HUNDREDS of Israeli high school students in a ‘Youth Against Dictatorship’ statement have announced that they will refuse to serve in the Israeli military in protest against the policies of the far-right Netanyahu administration.
‘Youth Against Dictatorship’, in a statement released at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium high school in central Tel Aviv, also openly declared that central to their cause is out and out opposition to the oppression of Palestinian masses across the occupied West Bank.
‘Youth Against Dictatorship’ declared that ‘As young women and men about to be conscripted into Israeli military service, we say NO to dictatorship in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hereby declare that we refuse to join the military, until democracy is secured for all.’
The students also noted that the ‘dictatorship’ that has oppressed Palestinians in the occupied territories ‘for decades’ is now oozing into other regions and is being ‘directed’ against them.
‘Violent settlers now control the entire affairs. These are not recent developments. Undemocratic attitudes and actions are essential to maintaining this regime of occupation and Jewish supremacy. The only thing that has changed is that the mask is now off. Faced with this reality, we say NO!’
Israeli youth are ready for an alliance with the Palestinian masses against the Zionist dictatorship, a position that has got vast revolutionary implications.
However it is not just sections of the Jewish youth that are on the march. The chief of the Israeli Air Force has already warned of the worsening damage to the force’s readiness to fight, that the open racism of the Zionist leadership is causing.
While there have been previous cases of Israeli settlers protesting by rejecting military service, this is the first time that 230 students have coordinated their refusal to serve as a specific way of challenging the policies of the racist Zionist cabinet.
The far-right cabinet’s overhaul scheme, which many Israelis denounce as a ‘judicial coup,’ seeks to dispossess the Supreme Court of the power to overrule politicians’ decisions. It also seeks to give the regime’s politicians the decisive say in the process of appointing judges to the court.
The ‘Youth Against Dictatorship’ statement makes the connection between the judicial overhaul and the occupation. ‘Those promoting the overhaul in the Knesset are Rotman, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who are settlers,’ said 16-year-old Ella Greenberg Keidar, referring to a number of far-right officials who have been pushing the controversial policies.
She added that the Israeli parliament’s new legislation was enabling further construction in the occupied territories and further acts of ‘ethnic cleansing’ against Palestinians.
She continued: ‘Beyond criticising settlers and the settlements, we want to talk about the militarism of society that allows such a thing. In addition, the reform was designed to increase the oppression of women and immigrants.’ she said.
Some of the signatories said they had planned to refuse to serve even before the current far-right cabinet was formed, while others have consolidated their position in recent months.
Yuval Dag was the first person to be jailed since the new administration was formed, and the protests began in January.
Dag, who is 20, had taken the decision to refuse military service already, but decided to go public after the new far-right administration came to power.
‘On the personal level, my attitude has changed – I felt there was an obligation to publicly refuse, in order to present a resistance to the blunt fascist discourse,’ he added.
‘In the general public, the slogan of “I won’t be a soldier of Ben-Gvir” became acceptable, even in places where the occupation was not discussed.’
Former minister for military affairs and Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon has also said that he ‘would have done the same’ when commenting on reservists who stop their service.
In fact, the time is ripe for united action of Palestinians and Israeli workers and youth to smash racism and to decide to fight for a state of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital where Palestinian and Jewish workers and youth can live side by side in a secular socialist State of Palestine.
The UK’s TUC Congress starts on Sunday 10th September. It must call a general strike in support of the Palestinian and Jewish workers who are fighting the Netanyahu dictatorship!
