Dopo 10.000 a sabato 9 febbraio ci dovrebbe essere un'altra manifestazione della "gente più moderata" sabato scorso 16 febbraio: ci sono raccolte 15.000 persone. Però anche il leader degli immigranti russi si schierò alla parte dei militari disobbedienti...

One and half year after the start of the latest Palestinian
uprising a growing number of Israelis start expressing their anger and disgust at of the way of the Sharon government - the way of brute force. And the number is growing, the more that this way is seen to be unworkable.
That's why thousands of people spent two consecutive Saturday nights to demonstrating in Tel-Aviv against continuing occupation and for withdrawal to
the '67 borders. Many of the 10,000 who came to the earlier, Jewish-Arab rally, attended also the one held a week later at the inititaive of Peace Now - in the
same square, but more densily-packed (there were some 15,000 - i.e. probably half of them people who had not joined the week before).
Peace Now's idea was to bring in the more moderate people, those who (so they argued) don't identify with the refusers and are not willing to hear about Israeli war crimes. The surprise of the Peace Now rally (probably for the organizers as well) was that one of their scheduled speakers - KM Roman Bronfman of the dovish Russian immigrant party "Democratic Choice", which is Peace Now's
partner in the "Peace Coalition" - did appeal to the public to support the refusers whom he called "the moving force of the growing anti-occupation movement".
The overwhelming ovation which he got for it showed that also many of the "more moderate tribe" are impressed and moved by the wave of - as of now - 255 first time refusers of military occupation duty.
[The number is constantly updated on the http://www.seruv.org.il site and the link with the number appears also on the Gush Shalom site.]
Briefing on the rally sent by Peace Now
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From: "Peace Now" <peacenow@actcom.co.il>

February 16, 2002

Over 15,000 activists participated in the march and rally organized by Peace Now and the Peace Coalition in Tel-Aviv this evening, under the slogan "Get Out of the Territories - Get Back to Ourselves"
One of the highlights of the rally was the speech, in Hebrew, given by Dr. Sari Nusseibeh. "The path to peace is through the return of the refugees to the State of Palestine and the return of the settlers to the State of Israel," Nusseibeh said.

As the march commenced, news arrived of the atrocious suicide bombing in the West Bank. The aim of our protest movement is to struggle for a political solution that will break this terrible cycle of violence.While this weekend's
violent events will undoubtedly push the rally into the margins of the media agenda, it is only the first in a long series of major street activities.
Judging by the energy and atmosphere we felt on streets of Tel-Aviv this evening, it is just a matter of time before hundreds of thousands fill Rabin square again.

Peace Now and the Peace Coalition would like to thank the Coalition of Women for Just Peace, Taayush and Gush Shalom for their outstanding support and cooperation.

Further information:
Activists: There is a lot of work that needs to be done (office, weekend intersections, weeknight sign hanging,
permanent vigils and organizing the next rally), get involved by contacting Ori Ginat, 054-405157 or ori@peacenow.org.il
For more details and background, we advice reading the following:

[1] Something is Moving, by Uri Avnery

[Written16.2.02, published in Ma'ariv (Hebrew version) 17.2.02]

