Israel/Palestine
Saying No
Young men at training camp
Hutcheon: Israeli youngsters prepare for they day when they join the army. By law, most have no choice. At eighteen they’re conscripted for three years.
00:00 Some are getting ultra-fit because they’ve set their sights on joining elite combat units.
Amit: It’s not very easy to get into these units,
00:24 Amit and friend so I’m trying to do my best to be ready physically and mentally.
00:34 Avnery Avnery: The general Israeli feeling that without the army we could not exist, that without the army we would be wiped out and therefore the army plays a very central role in Israeli consciousness.
00:40 Training camp
Hutcheon: Yet some young Israelis are challenging the draft.
00:58 Yoni Ben Artzi
Yoni Ben Artzi: No, I don’t want to go, and I don’t think anyone should go, and I call upon everyone not to go.
01:02 Cantor at wreath laying ceremony Singing
01:08 Hutcheon: Israel’s glorious military past draws successive generations of young men and women.
01:27 Archival: Six Day War In the Six Day War of 1967, Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza, since then, establishing hundreds of settlements in the Palestinian territories. Israel says they’re needed for security. The UN deems settlements to be illegal.
01:35 Cantor at wreath laying ceremony But year after year, honouring Israel’s fallen heroes becomes a vital part of reinforcing the army’s legendary status.
02:04 Israeli settlements Music
West Bank patrols Hutcheon: These days the army’s focus is trying to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel and targeting militants. In the process many innocent Palestinians are brutally suppressed. Some Israelis believe this has turned their soldiers from defenders to occupiers of Palestinian land. Matania Ben Artzi: This is an age-old fact, if when you have societies doing this brutal thing, it takes years to heal, it takes years to come back to any kind of normal life. The soldiers
02:30 Matania Ben Artzi – the 18 year olds, the 19 year olds – that go and do these things in the West Bank – will never be the same.
03:08 Hutcheon: Apart from religious Jews who are exempted from military service relatively few dare to buck the system.
03:15 Yoni at press conference But Yonaten Ben Artzi – or Yoni as he’s known – doesn’t worship the uniform. He’s a conscientious objector who’s being court-martialled for refusing conscription.
03:26 Yoni
Yoni: I mean that they can maybe take my freedom, or force me to wear a uniform or whatever, but what’s within me, my thoughts, myself, they cannot take.
03:38 Training camp
Hutcheon: Most young Israelis, though, are keen to do what they see as their duty.
03:54 Tal and Amit
Seventeen year old Tal, on the left, won’t be inducted until July 2004. Amit – on the right - is 18 and signs up in November.
04:01 Training exercises
Tal: Also when you’re young and that’s why they draft you when you’re young, I guess people are sort of more into that. As you get older, people start to get more weary of these things, but they catch you when you’re still ready for it
04:13
Hutcheon: Did you ever think for a moment that you wouldn’t be drafted, I mean would you ever think of opposing that?
04:30 Amit: No absolutely not. I’m very excited about my army service and I’m absolutely for that. We have a very dangerous place here, so we have to defend it and -- you see in the news all the things that are going on, and
04:36 Tal and Amit
you want to do something for the country, you know.
04:59 Atlit gaol
Hutcheon: For those that do resist the draft and for the hundreds of soldiers opposing Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza – Atlit gaol in the country’s north – is where they serve their sentence – normally 28 days. It’s also where Yoni Ben Artzi spent his first weeks after refusing his call-up notice last August.
05:04 Yoni enters gaol
Though he’s now held on a military base, he’s spent more than 200 days in detention – longer than any other Israeli who’s refused the draft.
05:28 Yoni’s parents
Yoni’s parents, Matania and Ofra are firmly on the left of the Israeli political spectrum, but Matania’s sister Sarah, is the wife of renowned right-wing politician Benjamin Netanyahu.
05:39 Metania
Metania Ben Artzi: It’s clear that under the circumstances that the more public and the more they publicise the case, the less Netanyahu can do, even if he wanted to do something to liberate Yoni. He mentioned from time to time that he hoped Yoni would change his mind, Yoni didn’t, he didn’t obviously, so we stand where we are.
