Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Militarism in Israel

Ruth Hiller
 I was moved to tears today by shocking images of Israeli children fondling submachine guns. Ruth Hiller, a U.S. born Israeli leader in the New Profile NGO, told us that Israel's whole education system is militarized, starting with exercises to count tanks and guns in kindergarten. New Profile works with teachers, educators, and youth groups to reduce the impact of militarized education. Ruth's two daughters served in the army, but all four of her sons finally won legal recognition as conscientious objectors and were exempt. The government tried to close New Profile three years ago for inciting people to refuse military service, but the High Court protected them. "We are considered one of the most dangerous organizations in Israel," she says. It would be treason to tell people not to serve, but it is not a crime to provide information on the process. New Profile gets 200 applications for information every month, and more and more youth are choosing not to serve.

Ruth says Israel spends 7.6% of its GDP on defense, compared with 2.8% in the United States. She says, "If we're going to demilitarize, we have to end the occupation--decolonize--and stop  being Zionists." More power to her. (No wonder the government considers her dangerous.)




Kobi Snitz
Seven years ago Palestinian civil society organizations appealed to the world to use boycott, divestment, and sanctions to move toward ending the occupation, ending discrimination against Palestinians in Israel, and letting Palestinians exercise the right of return. We heard today from Kobi Snitz, a U.S.-educated native Israeli neurobiologist active in an NGO called Boycott from Within. He said that cultural boycotts have a big effect, and his group has persuaded several prominent artists to cancel planned shows in Israel. Kobi says the law making it a civil offense to call for a boycott is being challenged in court, but it is  intimidating people who have had to remove things from their website. In terms of academic boycotts, the Israeli activists are calling for no institutional cooperation, not for a ban on articles or visits by individual professors.

Khalil Asi
Speaking of the right of return, in northern Israel, just a few miles from Lebanon, we visited Bassa, the site of one of the more than 500 Palestinian villages destroyed in the ethnic cleansing of 1948. Khalil Asi, who was born there, was just 11 when it happened. The town had 4,000 people, two-thirds of them Christians. Khalil says all of them, except for his family and nine others, sought refuge in Lebanon and eventually in Europe, the United States, and Canada.

Greek Orthodox church in Bassa
Khalil is Catholic, and he showed us the ruins of the Catholic church, the Greek Orthodox church, a common holy site of Saint George, and a house, which is about all that is left of Bassa, now surrounded by an industrial park. I was appalled when he told us that the Jewish kibbutzim had used the churches as cattle  barns, and he had to clean up manure from the floor that was about 20 inches deep. Khalil said he hopes that in his lifetime the Greek Orthodox church, which is in better condition, can be restored.

Altar in Greek Orthodox church
This visit made the Nakba real for me. I think Israel must formally accept responsibility for the damage. but in the case of Bassa there is no place there where the original inhabitants can move back. In any case, they should be entitled to some belated compensation, as Holocaust victims were. After all, the Holocaust and Nakba both amounted to ethnic cleansing.


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