not only be just, but also much less threatening that Begin and Sharon's military suicide.

Harel agrees; "Everyone needs a home. The PLO wants a country. Israel had its own independence war, not the Palestinians are fighting theirs. I may accept how they do it, but I feel that I have a need to speak to them."

He points to the Bedouin Arab village of Rahat across the road from the Kibbutz. "For almost 40 years this kibbutz has been a good neighbor to the Bedouin and them to us. Nothing in the world is impossible."

Chris Deisinger
VVAW Milwaukee