05:53 Yoni and Metania with press photographers
Hutcheon: Yoni describes himself as a pacifist, but Israel refuses to recognise this.
06:16 Yoni Ben Artzi: No one should be killed and no-one should kill, and no one should bear arms, and so it’s not just something I want for myself, it’s for everyone.
06:23 Hutcheon: The state of Israel says it still needs a military because it’s a small country situated in a hostile sea. Would you agree with that?
06:33Yoni
Yoni: The Israeli authorities say a lot of nonsense. I mean before the ‘67 war, Israel was a third of its size in terms of the number of people and we had all borders with enemies and also Egypt and Jordan, still we won the ‘67 war. So there’s certainly no need now to have three years of obligatory service.
06:42 Yoni at military tribunal with parents
Hutcheon: Having failed to have his case heard in a civilian court, Yoni’s future is now in the hands of a military tribunal, even though he’s never been inducted into the army.
07:15 Yoni: They’re trying to crush us, and they don’t want this to reoccur and so they try to intimidate other people through us, and so they pick out maybe the most prominent ones, which would be maybe me and some other people and they focus on us, and then to keep us as long as they can in detention, so that others are afraid to do so.
07:28 YatomSuper: Danny YatomFormer Army Chief of Staff
Danny Yatom: I don’t think that an Israeli youngster has the right to refuse to serve in the military, because this is a compulsory service and everybody should be equal under the law.
07:56 Hutcheon: But it’s not equal is it, because religious people don’t have to enter the army, Arab-Israelis don’t have to enter the army?
Danny Yatom: If somebody applies to the authorities, and he gets the approval, then that’s according to the proper channels, this is according to legislation and this is according to the right process to do. But no one, I think, should take the law in his hands by refusing unilaterally to serve in the military.
08:19 Army on duty in the Occupied Territories
Hutcheon: More than 500 Israelis reservists have declared that they’ll refuse to continue to do duty in the territories. They’ve realised that Palestinain grievances run deep.
08:47 Ibrahim and Ali Al Hajaja In Tekoa in the West Bank, Ibrahim and Ali Al Hajaja stand metres away from the home built by their father in the 1950’s on land, owned by the family for generations. They can’t get any closer than this.
09:00 Hutcheon: What happens if you try to reach the house.
Al Hajaja Al Hajaja: If they see us now, they begin to shoot us -- and so these olives for two years, or three years we cannot collect the olives. Because we cannot risk going there.
09:20 Al Hajaja shows deeds Hutcheon: They have tax receipts and ownership deeds…
09:43 Al Hajaja: You see? 1944. This is the stamps for Palestine, Palestinian stamps.
Hutcheon: But they can’t physically get to the house, because it’s close to an outpost attached to a Jewish settlement, like the Palestinian village, also named Tekoa.
09:58 Armed settlers
And to prove a point, armed settlers asserted their occupation by entering the Al Hajaja house.
10:10 Noam Weiner in car
Noam: This is Arab Tekoa and up on the hill top is Jewish Tekoa.
10:19 Hutcheon: Two years ago, Noam Weiner helped to build the road that now leads to Jewish Tekoa Phase D.
Today he’s returning for the first time. Surprisingly, we find a company of tanks ominously positioned at the entrance of the settlement facing Palestinian villages.
Noam: These tanks and houses weren’t here before. These houses are actuallyl new. They weren’t here before either.
10:45 Hutcheon: Noam Weiner was once a proud officer in the Israeli Defence Forces. He’s now a reservist in the army and studying to become a human rights lawyer – but can no longer uphold his government’s policy in the Palestinian territories.
10:51 Hutchison and Noam walk He came to that decision two years ago after orders to construct the road or so-called escape route.
11:13 Noam: Escape route is usually a route you make from a settlement to a road, so that if you have terrorists or an attack you can get in and out from another place
1120 Hutcheon: In fact – as he soon found out, it was the start of a new settlement, which ran through Arab Tekoa’s land.
