{"id":128888,"date":"2019-03-04T12:00:30","date_gmt":"2019-03-04T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=128888"},"modified":"2019-03-11T11:52:44","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T11:52:44","slug":"a-teenage-war-resister-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/03\/a-teenage-war-resister-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teenage War Resister in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Antiwar Story from the Embattled Middle East<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hilel Garmi is refusing to serve in the IDF in protest of the military\u2019s policies in the occupied territories.
(Photo: Yoav Eshel)<\/p><\/div>\n

24 Feb 2019 – <\/em>Hilel Garmi\u2019s phone is going straight to voicemail and all I\u2019m hoping is that he\u2019s not back in prison. I\u2019ll soon learn that he is.<\/p>\n

Prison 6 is a military prison. It\u2019s situated in the Israeli coastal town of Atlit, a short walk from the Mediterranean Sea and less than an hour\u2019s drive from Hilel\u2019s home. It was constructed in 1957 following the Sinai War between Israel and Egypt to house disciplinary cases from the Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF.<\/p>\n

Hilel has already been locked up six times. \u201cI can smell the sea from my cell, especially at night when everything is quiet,\u201d he tells me in one of our phone conversations. I\u2019m 6,000 miles away in Chicago, but Hilel and I have regularly been discussing his ordeal as an Israeli war resister, so it makes me nervous that, this time around, I can\u2019t reach him at all.<\/p>\n

A recent high-school graduate with dark hair and a big smile, he\u2019s only 19 and still lives with his parents in Yodfat, an Israeli town of less than 900 people in the northern part of the country. It\u2019s 155 miles to Damascus (if such a trip were possible, which, of course, it isn\u2019t), a two-hour drive down the coast to Tel Aviv, and a four-hour drive to besieged Gaza.<\/p>\n

Yodfat itself could be a set for a Biblical movie, with its dry rolling hills, ancient ruins, and pastoral landscape. The town exports flower bulbs, as well as organic goat cheese, and notably supports the Misgav Waldorf School that Hilel\u2019s mother helped found. Hilel is proud of his mom. After all, people commute from all over Israel to attend the school.<\/p>\n

He is a rarity in his own land, one of only a handful of refuseniks living in Israel. Each year roughly 30,000 18 year olds are drafted into the IDF, although 35%<\/a> of such draftees manage to avoid military service for religious reasons. A far tinier percentage publicly refuses to fight for moral and political reasons to protest their country\u2019s occupation of Palestinian lands. The exact numbers are hard to find. I\u2019ve asked war resister groups in Israel, but no one seems to have any. Hilel\u2019s estimate: between five and 15 refuseniks a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve thought the occupation of Palestine was immoral at least since I was in eighth grade,\u201d he told me. \u201cBut it was the March of Return that played a large role in sustaining the courage to say no to military service.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Great March of Return began in the besieged Gaza Strip on March 30, 2018, the 42nd anniversary of the day in 1976 that Israeli police shot and killed six Palestinian citizens of Israel as they protested the government\u2019s expropriation of land. During the six-month protest movement that followed in 2018, Israeli soldiers killed another 141 demonstrators, while nearly 10,000<\/a> were injured, including 919<\/a> children, all shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be a part of that,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d rather be in jail.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, after 37 days in prison, it was the letter Hilel received from Abu Artema, a key Palestinian organizer of that march, which provided him with his greatest inspiration. It read<\/a> in part:<\/p>\n

“Your decision is what will help end this dark period inflicted on Palestinians, and at the same time mitigate the fears of younger Israeli generations who were born into a complicated situation and a turbulent geographical area deprived of security and peace… I believe the solution is near and possible. It will not require more than the courage to take initiative and set a new perspective, after traditional solutions have failed to achieve a just settlement. Let us fight together for human rights, for a country that is democratic for all its citizens, and for Israelis and Palestinians to live together based on citizenship and equality, not segregation and racism.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThis letter excited me a great deal,\u201d Hilel said. \u201cIt\u2019s Palestinians like Artema who have the true courage, the kind that can only come from the moral authority of those resisting occupation and violent oppression. This type of authority is much stronger than the forces that occupy Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

