Ariel Sharon, Prime
Minister
Lt. General Shaul Mofaz, Minister of Defence
Lt. General Moshe Yaalon, Chief of the General Staff
Limor Livnat, Minister of Education
Dear Sirs and Madam,
We the undersigned, Israeli girls and boys, believing in the values of
democracy, humanism and pluralism, hereby declare that we shall refuse to
take part in the occupation and repression policy adopted by the
Government of Israel. Our backgrounds are diverse, but we all agree that these
values form the basis of a just society. Every human being has the right
to life, equality, dignity, and freedom. We are bound by our conscience and as
citizens of Israel to act in defense of these rights, by refusing to
participate in the occupation and repression policy.
We
call on all young people facing mobilization and on all members of the Israeli
army to weigh again whether to risk their lives in the service of this
repressive and destructive policy.
We believe that there is another way.
The occupation leads to
inhumanity and to a massive infringement of the right to life. It tramples on
the basic rights of millions of people and inflicts daily carnage and
suffering. It leads to the confiscation of lands, to mass destruction of homes
and public buildings, to arrests and killings without trial, to victimization
and murder of innocents, to hunger, to a denial of medical assistance, to
collective punishment, and to the building and expansion of settlements and the
negation of any chance of normal living both in the occupied territories and in
Israel itself. This flagrant violation of human rights is opposed to our view
of the world, and is in contravention of international conventions signed and
ratified by Israel.
The occupation contributes nothing to the security of the state and its
citizens, but on the contrary, it only aggravates it. It deepens the despair
and fans the hatred among the Palestinians, feeds terrorism and widens the
river of blood between the two sides. True security will only be accomplished
by ending the occupation, dismantling the wall of Apartheid around the
Palestinians, and striving for a just peace agreement between the state of
Israel and the leadership of the Palestinian people as well as the Arab world.
The present policy is not a result of a military necessity, but the outcome of
a nationalistic, Messianic fantasy.
The occupation has corrupted Israel, turning it into a militaristic, racist,
chauvinistic and violent society. Israel is wasting its resources on the
perpetuation of the occupation and repression in the territories, while
hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in shameful poverty. In recent
years Israeli citizens have experienced a deterioration of all public services.
Education, medicine, welfare, pensions, everything to do with the well being of
the citizenry has been neglected and sacrificed for the continued existence of
settlements which the majority of the population wishes to be evacuated. We
cannot stand by idly facing this situation, which amounts to a targeted
liquidation of the principle of equality.
We wish to live in a society which pursues justice, upholds equal rights for
every single citizen. The occupation and repression policy is an obstacle to
the realization of this vision; therefore we shall refuse to take part in it.
We wish to contribute to society in an alternative way, which does not involve
harming other human beings.
We call on all young people facing mobilization and on all members of the
Israeli army to weigh again whether to risk their lives in the service of this
repressive and destructive policy.
We believe that there is another way.