RE: Effective Palestine Solidarity

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

At 11:41 AM -0400 10/11/03, Jose G. Perez wrote:
> I don't consider this a normal civilian population, this is a highly
> militarized, well-armed, colonial-settler population occupying
> another people's land.

While no two states are exactly alike, and in some ways each state
has its own specific characteristics, I think it is best not to make
Israel out to be an exceptional case unlike any other.  The only
social forces that benefit from an argument that suggests Israeli
exceptionalism are Zionists and their mirror image anti-Zionist
conspiracy theorists.

Israel is a settler-colonialist state, but so was South Africa before
the end of Apartheid (as well as the United States, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, etc., etc.).  I don't recall the African
National Congress during the anti-Apartheid struggle declaring that
no white person was to be considered civilian; nor would the PLO use
such a rhetoric for that matter: the PLO and PA officials have gone
so far as to make a sharp distinction between attacks on civilians
within Israel and attacks on Israeli settlers and soldiers in the
occupied territories, as even a pro-Israeli website admits at
<http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Terrorism/PLOreport02.html>.

At 11:41 AM -0400 10/11/03, Jose G. Perez wrote:
> By their own laws, Jewish Israeli citizens from the ages of 18 to 40
> are required to be part of the Zionist military apparatus, and the
> majority are in fact in the IDF or its active reserves.

Even if all Jewish Israeli citizens ages 18 to 40 were to be
considered full members of the Israeli Defense Forces (which isn't
the case -- see below), you would still have to define younger and
older Jewish Israeli citizens -- especially children who have yet to
reach the draft age -- as civilians.

On an empirical note, btw, not every Israeli citizen of the draft age serves:

*****   IDF Service - Where is it Going?
Maj. Gen. (res.) Gideon Sheffer

. . . Arab citizens of Israel, who are not obligated to serve,
comprise over 20% of the draft-age population. If we add to this the
fact, as shown in Table 1, that about 21% of the Jewish, Druse, and
Circassian conscription pool received deferments during the current
year, it emerges that, currently, about 42% of the total Israeli
citizenry aged 18 are not conscripted into the IDF. Moreover, this
number is expected to grow. . . .

The pool of reservists is drawn from precisely the same group of
citizens who were 'suckered' into performing their military service
obligations. About 300,000 people bear the burden of reserve duty: of
these, about 220,000 of them actively serve every year. From their
point of view, only a very small portion of the residents of Israel -
compared to the potential number fit for service from the standpoints
of age and gender - shoulder the burden. . . .

<http://www.tau.ac.il/jcss/sa/v3n4p2.html>   *****

*****   Refuseniks: Anomaly or Growing Crisis?

Dave Eberhart, NewsMax
Thursday, April 4, 2002

. . . Draft Dodgers

Rufuseniks are not the only element potentially eroding the legendary
Israeli citizen-soldier. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, 22
percent of all Israeli males eligible for the draft (at age 18 for
three years of service) are granted exemptions -- an increase from 12
percent 20 years ago.

Furthermore, the IDF reports that only one-third of all men eligible
for reserve duty completes such duty. During the first six months of
the current intifada, the number of reservists filing requests to
defer their tour of duty doubled.

The majority of those finding reasons not to serve voice no
philosophical objections. However, some in the anti-occupation ranks
point hopefully to what they interpret as a tacit rejection of
Israeli policy.

<http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/4/55007.shtml>   *****

At 11:41 AM -0400 10/11/03, Jose G. Perez wrote:
> We must reject language that tries to make it seem like the
> militarized colonial-settler population as "civilians" in the same
> sense that people who surround most of us in our day to day lives
> are "civilians."

Many a crime has been committed by the state of Israel, but not as
many as the US Empire's.  It makes sense to consider ordinary Jewish
Israeli citizens to be victims of the Zionist power elite (who have
been used and supported by the US Empire), just as we consider
ordinary American workers to be victims of the US power elite.

At 11:41 AM -0400 10/11/03, Jose G. Perez wrote:
> But for us here, who live in a country that very directly and
> materially *benefits* from having the poisoned Zionist dagger
> plunged into the heart of the Arab nation

I don't think that American workers materially benefit from Zionism
at all -- I'd say that the opposite is the case.

At 11:41 AM -0400 10/11/03, Jose G. Perez wrote:
> Because if we're going to talk morality, then it goes for all sides,
> and systematically. That means beginning at the beginning, with the
> Zionist aggression and the colonial settler population that is its
> instrument.

We have and will continue to speak about the beginning and how to
right the original wrong (that is to say, the refugees' right to
return), but we also need to think about the future.  If the future
that Palestinians envision includes living in historic Palestine with
Jews, Palestinian military strategies and tactics for liberation must
be in keeping with such a future.  What means make sense in part
depends on what ends are desired.
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>


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