Dear all,
We are
deeply saddened to announce the death of New Profile member, Amichai
Kronfeld, on September 1st this year.The text
below was read in a benefit for Yesh Gvul and New Profile.
Berkeley, 11/18/01.
By Ami Kronfeld
Let me begin with a few words about myself. I grew up on a kibbutz in the center of Israel. I was drafted into the IDF in January of 1967, and found myself fighting in Sharon's division in the Sinai during the '67 war. Later, in 1969, I spent six months in the Suez Canal during the war of attrition. As a soldier in the reserves, I did a tour of duty in Gaza, and in '73, during and after the war, I was mobilized for six month, first on the eastern border, then on the border with Lebanon.
I did refuse a direct order once (in 1967, when told to execute a captured Egyptian soldier). But I was never prosecuted. I did spend some time in jail: 24 hours, to be exact after I was caught hitchhiking a ride home from my base while not wearing my beret. But apart from that, I was a very good boy. Did what I was told and more or less followed the path that I was expected to follow.
Any yet here I am, in a benefit for New Profile and Yesh Gvul. Yesh Gvul supports soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories. New Profile, among other things, supports people who don't want to serve in the army at all. I did serve in the Israeli Army and I did serve in the occupied territories. So what am I doing here? That's the question I'll try to answer in the next 10 minutes or so.
We are always told that serving in the army and fighting wars are heroic acts. In fact, as any reflective soldier would tell you, the military experience and the willingness to "die for one's country" are in many cases motivated not by any high ideals but by a desperate need to conform and a great fear of being rejected and shamed by one's peers.
Let me give you some examples from my own experience. By the time I came out of the '67 war, I had seen enough to know that the slogan attributing "purity of arms" to the Israeli soldier was nothing but a propaganda tool. I saw dozens of captured Egyptian soldiers summarily executed after the battle in 1967; I saw Palestinian women and children shot at just because they were trying to return to their homes in the west bank; I saw young Israeli soldiers in Gaza harass and humiliate Palestinian men old enough to be their grandfathers. Moreover, when the '73 war started and in the ensuing chaos I finally joined my unit, I was very much aware that this war was entirely unnecessary. I had known about Egypt's President Sadat's peace offer in 1971 and how the Israeli government rejected it. And when after the '73 war I was sent to Lebanon to fight the PLO, I knew very well that the PLO - far from being a bunch of fanatic terrorists - was the legitimate representative of oppressed and dispossessed people. And yet, I could not find it within myself to stand up and say hell no, I won't go. I felt isolated, fearful, very much alone and desperate. People I know were able to get out of the army by pretending to be mentally ill. I could not do that. Given the uniformity of the Israeli culture at the time, and my need to be part of it, there simply was no way for me (and people like me) to resist the overwhelming pressure to conform.
And our political leaders knew that, and took full advantage of it. As Israel became more and more powerful militarily, there was a growing tendency to use military force instead of alternative peaceful means. The occupation became harsher, and then harsher still; Lebanon was invaded in 1979, and then again in 1982. During the second, and larger invasion, the political leadership was so brazen about the use of force that the war was openly characterized as a "war of choice." "We know there are peaceful alternatives," the government, in effect, told its soldiers. "But we chose not follow them. And we expect you to shut up and do what you are told even though it may cost you your lives, not to mentioned the lives of others you are expected to kill".
This was the moment that gave birth to Yesh Gvul ("There is a Limit/Border"). The very first time in the history of Israel that soldiers dared question, collectively, the right of the government to use force whenever and wherever it felt like it. It was not a massive movement. It still isn't. But it was, and is, the moral compass of the entire nation. Yesh Gvul provides the absolutely crucial moral and social support for soldiers with conscience who, unlike me, dared to challenge the overwhelmingly powerful establishment. And when the First Intifada broke out in December 1987, when it became increasingly clear that the Israeli Defense Forces had very little to do with defense, Yesh Gvul was there to lead and help the soldiers who could recognize a brutal occupation when they saw one and refused to take part in it. I am proud to say that I was a co-founder of Friends of Yesh Gvul in the US and am very happy that I could lend a helping hand from here. I consider the soldiers of Yesh Gvul far braver than I ever was in any of the battles I participated in.