11:29 Noam: It looked very ridiculous to me to have an escape route into the middle of the hills, and having realised that this was an opening for a new settlement I tried to call some Knesset members, I tried to make some phone calls, but it didn’t make any difference, and what you can see today is that I was right in my guesses. This water tower and these mobile homes are the beginning of what will be a new settlement. 38
SSuper: Noam WeinerArmy Reservist This is one of the things that convinced me that the government really wasn’t sincere about its willingness to get out of the West Bank, because you can’t be building new settlements and say you’re moving towards a peace settlement, it just doesn’t work, it’s completely contradictory.
12:01 SERUV members prepare for rally Hutcheon: Noam joined an organisation called SERUV – Hebrew for ‘courage to refuse’. He was one of 200 reservists who last year signed an open letter refusing to uphold the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Today, more than 500 have signed.Rally chant: Occupation, no! Peace, yes! Occupation is terror…
12:20 Hutcheon: This rally in downtown Tel Aviv, represents all types of groups representing the soldiers, or civilians who refuse to serve.
12:51 Yoni’s parents at rally Supporters of Yoni Ben Artzi – including his parents Matania and Ofra – are also here. Many of those taking part, have completed their compulsory military service and are called upon once a year as reservists like Noam Weiner.
13:02 Hutchison with Noam He’s never been to jail for refusing to serve in the territories. But he recalls that, as a young soldier he wielded power over ordinary Palestinians during routine checks such as manning checkpoints.
13:23 Noam: It can be as fickle as their lunch is late, so they’re upset, so they might decide to search the cars to make the time go past.
13:40 Checkpoint
You have road blocks, this is the middle of the city so a lot of cars come by. You can take the driver out, you can search him, have him open the trunk, empty it out, take out the chairs in the car, look under them and put them back together. Think of somebody going to work, there are seven roadblocks where they can be detained anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes at each roadblock, and there's lots of cars going to work. This can be quite harsh on your daily living.
13:54 Avnery with Hutchison
Hutcheon: Veteran peace activist and former soldier Uri Avnery, says it’s a dangerous precedent for Israel to convict a young man for conscientious objection. He applauds Yoni Ben Artzi’s courage.
14:24 AvnerySuper: Uri AvneryGush Shalom
Avnery: Turning people into symbols is always dangerous. He will become a role model for many young people, who will say, well if he can sit in prison for months and years, so can I. I am not weaker than he is and so on. It’s a stupid thing to do, apart from being completely immoral.
14:39 Yoni at military tribunal
Hutcheon: Though he’s facing a tough legal battle, Yoni Ben Artzi is undaunted. His struggle is already giving courage to other young conscientious objectors. It’s a struggle he believes he’s already won.
15:05 Artzi For me, it’s a win-win situation. Even if they give me 3 years in prison and I have to do them, and be there, and not go home, eventually,
15:20 Yoni I will be home, and that’s not the main part. The main part is that I will not have backed from my position, and I know within myself that I have the correct view and that no one can take that away from me.Uri Avnery: For a young person to stand up against practically the whole world, against the immense pressure of organised public opinion, including all the media in Israel, without exception I can only
15:33 Avnery
admire the steadfastness and moral courage of these people. I must say I’ve been in a war and I’ve seen many acts of courage and I think moral courage is more important than physical courage.
16:11 Checkpoint Music
Hutcheon: Saying no to serving in the army may never be a mass movement, but it’s a sign that Israelis increasingly question the logic that peace may be gained through force.
16:33 Music
Credits: CAMERA/SOUND – MARK SLADE, KHALIL MARI RESEARCH – AYELET COHENEDITOR – STUART MILLERREPORTER – JANE HUTCHEON
16:53
Saying No
Young men at training camp
Hutcheon: Israeli youngsters prepare for they day when they join the army. By law, most have no choice. At eighteen they’re conscripted for three years.
00:00 Some are getting ultra-fit because they’ve set their sights on joining elite combat units.
Amit: It’s not very easy to get into these units,
00:24 Amit and friend so I’m trying to do my best to be ready physically and mentally.
00:34 Avnery Avnery: The general Israeli feeling that without the army we could not exist, that without the army we would be wiped out and therefore the army plays a very central role in Israeli consciousness.