After trying yet again to reach him by phone, I send Hilel a Facebook message:<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope everything is all right. Call me when you can. By the way, I was listening to this song and it reminded me of you. Stay strong, brother.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I attach a YouTube video<\/a> of \u201cThe World\u2019s Greatest\u201d by Bonnie \u201cPrince\u201d Billy:<\/p>\n

I’m that little bit of hope
\nWith my back against the ropes.
\nI can feel it
\nI’m the world’s greatest…\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

War Resister to War Resister<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a war resister myself<\/a> while serving in the U.S. Army — I was protesting America\u2019s unending wars across the Greater Middle East — I\u2019ve wondered a lot about what it means to be one in Israel, a country where an antiwar movement is almost non-existent. My friends in the U.S. who are familiar with the militarization of Israel and the population\u2019s overwhelming support<\/a> for their country\u2019s still-expanding occupation respect what Hilel is doing, but wonder about the political purpose of an essay like this one about a war resister who lives in a country where such creatures are rarer than a snowy day in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

A valid point: the Israeli antiwar movement (if you can even call it a movement at this moment) is a long, long way from making a dent in the occupation, no less ending it, and I wouldn\u2019t want to convey false hope about what such refuseniks mean to the larger question of Palestinian liberation.<\/p>\n

Still, I talk to Hilel because I know how much it would have meant to me if someone had contacted me when I was still resisting the Global War on Terror within the 2nd Ranger Battalion nearly 15 years ago. If I had known that there were others like me or at least others ready to support me, it would have made my own sense of isolation during the six months I spent on lockdown inside my barracks less intolerable.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more, though. Each time Hilel and I speak, I feel like I\u2019m the one being energized by the conversation. He\u2019s smart, reads a lot of the books I also read (despite the 22-year age difference between us), and has a passion for rock climbing in the Shagor mountain range. More than anything else, though, he has a kind of energy that I identify only with those who are standing up for a principle, whatever the repercussions for their own future. He exhibits no misgivings about what he\u2019s doing, but somehow remains remarkably grounded in reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard being rejected by friends and family who have never questioned the occupation,\u201d he tells me in one of our phone conversations. (His English, by the way, is superb.) \u201cVery few in my class agree with what I\u2019m doing. But I believe in what I\u2019m doing. That is the most important thing. Although, who knows, my decision to resist may have a positive ripple effect in a way we can\u2019t appreciate at this point in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He tells me all this in a tone that feels both light and confident, the very opposite of what you might imagine from a teenager who had at that moment been jailed six times in a single year and expected more of the same. His voice is authentic. It\u2019s all his and draws strength from a self-possessed sense of the truth.<\/p>\n

Like many, I\u2019ve been exhausted and depressed by Donald Trump\u2019s presidency. His administration represents a dark step back when it comes to social-justice issues around the world and makes me question the time I still spend organizing against America\u2019s endless wars. The ship appears to be sinking, no matter what I do, and since the election I\u2019ve found myself asking why I shouldn\u2019t try to just shut out the world.<\/p>\n

In such a context, talking with Hilel has been a tonic for me. After our conversations, the all-too-familiar feelings of depression and hopelessness fade, at least briefly, while his courage and optimism energize me. So part of my urge in writing this piece is to convey that very feeling, hoping others will be energized, too.\u00a0 It’s a tall order these days, but worth a try.<\/p>\n

The Adventures of a Teenage Refusenik<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a week in which my calls frustratingly keep going to voicemail, I finally hear back. \u201cThey arrested me again,\u201d he informs me. \u201cI expected it, but wasn\u2019t sure they would come back a seventh time.\u201d Surprisingly, he\u2019s still in good spirits.<\/p>\n

The Israeli government distinguishes between pacifists who reject the use of force for any reason and those with \u201cselective conscience<\/a>,\u201d or those who specifically refuse to fight in protest over the occupation of Palestinian territory. The latter are treated far more severely and are significantly more likely to find themselves in prison.<\/p>\n