But Yesh Gvul's greatest achievement, perhaps, is to have made it possible for the general public in Israel to begin questioning the increasing militarization of Israeli politics and culture as a whole. This is where New Profile comes in.
I first heard about New Profile from one of the co-founders - Rela Mazali,
a novelist who is an old friend from my undergraduate days at Tel Aviv
University. In June 1999 she sent me email with an attachment of what
she called the founding document of New Profile. Let me read you a couple
of paragraphs from it:
"We, a group of feminist women and men, are convinced that we need not live in a soldiers' state... [Israel] need not be a militarized society. We are convinced that we ourselves, our children, our partners, need not go on being endlessly mobilized, need not go on living as warriors. We understand that the state of war in Israel is maintained by decisions made by our politicians - not by external forces to which we are passively subject. While taught to believe that the country is faced by threats beyond its control, we now realize that the words "national security" have often masked calculated decisions to choose military action for the achievement of political goals.
We are no longer willing to take part in such choices. We will not go on enabling them by obediently, uncritically supplying soldiers to the military... We will not go on being mobilized, raising children for mobilization, supporting mobilized partners, brothers, fathers, while those in charge of the country go on deploying the army easily, rather than building other solutions..
The hegemonic culture in Israel nurtures admiration for might and physical prowess... Young people enlist, putting their trust in the wisdom and honesty of those who bid them to serve. Every parent takes an active part in educating sons or daughters to become soldiers.
And yet, there are many women and men, parents and youngsters, who object profoundly, morally to Israel's continued wars-of-choice. We oppose the use of military means to enforce Israeli sovereignty beyond the Green Line. We oppose the use of the army, police, security forces in the ongoing oppression and discrimination of the Palestinian citizens of Israel, while demolishing their homes, denying them building and development rights, using violence to disperse their demonstrations."
The document goes on discussing other issues, and then it concludes:
"For our part, we refuse to go on raising our children to see enlistment
as a supreme and overriding value. We want a fundamentally changed education
system, for a truly democratic civic education, teaching the practice
of peace and conflict resolution, rather than training children to enlist
and accept warfare."
This was in June 1999 - more than a year before the second Intifada erupted. Since then, New Profile has extended its activities - from supporting CO's, to distributing information from alternative sources, to helping starving Palestinians in the occupied territories, to organizing teach-ins at Israeli universities on the effects of the military on education, and many more. They are still doing it without a budget, without any formal structure, without a hierarchy of any kind. A true grass-roots organization, based on tireless voluntary work.
It is difficult for me to overemphasize how breathtakingly daring and encouraging the New Profile phenomenon is in the Israeli social context. You really had to grow up in Israel to realize that. It's not the first political movement in Israel that opposes the government, of course, not by a long shot. But it's the first to focus on militarism and the cult of power as a major threat to Israel's moral and political survival. It's also the very first movement with a well-articulated political agenda led by women. The mothers, wives and daughters of soldiers finally had enough.
And now, the men and women of Yesh Gvul and the women and men of New Profile are working together. They have a lot in common and have their work cut out for them. The last year was a true national tragedy for the Palestinians, but it was also a very difficult year for Israelis, particularly Israelis with a conscience. It's very very difficult for a soldier to confront the authorities head on and refuse to serve, especially when, out of fear and frustration, the majority of the country is seized with a jingoistic frenzy fueled by racism. It is very very difficult for a mother to confront the overpowering dominant culture head on and tell her son that she does not believe in what the state is asking him to do. These soldiers from Yesh Gvul and these women and also men from New Profile are Israel's true heroes. They are virtually alone in a country that is sinking into madness right before our eyes, but they are the beacons that may guide Israel back to sanity. They need all the help and support we can give them. And I hope that tonight we will do just that.
Thank you.