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Gideon Levy: IDFdraft dodgers are heroes, not criminals
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Israel News, Gideon Levy 

Yitzhak Laor, our best protest poet, may soon face arrest. On Independence Day eve he published a poem in Haaretz's literary supplement with the lines: "Perhaps shame prevents me from getting up to embrace my son / And warning him of those who want to enlist him." Arresting Laor for having written such lines may sound like fiction, but something similar has already happened. Last week nine activists from New Profile, a feminist-pacifist organization formed in 1998 that aims to demilitarize Israeli society, were arrested on suspicion of incitement and assisting draft dodgers. The police raided their homes and confiscated their computers. The military advocate general requested the raid, the attorney general obliged and the police carried it out.

The public reacted to the raid with typical indifference; it came just as we were busy enjoying the cheesy Independence Day holiday, complete with songs of self-praise about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East. But a democracy that raids the homes of political activists is no democracy. Democracies are tested by how they treat the fringes of society.

Locking up three and a half million Palestinians in the occupied territories and denying them basic human rights has already undermined Israel's pretentions of democracy, but now dangerous cracks are appearing in our Jews-only democracy. They aren't new - they first appeared in the early years of independence - and now they're back. Those who make light of the recent arrests may soon find themselves dealing with a new regime instead of New Profile.
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New Profile is a legally registered association that believes it's possible to live in a state that "doesn't consist of soldiers." That's its right, perhaps even its duty. "We do not encourage, incite or preach in favor of draft dodging," Smadar Ben-Natan, the organization's lawyer, wrote in a letter to the deputy attorney general after the raid. "We offer a stage where ideological questions concerning objections to serving in the army [are raised], and offer information and support to anyone interested."

Last year, when an organization with the sickening motto "a true Israeli doesn't dodge the draft" was founded, New Profile responded with another: "Think before you're drafted." Yes, it's okay to think before you enlist, even in Israel. Yes, you're allowed to think that military service in an army turned into an army of occupation is immoral. Yes, you don't have to want to become a soldier automatically, even in Israel. And you can even support someone who believes that way.

New Profile isn't the first movement to deal with the issue of refusing to enlist. It was preceded by other left-wing movements, as well as some from the right. After Israel's pullout from Gaza, the right also began preaching against enlisting in the army. But no right-wing rabbi has been arrested, no computer confiscated.

The hunting season on New Profile exposes a double standard in the way the legal authorities treat the left and right, a standard all too common. Protesters against the separation fence in the West Bank town of Bil'in are routinely shot at, sometimes fatally. But the Israel Defense Forces has never shot and killed settlers during a protest, even though they are much more violent than anti-fence protesters. (In Bil'in, even High Court decisions are ignored.)

The police have limited the activities of the leftist organization Anarchists against the Wall and raided the homes of its members. At a time when fascist-like crusades against artists who did not serve in the army are considered normal, it might be good to remember that a quarter of army-aged young people in Israel receive the army's permission not to enlist, claiming that Torah is their craft.

It's time we appreciated opinionated youths - from the left and right - who decide not to serve in the army for ethical reasons and are willing to pay the price of their convictions. The IDF is strong enough without them. Israel is strong enough to tolerate those who think differently, even subversively. Maybe in due time they will be praised as the true heroes of our time.