Hilel\u2019s public declaration<\/a> — which has been circulating in left-leaning outlets<\/a> in Israel — on why he continues to refuse military service couldn\u2019t be clearer on where he stands and helps explain why the Israeli government has sent him back to prison so regularly:<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot enlist, because from a very young age I was educated to believe that all humans are equal. I do not believe in some common denominator which all Jews share and which sets them apart from Arabs. I do not believe that I should be treated differently from a child born in Gaza or in Jenin, and I do not believe that the sorrows or the happiness of any of us are more important than those of anyone else… As a person who was born into the more powerful side of the hierarchy between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, I was given the power as well as the obligation to try to fight that hierarchy.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Refuseniks like Hilel generally spend 20 days in jail. They are then released for a day or two and immediately reprocessed back into prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of sitting around in prison. I read a lot. It\u2019s a military prison so I\u2019m in with people who are in trouble for a variety of things while serving in the IDF.\u201d There are different cellblocks (A, B, and C) designated for various infractions — A being the \u201ceasiest,\u201d C the \u201chardest,\u201d according to Hilel:<\/p>\n

\u201cI started in A, but worked my way up to C because I continue to refuse to fight. C is where those who commit assaults of varying degree within the IDF are housed. C is used as a threat by the jailors. I was in C for a short time because I wouldn\u2019t tell a group of demonstrators protesting my arrest to disperse. After they left on their own, they sent me back to B.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I ask him how many protestors there were. \u201cAbout 50,\u201d he replies, \u201cBut they gave me a lot of strength. Atlit, where the jail is, is not a very big town, so to have anyone out there at all was encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

An increasing number<\/a> of Israelis oppose<\/a> the occupation and some have formed groups<\/a> to help support war resisters. Yesh Gvul, an organization that backs refuseniks like Hilel (and to which he belongs), for instance, first put me in touch with him. Palestinians like Abu Artema are also reaching out to refuseniks. Palestianian and Israeli activists are working to overcome<\/a> the barriers that divide them, searching for creative ways to connect and organize against the occupation. In December 2018, Israeli activists, including conscientious objectors, held a video meeting with Artema. “Those who refuse to take part in the attacks on the demonstrators in Gaza, who express their natural right to protest against the siege, those who refuse to take part in the attacks on Gaza’s citizens — they stand on the right side of history,” Artema said<\/a> during the call.<\/p>\n

And now, having grown strangely attached to Hilel, I feel a small flood of relief that he\u2019s on the phone with me once again. I ask if we can Skype so that I can actually see him and he promptly agrees. It\u2019s December and he\u2019s wearing a ski hat. He\u2019s sitting in his parent\u2019s kitchen and his eyes glimmer. As he talks, I\u2019m taken back to my own 19-year-old self, to the Rory Fanning who was still trying to fit in, get decent grades, and have fun. I certainly wasn\u2019t taking on my government, which only makes me more impressed that he is.<\/p>\n

He and I chat more about his family and his town. Yodfat was once a place governed by a group of people called the Kibbutz (from the Hebrew word kvutza, meaning \u201cgroup\u201d). Inspired in part by Karl Marx, the Kibbutz movement strove to live communally and maintain deep connections to agriculture<\/a>. \u201cIt’s still a progressive town,\u201d he says, \u201cand most people, at least as lip service, will say they oppose the occupation. However, they see obedience to the current law and general support for the military — even though some of them may admit it’s an undemocratic one — as far more important.”<\/p>\n

I ask him about the Boycott Divestment Sanction<\/a>, or BDS, movement. BDS is Palestinian-led and inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. It calls on others globally to pressure Israel to comply with international law and end the occupation of Palestine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of Israel feel isolated from the rest of the world,\u201d Hilel responds. \u201cThe government and media constantly remind them how Iran and so many others want to destroy the country. The effects of anti-Semitism echo in everyone\u2019s head. I think BDS only reinforces the idea that the government promotes that Jews are rejected by the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

