Brother Of Israeli Refusenik Calls For Bi-National State
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Friday, October 24 2003 @ 06:29 PM EDT
"Yoni and Eric also happen to be the nephews (by marriage) of former Israeli Prime Minister and current Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu .."
By Yahya Abdul Rahman
MONTREAL - On Wednesday night Eric Ben Artzi spoke at Concordia University in downtown Montreal and provided a brief history of the unusual case of his brother, Yonatan (Yoni), who now has been in Israeli prison for the past 14 months and, in addition, called for a bi-national state consisting of Jews and Palestinians with equal rights.
Yoni was jailed on Aug. 8, 2002 for refusing to serve the Israeli army in the occupied territories and insisting on alternative civil service. He remains imprisoned for what he has referred to as "my beliefs as a pacifist."
Yoni is also joined by nine others Israeli youths, ranging from ages 18-20, who too are in prison, and who feel the same way as Yoni and are also refusing to serve in the Israeli army. They include Uri Yaakobi, Yoni Yechezkel, Dror Boimel, Haggai Matar, Adam Maor, Shimri Tzameret, Noam Bahat, Matan Kaminer and Chagai Matar.
Yesterday, the cross-examination of Tzameret, Maor, and Bahat took place, and Matar and Kaminer had theirs already in September.
"I did not take the decision to refuse in one day. I pondered for years what I was going to do. I read a lot of material and spoke with many people and had sleepless nights of thinking and debating with myself. I came to the conclusion that the army's acts in the Occupied Territories are flagrantly immoral and violating international law", said Tzameret in his cross-examination.
There are also 27 Israeli pilots who are currently refusing to serve in the occupied territories, and also hundreds of other reservists for reasons of conscience.
Eric, 31, has already served his compulsory military time in the Israeli navy and is currently pursuing a math doctorate.
Yoni and Eric also happen to be the nephews (by marriage) of former Israeli Prime Minister and current Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But it was made clear by the elder Ben Artzi at the beginning of his speech that this is not the topic of his discussion.
Referring to the Palestinian people, Ben Artzi stated in his speech "about 3.5 million people for almost two generations now has had their rights taken away from them."
"They were born with these rights and we have no right to take them away," he stated.
"This is not about nationalism or about two countries fighting one another, because the Palestinians do not have a country or an army. This is about 3.5 million people who have had essentially no rights," he said.
"These are not my rights or our rights as Jews to take away. They, the Palestinians, were born with these rights and they are theirs regardless of anything else. This is not an issue for negotiation. This has to be the starting point," he further stated.
"The Palestinian people's rights are not ours to give and they are not ours to bargain with for security or anything else," he said.
He sited Israeli scholar Dr. Meron Benvenisti who recently stated that in fact Israel is already a bi-national state, but that in reality, paraphrasing Benvenisti, "it is just that one nation is a nation of masters and the other, I am sorry to say it, is a nation of slaves."
"This is a disgrace for me as an Israeli," Ben Artzi said.
"They, the Palestinians, already live there, and it is a question of do they have their rights or not."
"Let them have their rights and vote....That is what I believe and I think my brother does also," he said.
He further said that he was skeptical of any proposals for a two state solution where Palestinians would be given a small piece of land for a state in the territories, as he felt this idea was no longer workable.
"Let it be one person one vote, with everyone with the same rights, I am skeptical of a two state solution," he said.
"Even as a Jew and an Israeli who believes that I have national rights, so too do the Palestinian people should have these rights, but even so those rights take second place to a people's basic human rights."
"Right now that is the number one problem that we must address first," he said.
"It is not a question of Jews against Palestinians, as extremists in both camps would like to portray it, but it is a struggle between those who are pro-democracy and anti apartheid and those who hold opposite views."
Yoni, 20, is a founding member of Shministim (hebrew for "high-school"), the Israeli youth refusal movement (http://www.shministim.org). The movement was founded by a group of young political activists who refuse to serve the occupation for what they referred to as "war crimes committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in the occupied Palestinian territories."
In August 19, 2001 they wrote a letter, signed by 62 students, to Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon in which they wrote that they did not intend serve in the Israeli army. "We protest before you against the aggressive and racist policy pursued by the Israeli government's and its army," they wrote, and further stated that they they "resist Israel's pounding of human rights. Land expropriation, arrests, executions without a trial, house demolition, closure, torture, and the prevention of health care are only some of the crimes the state of Israel carries out, in blunt violation of international conventions it has ratified."
"Therefore we will obey our conscience and refuse to take part in acts of oppression against the Palestinian people," they wrote.
One year later the same group sent another letter to Sharon in which the number of signatures had quadrupled. "The state of Israel commits war-crimes and tramples over human rights," they said, and "the occupation is not only immoral; but it also damages the security of Israel's citizens and residents."
"Such security will be achieved only through a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians," they further wrote, and stated once again that they had "no choice but to obey our conscience and refuse to take part in the attack on the Palestinian people," and the called on "other youth, conscripts, soldiers in the standing army, and reserve service soldiers to do the same."
There are other refusniks organizations within Israel, such as OmetzLe'sarev ("Courage to Refuse"), Yesh Gvul("There is a Limit!"), IDF Air Force Pilot Refusers , all of which consist of Israelis which refuse to serve in the occupied territories for similar reasons.
Yoni seems to remain steadfast in his decision. In February 2003, six months after his first imprisonment, Yoni sent a message to all those who had supported him in this ordeal. In the letter he stated that "my commitment to the cause of peace remains unwavering and my resolve to continue this vital endeavor grows in me."
"With every day that passes, I gain new strength, which even those closest to me never thought I'd have," he further wrote.
"Together with my fellow refusniks, we will one day prevail in offering a truly peaceful alternative to Israeli Militarism," he wrote.
In May 2003, Amnesty International once again expressed its concern "about the number of Israeli soldiers and reservists detained because of their refusal to perform their military service."
"A person who for reasons of conscience or profound conviction arising from religious, ethical, moral, humanitarian, philosophical, political or similar motive refuses to perform armed service or any other direct or indirect participation in wars or armed conflicts and is imprisoned as a result of his/her refusal to serve is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience unless such a person has also refused to perform alternative civilian service of comparable length," stated Amnesty.
"There is no such alternative civilian service in Israel," the human rights group said.
My brother has "learned the right lessons from the holocaust and the atrocities that took place in WW2. He learned that human rights and individual rights come first before all else - certainly before nationalism and national rights," Ben Artzi said in his Wednesday night speech.
His statement was was greeted with a round of applause by Jews and Palestinians alike in the audience of over 450 people.
He also stated that many Israelis supported his views and said he was in fact part of the mainstream and did not represent fringe elements.
"I believe that I am in the majority, and that my views are in the mainstream. I am not in the fringe, I am smack in the middle."
"The majority of people are good and they can be brought to see the light. It is just a matter of gaining critical mass so that people will not be afraid to speak their mind," he stated.
"I am optimistic that our way is going to win."
Wednesday's lecture was sponsored by the Solidarity For Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) and was initially set up by long time political activist Jeanette Weinroth, who is an active member of Palestinians and Jews United (PAJU). She addressed the audience at the end of the event and vowed to arrange for Yoni himself to come and speak in the future.
Ben Artzi continues his speaking tour in several other Canadian cities over the next few days. |