Something is Moving

I once saw in a Western a Red Indian (or should I say a Native American?) putting his ear to the ground and hearing a train tens of miles away.
In the course of the years I have tried to imitate that Indian. I try to hear changes in the public mood long before they appear on the surface. Not to prophesy, not
to guess, just to hear.
Now I perceive the approach of a great wave of opposition to the bloody war against the Palestinians (nicknamed "Peace of the Settlements, following the
name given to the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, "Peace of Galilee"). The revolt of the soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories is an important symptom, one of many.
We have seen in the past several such public upheavals, that start with opaque noises and grow quickly into a public uproar. Such a wave rose during the Lavon affair in the fifties and led to the dismissal of Ben-Gurion. Such a wave carried Moshe Dayan into the Defense Ministry on the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War (led by the women nicknamed "the Merry Women of Windsor"), and the
next one, which swept him and Golda Meir away after the Yom Kippur war. Such a wave got the IDF out of Beirut, and later out of South Lebanon (led by the "Four Mothers" movement.)
The mechanism can be compared to a transmission of spiked wheels. A small wheel with a strong, independent drive turns a bigger wheel, which in turn moves an even bigger wheel, and so on, until all the establishment changes
course. This is how it happens in Israel, this is how it happens in all democracies (see: Vietnam).
It always starts with a small group of committed people. They raise their feeble voice. The media ignore them, the politicians laugh at them ("a tiny, marginal and
vociferous group"), the respectable parties and the established old organizations crinkle their noses and distance themselves from their "radical slogans".
But slowly they start to have an impact. People leave the respectable (meaning linked to the establishment) organizations and join the militant groups. This
compels the leaders of the mainstream organizations to radicalize their slogans and to join the wave. The message spreads throughout the parties. Politicians who want to be reelected adopt the new slogans. "Important" journalists,
serving as weathercocks, smell the change and adapt themselves in time to the new winds.
The famous anthropologist Margaret Mead said about this: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's
the only thing that ever has." And the German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, said: "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Now it happens again. It is difficult to fix the exact moment when it started.
Perhaps after the demolition of some 50 homes in the Rafah refugee camp. Or at the mass-meeting called by Gush Shalom in Tel-Aviv, when Colonel Yig'al Shochat, who had lost a leg in the Yom Kippur war, called upon his comrades,
the airforce pilots, to refuse to carry out orders that are manifestly illegal, such as bombing Palestinian towns, and when the philosopher Adi Ophir proposed to open files on IDF officers who commit war crimes. Suddenly the public woke up to the possibility that war crimes are being committed in its name. The mental block was broken, a public debate about war crimes, and consequently about the
occupation itself, began.
The announcement by 50 reserve officers and soldiers that they refuse to serve in the occupied territories broke a dam. The number of refuseniks grew quickly, the phenomenon shook the military-political establishment. For the first time, the leaders of the establishment saw in their nightmares the possibility of a big uprising of soldiers who say: This is where we get off, we will not go on. When
public opinion polls showed that nearly a third of the Israeli Jewish public supports the refuseniks, the panic grew. At the same time, hundreds of Israelis visited the besieged Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.
Then came the big, joint demonstration of the militant peace movements ("The Occupation Kills All Of Us!") in Tel-Aviv's Museum Square. Organizations that had got used during the last 16 months to demonstrations of a hundred, two hundred people saw before them ten thousand enthusiastic demonstrators, who have left despair behind them and were demanding action.
This demonstration had, of course, an impact on the "established left", which is now compelled to confront the new mood of their own public.
This is the beginning of a process. Nobody can know yet how powerful it will become and how far it will go. But one thing is certain: something is happening.

[2] Update on support for refusal, Dorothy Naor - New Profile.

----------forwarded message follows-----------
From: Dorothy Naor <dor_naor@netvision.net.il>

Update on Support for Refusing
The past several days have seen influential sources expressing support for the refusal to serve in the territories. On Saturday evening, February 16, at the
demonstration organized by the Coalition for Peace, Knesseth member Roman Bronfman spoke before the crowd of about 15,000 in the Tel Aviv Museum Square.
He declared his unmitigated support for the reservists’ letter stating their refusal to serve in the territories.

On Sunday, February 17 support came from two additional influential sources.

Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz castigated those who acknowledge “that Israel is doing terrible things but fiercely oppose the refusal to serve in the territories for
various reasons and call on soldiers not to carry out illegal orders,” referring to “Members of the moderate Zionist left, from Ami Ayalon to MK Ran Cohen (Meretz), from the left of the Labor Party to Meretz.” These, Levy says, belong neither to the Israeli majority who reject non-compliance with the draft, nor to the minority who support it. Rather, they belong to a third group, one that is
“attempting to have its cake and eat it too.”

"Those who support the third position have taken the easy way out - they tell the soldiers don't kill small children, don't prevent women in labor from going through checkpoints, don't beat up civilians for no reason, don't torment the innocent. But at the same time, don't refuse to serve in the territories, God forbid. Stand at the checkpoints and smile at the inhabitants whose lives you
are embittering. That way, you will be both obedient and moral soldiers. Hand out candies to children after an operation, as battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Tal Hermoni told his soldiers after they arrested, killed, destroyed and wreaked terror on Beit Hanun. Inadvertently, the battalion commander fully actualized this position of the left: Shoot and sweeten."

Also on the 17th, Michael Ben Yair, legal advisor to Prime Ministers Rabin and Peres, signed a petition supporting the Letter of the Reservists declaring their refusal to serve in the territories. With him, seven additional faculty members of the law school at Tel Aviv University likewise signed. Ben Yair justified his stand yesterday (Feb. 17) on the radio and in the Ma’ariv newspaper.