I remind him how an earlier BDS-style movement helped end apartheid in South Africa and ask if he thinks it might be an effective way to end Israel\u2019s system of apartheid, too. \u201cMaybe,\u201d he responds hesitantly. \u201cI haven\u2019t thought about it too much. I could certainly see how it could.\u201d I don\u2019t press the issue, but as ever I\u2019m struck by how open he is, even on a topic that the Israeli government clearly feels deeply threatened<\/a> by.<\/p>\n

As I can see via Skype, the sun is going down behind Hilel. It\u2019s still morning here in Chicago, but six in the evening in Yodfat, so I let him go back to his embattled teenage life.<\/p>\n

And I wonder yet again how I\u2019ll write about that life, his dilemmas, and the unnerving world both of us find ourselves in. Then, I\u2019m reminded of how encouraging it felt to have many active-duty soldiers reach out to me over the years after hearing my own story of war resistance. I know that there are surprising numbers of people in the U.S. military who question America\u2019s endless wars<\/a>, trillion-dollar<\/a> national security budgets, and the near-robotic thank-you-for-your-service<\/a> patriotism of so many in this country, because I\u2019ve met or talked to many of them and even seen a few over the years break ranks<\/a> as I did (and as, in a very different situation, Hilel has done). And obviously there must be many others out there I know nothing about.<\/p>\n

News travels fast these days. Support networks like Veterans for Peace<\/a> and About Face<\/a> continue to be built up in this country to support soldiers who question their mission. And I know that, in Israel, there are others who think the way Hilel does and are just waiting for an atmosphere of greater support to develop so that they, too, can begin to resist the injustices of their moment and their country. That, of course, is what Hilel has helped accomplish. Stories like his create openings for others to act. Sooner or later, those others, inspired by him and perhaps by similar figures to come, will inevitably follow their lead.<\/p>\n

Just as I\u2019m finishing this piece, he suddenly calls to tell me that he\u2019s been released — for good! The Israeli Defense Forces have freed him from his military obligation. At first, a ruling against releasing him came down from a committee of civilians and officers controlled by the IDF, because his refusal to fight stemmed from reasons that were \u201cpolitical\u201d rather than from \u201cconscience.\u201d Later that day, however, a higher-ranking officer overturned that group\u2019s decision and, after his seventh imprisonment, Hilel was suddenly free.<\/p>\n

He isn\u2019t sure why the decision was overturned, but perhaps the higher-ups finally concluded that he simply wouldn\u2019t break under their pressure. Quite the opposite, a determined 19-year-old resister might only get more attention if they kept sending him back to jail. His courage might, in fact, motivate others to resist, the last thing the IDF wants right now.<\/p>\n

I look forward to staying in touch with Hilel. He tells me he plans on working with disadvantaged youth in Israel for the next two years. I know there are great things in store for him. Interacting with a fellow war-resister across continents and seas these last few months, and seeing him go from prison to freedom in a matter of weeks, has reinvigorated my own tired sprit in ways I had not anticipated when I sent my first note to him.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Rory Fanning<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, following two deployments to Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion, became one of the first U.S. Army Rangers to resist the Iraq war and the Global War on Terror. In 2008\u20132009 he walked across the United States for the Pat Tillman Foundation. Rory is the author of\u00a0Worth Fighting For: An Army Ranger\u2019s Journey Out of the Military and Across America<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and co-author of Long Shot: The Triumphs and Struggles of an NBA Freedom Fighter<\/a>. He has bylines at <\/em>Common Dreams, The Guardian, The Nation<\/a>, and<\/em> TomDispatch<\/a>. In 2015 he was awarded a grant from the Chicago Teachers Union to speak to CPS students about America\u2019s endless wars and to fill in some of the blanks military recruiters often ignore about America\u2019s endless wars. As a sponsored lifetime member of\u00a0Veterans for Peace<\/a>, Rory has traveled multiple times to Japan on speaking tours to express solidarity with those seeking to abolish nuclear weapons and close U.S. military bases around the world. Rory currently lives in Chicago and works for Haymarket Books.<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright 2019 Rory Fanning<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 tomdispatch.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Antiwar Story from the Embattled Middle East<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":128889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,59,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","category-nonviolence","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}