00:40 Training camp
Hutcheon: Yet some young Israelis are challenging the draft.
00:58 Yoni Ben Artzi
Yoni Ben Artzi: No, I don’t want to go, and I don’t think anyone should go, and I call upon everyone not to go.
01:02 Cantor at wreath laying ceremony Singing
01:08 Hutcheon: Israel’s glorious military past draws successive generations of young men and women.
01:27 Archival: Six Day War In the Six Day War of 1967, Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza, since then, establishing hundreds of settlements in the Palestinian territories. Israel says they’re needed for security. The UN deems settlements to be illegal.
01:35 Cantor at wreath laying ceremony But year after year, honouring Israel’s fallen heroes becomes a vital part of reinforcing the army’s legendary status.
02:04 Israeli settlements Music
West Bank patrols Hutcheon: These days the army’s focus is trying to prevent suicide bombers from entering Israel and targeting militants. In the process many innocent Palestinians are brutally suppressed. Some Israelis believe this has turned their soldiers from defenders to occupiers of Palestinian land. Matania Ben Artzi: This is an age-old fact, if when you have societies doing this brutal thing, it takes years to heal, it takes years to come back to any kind of normal life. The soldiers
02:30 Matania Ben Artzi – the 18 year olds, the 19 year olds – that go and do these things in the West Bank – will never be the same.
03:08 Hutcheon: Apart from religious Jews who are exempted from military service relatively few dare to buck the system.
03:15 Yoni at press conference But Yonaten Ben Artzi – or Yoni as he’s known – doesn’t worship the uniform. He’s a conscientious objector who’s being court-martialled for refusing conscription.
03:26 Yoni
Yoni: I mean that they can maybe take my freedom, or force me to wear a uniform or whatever, but what’s within me, my thoughts, myself, they cannot take.
03:38 Training camp
Hutcheon: Most young Israelis, though, are keen to do what they see as their duty.
03:54 Tal and Amit
Seventeen year old Tal, on the left, won’t be inducted until July 2004. Amit – on the right - is 18 and signs up in November.
04:01 Training exercises
Tal: Also when you’re young and that’s why they draft you when you’re young, I guess people are sort of more into that. As you get older, people start to get more weary of these things, but they catch you when you’re still ready for it
04:13
Hutcheon: Did you ever think for a moment that you wouldn’t be drafted, I mean would you ever think of opposing that?
04:30 Amit: No absolutely not. I’m very excited about my army service and I’m absolutely for that. We have a very dangerous place here, so we have to defend it and -- you see in the news all the things that are going on, and
04:36 Tal and Amit
you want to do something for the country, you know.
04:59 Atlit gaol
Hutcheon: For those that do resist the draft and for the hundreds of soldiers opposing Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza – Atlit gaol in the country’s north – is where they serve their sentence – normally 28 days. It’s also where Yoni Ben Artzi spent his first weeks after refusing his call-up notice last August.
05:04 Yoni enters gaol
Though he’s now held on a military base, he’s spent more than 200 days in detention – longer than any other Israeli who’s refused the draft.
05:28 Yoni’s parents
Yoni’s parents, Matania and Ofra are firmly on the left of the Israeli political spectrum, but Matania’s sister Sarah, is the wife of renowned right-wing politician Benjamin Netanyahu.
05:39 Metania
Metania Ben Artzi: It’s clear that under the circumstances that the more public and the more they publicise the case, the less Netanyahu can do, even if he wanted to do something to liberate Yoni. He mentioned from time to time that he hoped Yoni would change his mind, Yoni didn’t, he didn’t obviously, so we stand where we are.
05:53 Yoni and Metania with press photographers
Hutcheon: Yoni describes himself as a pacifist, but Israel refuses to recognise this.
06:16 Yoni Ben Artzi: No one should be killed and no-one should kill, and no one should bear arms, and so it’s not just something I want for myself, it’s for everyone.
06:23 Hutcheon: The state of Israel says it still needs a military because it’s a small country situated in a hostile sea. Would you agree with that?
