23.01.2011 (Hagai Matar, Israeli peace activist, 26, February 2010).
conscientious objector become a symbol among his peers. Leftist activist and opponent of the conquest of the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. Killing always advocated a solution of two states, one Jewish and one Arab, without violence: "I realized that what I would ask in the Armed Forces was the exact opposite. So I chose not be part of that. " As an activist, Matar met other young people who thought and felt the same: there was something "terrible" and all agreed to be identified. Was 19 years. All ended up in prison.
"I'm Catholic, but I claim that reason it seems wrong when in my country the bishops have presided over military honors and parades ... I better raise it on ethical grounds (Pepe Beunza in the Council of War held in Valencia on April 23, 1971). Franco's Spain also had.
are young, they love their country but is intended to convince everyone otherwise. Reject gun violence in any circumstance, but more so when it is exercised in a context of injustice: the dictatorship of Franco, the illegal occupation of territory others. At first they were "exotic", and the military leadership "traitors." The time-fortunately, although still a long way-is seeing a generation that wants to grow away from the premises hysterical war who find a way of life, and business management.
The first person documented and publicly recognized was Henry David Thoreau, jailed in 1847 for refusing to pay taxes for war. The first written document on a person convicted for refusing to perform military service is offered by Leo Tolstoy to tell the story of Drojjin, a former teacher from a village in the province of Kursk. Refusing to take up arms for it is inconceivable the idea of \u200b\u200bkilling, was locked in jail and then sent Kharkof the Voronega disciplinary battalion, the cold and deprivation caused his tuberculosis. I went to a civilian jail without improving or address his condition, to two weeks died of pneumonia. His body was thrown into a common grave in the prison, as well as criminals.
end of the Franco dictatorship some conscripts refused to perform military service, causing the wrath of the authorities. They did not accept violence or injustice, nor blind obedience. Preferred not to walk in faith, because the Church had been particularly akin to dictatorship / military, so they rely on have been contradictory, but at the same time, do not easily earned them the nickname of subversion. Theirs was considered by then not only disrespectful but also a despicable extravagance denied herself the honor of serving his country with arms, as if the context does not have to be put into consideration.
Taking as an argument issues of faith, the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists were already refusing to participate, often paying with jail (up to 6 years) that questioned the spirit of the Act Freedom Religious, but the new movement would have a different profile because the objection was not only religious, too, and increasingly, was political in nature. Repression, far from deterred, multiplied the problem. The old religious objectors and political objectors differed new arguments, paradigms and concepts, but ultimately the result was the same.
then would repeat and repeat now that believed it to fight for peace to help end wars, they did not want to learn to kill. Pepe said Beunza, young leader and symbol of that Spain, "While our company is in the hands of 200 persons owning of banks and monopolies, while 1% of landowners own more than half of the lands of Spain, while in Valencia 111 farms occupy more than one-third of the total area, we can not require, except cheating, that there are men whose only misery and calluses on the hands risking their lives to defend the wealth of others. "
Over time, and the evident deterioration of the "generalissimo" - the Church was moving away, and by 1996 was published pastoral "Gaudium et Spes" in calling for protection for those who refuse to take up arms for reasons of conscience.
Today, in a hot conflict, widespread and unfair, appear young Israelis who are in line with Beunza, Danilo Dolci (call it the "Sicilian Gandhi") and many others. One is Hagai Matar (with all the paradox of his surname), which continue to imprison every street demonstration. Why? Because "for objectors, zero tolerance," a concept that comes from the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak endorsed the suggestion to "apply the iron fist ...", the Chief of Army Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi to apply "... to all insubordination of the refuseniks ", a pejorative term, in Russian, assigned to those who "dishonor to the country."
happens that the highly trained and professional army of Israel also has all of them. He lost the aura of invincible in Lebanon, where Hezbollah, with high cost in lives, managed to eject. And he is losing respect in many young people (and their mothers) after "Operation Deep Lead" in Gaza, which killed more than 1,500 Palestinian civilians. The "raw material" of this army are young people 17 to 20 years, and they begin to show cracks.
However, these guys do not reject the armed forces as such; do not accept is the lack of control in which those who left Israel fell outside international law since 1967 to date. In this sense, of course, his is a decision of conscience and political philosophy. Nor disbelieve the State, but require ethical foundations for action. Josef Bergstein, Refuz activist group, said: "What moral authority we have to pull down a house? I want to be free to say no. " In a country where the security budget in 2010 reached its highest historical record, to the compulsory military service is under discussion. Violeta
Leguizamón and Nurit are two Argentine Azulay living in Israel as citizens. Nurit was born in Israel but spent his childhood and adolescence in Rosario, Argentina. Both refused to serve in the military. Leguizamón ended up having panic attacks. He felt brainwashing and opted for a strategy. "I became crazy. I went to the psychologist and said the sentences had to say to disengage, "he confessed later. It was crazy. No, not crazy, crazy is other people.
Thoreau, Drojjin the Beunza Pepe yesterday. Hagai, Violeta, Nurit and many others today. People who were and are willing to go to jail rather than kill a fellow. Chapeau.
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