Today’s Ma’ariv interviews him at greater length. He stresses the legitimacy of conscientious objection in democratic societies, noting that today’s refusees
might be tomorrow’s majority, and reminding readers that Bill Clinton had refused to participate in the Vietnam war. “Our refusees,” he states, “are restoring the moral back bone to the State of Israel.”

One additional encouraging sign is the popularity of our New Profile booth at Saturday’s demonstration. Most people that we spoke to either at the booth or when wandering among the crowd distributing our fliers responded very
favorably to our announcement that we support those who refuse to serve in the military.
The position we back has not yet gained major proportions, but is apparently gaining in popularity.

At this writing, an additional 200 reservists have added their names to the original letter, bringing the number to 253. May their numbers continue to grow, and thus help hasten the end of the occupation.

All the best, Dorothy

PS [by Gush Shalom]: This evening, more than three hundred allend a solidarity with the conscientious refusers taking place at Beit Ha'am Gallery in south Tel-
Aviv, with speakers, artistic performances and and an exhibition of specially- donated paintings and sculptures by 52 artists. The Refusers' Solidarity Forum which organized this event also printed a solidarity poster which is a work of art in itself. For further info <matzpoon@yahoo.com> - or call Nir Nader 050-7369867.

[4] Old-New Israeli Voice of Conscience, Lev Grinberg Ma'ariv Feb 18

An Old-New Israeli Voice: The Voice of Conscience

By Lev Grinberg – Jerusalem*

In recent weeks a new voice is rising, loud and clear. A voice previously marginal and repressed, a voice that now threatens to inundate the entire country with the hope of breaking out of the crisis. It is the voice of conscience,
which sees all human beings as equal, having the right to shelter, health, freedom and dignity, and above all, the right to life. The most salient expression of the new voice are the soldiers that declared their objection to serve the
occupation, and the intensity of the reactions, be they negative or positive, that they provoked. But this is only one expression of the new voice’s power. The new voice permeates reports from the Occupied Territories, and it has begun to mobilize masses for action, in previously inconceivable scales, such as the last two Saturdays' rallies.
The voice of conscience is both personal and collective, hence its strength. It is personal because each individual must be accountable for his actions. It is collective because it manifests social responsibility and creates a common language through which we are able to communicate, talk about the reality and connect with each other.
The voice’s intensity and growth potential stem from its clarity and unambiguousness. You cannot tell the voice of conscience that “we” want peace but “they” don’t, because the daily abuse of the Palestinians and the provocative exterminations are clear for all to see. You cannot distract the voice of conscience by claiming that “Barak offered everything”, because in terms of conscience, this does not justify the war crimes committed by the Israeli
occupation forces. And of course you cannot recruit soldiers with the militaristic argument that “we must win this war”, because the occupation is not a war forced upon us, and woe to us if we ever do win, and thus succeed to maintain the occupation.
The new voice’s greatest power is its ancientness. There is no need to invent it;
it already exists in the individual consciousness, in the Jewish and humanistic tradition. This is the voice of “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself” and “What is hateful to you do not do unto your fellow man”. These are the values
on which most Israelis were brought up, and this is the dormant voice now awakening. It is inside us, only until now it has been silenced by other voices,
which mobilize a nation to war and raise primal fears that mute the voice of conscience. This old-new voice is powerful enough to tear down the protective wall of blind militarism, of racism - that make distinctions between types of blood according to their origin, and of fascism - that demands national unity.
The voice of conscience and the Jewish moral code are capable of establishing in Israel a different culture, a culture of tolerance and coexistence. The voice of
conscience can link Jews, Christians and Muslims brought up on the sacred principle that all human beings are created in God’s image. The voice of conscience can provide an agreed-upon moral basis between Jews and Arabs according to the biblical, pre-democratic rule that “One law shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourns among you”. If this voice grows stronger, it can also provide the ethical basis required for rapprochement and resolution of the
conflict with the Palestinians, which is now conceived as intractable, breeding a sense of despair and thoughts about leaving. The ancient Jewish voice of conscience is the voice of the new hope.
Lev Grinberg is a peace activist and political sociologist, Director of the Humphrey Institute for Social Research

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Did you know that every Friday afternoon at 2.30 Gush Shalom maintains a vigil opposite Peres' home in Ramat Aviv calling upon him to stop being an accomplice? Photo's and details on the website

NB: Full transcript of the war crimes panel available on the Gush site For English http://www.gush-shalom.org/archives/forum_eng.html

Also on the site:
the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English
the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English
(and a lot more) http://www.gush-shalom.org