Words don't kill, but police raids on political activists undermine our legal and moral basis. We must not keep quiet over the raid. Those who are silent now should not be surprised if one day they wake up and see the police outside the home of a poet whose message is forbidden.
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  1.   Words 10:10  |  sh 03/05/09
  2.   Why doesn`t send his protests to Mubarak, too? 10:11  |  Zev Davis 03/05/09
  3.   Useful idiots 10:32  |  Hezi 03/05/09
  4.   say what? 10:37  |  Peter 03/05/09
  5.   #1 and how mistaked is sh? WORDS DO KILL! 10:55  |  v hardman 03/05/09
  6.   The most compelling argument is that 25% of army-age youths... 10:55  |  Esther 03/05/09
  7.   another report from Levy`s dystopia 11:07  |  Itai 03/05/09
  8.   Vietnam era stuff 11:12  |  Marilyn 03/05/09
  9.   WHAT NEXT endorse the Hamas charter as the way forward? 11:14  |  PETER SM 03/05/09
  10.   Whats wrong with giving people the information 11:15  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/05/09
  11.   Israel: A Pre-Democracy? 12:08  |  John Mark 03/05/09
  12.   Poets beware 12:50  |  Mitch Katz 03/05/09
  13.   Demokratos of the Greek Pantheon 12:56  |  Daniel 03/05/09
  14.   YESREDAY ALONI WROTE THAT ISAREL IN NO LONGER A DEMOCRACY 13:16  |  f 03/05/09
  15.   When did he support Haredim? 14:48  |  Binyamin Dissen 03/05/09
  16.   #6 marylin and the usual ignorance directed against israel 15:02  |  v hardman 03/05/09
  17.   very romantic idea but he didnt mention why Israel went into Gaza 15:04  |  zionist forever 03/05/09
  18.   #10Binyamin Dissen 15:18  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/05/09
  19.   freedom 15:29  |  ehud 03/05/09
  20.   Poets beware! 15:34  |  Jaap Hamburger 03/05/09
  21.   CONGRATULATION, ISRAELIS 17:00  |  indrajaya 03/05/09
  22.   CONGRATULATION, ISRAELIS 17:00  |  indrajaya 03/05/09
  23.   our soldiers die 17:07  |  andyboy 03/05/09
  24.   The bravest in Israel are anti-war! 17:09  |  jim the mechanic 03/05/09
  25.   Gideon says it all 17:36  |  peter 03/05/09
  26.   jim the mechanic full of grease 18:11  |  peter 03/05/09
  27.   hardman the goose 18:17  |  Marilyn 03/05/09
  28.   Incitement of citizen to break the law is a crime in any 18:27  |  17 03/05/09
  29.   Conscription promotes government control thru militarism 18:38  |  Dutch 03/05/09
  30.   13 19:43  |  zionist forever 03/05/09
  31.   Peter from Montreal "what are you full of"? 20:33  |  jim the mechanic 03/05/09
  32.   "... willing to pay the price of their convictions." 20:43  |  Jeff Northridge 03/05/09
  33.   thank you 21:01  |  Hope 03/05/09
  34.   What if the Jews had had an army & fought against the Nazi 21:13  |  ks 03/05/09
  35.   #20 Peter of Montreal 21:36  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/05/09
  36.   17 21:41  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/05/09
  37.   #25 Zionist Forever 21:50  |  Chris Linthwaite 03/05/09
  38.   Laws 22:13  |  Zach 03/05/09
  39.   SOP FOR ISRAELI GOVERNMENTS 22:24  |  Ed 03/05/09
  40.   #5 Esther 22:41  |  Jim 03/05/09
  41.   Jungle Rules 22:42  |  Realist 03/05/09
  42.   As some posters have mentioned before... 22:51  |  Malone 03/05/09
  43.   Gideon Levy 23:03  |  Renny 03/05/09
  44.   # 28 You are supposed to know how laws are changed in Democracy 23:04  |  17 03/05/09
  45.   #6 Marilyn 23:10  |  Jim 03/05/09
  46.   Yes, they are criminals 23:51  |  Frank 03/05/09
  47.   To #27 dodging the answer 23:54  |  Frank 03/05/09
  48.   Freedom to dissent 00:14  |  Jacob Suslovich 04/05/09
  49.   #27..Chris Linthwaite re:#20 Peter 00:15  |  Malone 04/05/09
  50.   Gidi`s spot on right 00:27  |  Dan Y 04/05/09
  51.   #24 Dutch 00:30  |  Jim 04/05/09
  52.   to zionist forever #12 00:45  |  zeev 04/05/09
  53.   Young people the world over should refuse to be cannon fodder... 00:57  |  Maureen Ann 04/05/09
  54.   IDF Draft Dodgers 01:43  |  Joe Kelsall 04/05/09
  55.   Left-Right GET A GRIP! (Part 1) 02:01  |  BDF 04/05/09
  56.   Ledt-Right GET A GRIP (Part 2) 02:07  |  BDF 04/05/09
  57.   Joe Kelsall 02:41  |  Connie 04/05/09
  58.   Secular Haredism 02:44  |  Mike 04/05/09
  59.   # 28 03:29  |  17 04/05/09
  60.   marilyn 03:33  |  udi 04/05/09
  61.   Peter: Achieving peace 03:56  |  Ari 04/05/09
  62.   maureen ann 04:46  |  ehud 04/05/09
  63.   Heroes and cowards 04:47  |  Roberto 04/05/09
  64.   Marilyn, lead by example 06:24  |  Yindi 04/05/09
  65.   #26 Jim the mechanic full of shmaltz 06:39  |  peter 04/05/09
  66.   #30- Linthwaite`s red herring 06:53  |  peter 04/05/09
  67.   Gideon continues to propagate hate and intolerance! 07:03  |  Dr Eric 04/05/09
  68.   Gideon Levy: spot on as usual! 07:06  |  Hannah 04/05/09
  69.   Ari: achieving peace 07:07  |  peter 04/05/09
  70.   Esther #5 - You are so wrong and confused!! 07:14  |  Dr Eric 04/05/09
  71.   #57 Ehud. I`m smiling. : ) 08:06  |  Maureen Ann 04/05/09
  72.   WHY stop there? Why not make the Hamas charter the road map? 09:31  |  PETER SM 04/05/09
  73.   MAUREEN Tell the child martyrs,suicide bombers & human shields 09:36  |  PETER SM 04/05/09
  74.   BDF Ontario 13:04  |  jennifer 04/05/09
  75.   Lead by example, Marilyn 15:18  |  Yindi 04/05/09
  76.   to Dr Eric #63, wrong & confused 15:21  |  zeev 04/05/09
  77.   To Jennifer #67 16:03  |  BDF 04/05/09
  78.   to BDF #76 18:06  |  zeev 04/05/09
  79.   #11 Israel - a Pre-Democracy? 07:55  |  Dana in Canada 05/05/09
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