06:33Yoni
Yoni: The Israeli authorities say a lot of nonsense. I mean before the ‘67 war, Israel was a third of its size in terms of the number of people and we had all borders with enemies and also Egypt and Jordan, still we won the ‘67 war. So there’s certainly no need now to have three years of obligatory service.
06:42 Yoni at military tribunal with parents
Hutcheon: Having failed to have his case heard in a civilian court, Yoni’s future is now in the hands of a military tribunal, even though he’s never been inducted into the army.
07:15 Yoni: They’re trying to crush us, and they don’t want this to reoccur and so they try to intimidate other people through us, and so they pick out maybe the most prominent ones, which would be maybe me and some other people and they focus on us, and then to keep us as long as they can in detention, so that others are afraid to do so.
07:28 YatomSuper: Danny YatomFormer Army Chief of Staff
Danny Yatom: I don’t think that an Israeli youngster has the right to refuse to serve in the military, because this is a compulsory service and everybody should be equal under the law.
07:56 Hutcheon: But it’s not equal is it, because religious people don’t have to enter the army, Arab-Israelis don’t have to enter the army?
Danny Yatom: If somebody applies to the authorities, and he gets the approval, then that’s according to the proper channels, this is according to legislation and this is according to the right process to do. But no one, I think, should take the law in his hands by refusing unilaterally to serve in the military.
08:19 Army on duty in the Occupied Territories
Hutcheon: More than 500 Israelis reservists have declared that they’ll refuse to continue to do duty in the territories. They’ve realised that Palestinain grievances run deep.
08:47 Ibrahim and Ali Al Hajaja In Tekoa in the West Bank, Ibrahim and Ali Al Hajaja stand metres away from the home built by their father in the 1950’s on land, owned by the family for generations. They can’t get any closer than this.
09:00 Hutcheon: What happens if you try to reach the house.
Al Hajaja Al Hajaja: If they see us now, they begin to shoot us -- and so these olives for two years, or three years we cannot collect the olives. Because we cannot risk going there.
09:20 Al Hajaja shows deeds Hutcheon: They have tax receipts and ownership deeds…
09:43 Al Hajaja: You see? 1944. This is the stamps for Palestine, Palestinian stamps.
Hutcheon: But they can’t physically get to the house, because it’s close to an outpost attached to a Jewish settlement, like the Palestinian village, also named Tekoa.
09:58 Armed settlers
And to prove a point, armed settlers asserted their occupation by entering the Al Hajaja house.
10:10 Noam Weiner in car
Noam: This is Arab Tekoa and up on the hill top is Jewish Tekoa.
10:19 Hutcheon: Two years ago, Noam Weiner helped to build the road that now leads to Jewish Tekoa Phase D.
Today he’s returning for the first time. Surprisingly, we find a company of tanks ominously positioned at the entrance of the settlement facing Palestinian villages.
Noam: These tanks and houses weren’t here before. These houses are actuallyl new. They weren’t here before either.
10:45 Hutcheon: Noam Weiner was once a proud officer in the Israeli Defence Forces. He’s now a reservist in the army and studying to become a human rights lawyer – but can no longer uphold his government’s policy in the Palestinian territories.
10:51 Hutchison and Noam walk He came to that decision two years ago after orders to construct the road or so-called escape route.
11:13 Noam: Escape route is usually a route you make from a settlement to a road, so that if you have terrorists or an attack you can get in and out from another place
1120 Hutcheon: In fact – as he soon found out, it was the start of a new settlement, which ran through Arab Tekoa’s land.
11:29 Noam: It looked very ridiculous to me to have an escape route into the middle of the hills, and having realised that this was an opening for a new settlement I tried to call some Knesset members, I tried to make some phone calls, but it didn’t make any difference, and what you can see today is that I was right in my guesses. This water tower and these mobile homes are the beginning of what will be a new settlement. 38
SSuper: Noam WeinerArmy Reservist This is one of the things that convinced me that the government really wasn’t sincere about its willingness to get out of the West Bank, because you can’t be building new settlements and say you’re moving towards a peace settlement, it just doesn’t work, it’s completely contradictory.
12:01 SERUV members prepare for rally Hutcheon: Noam joined an organisation called SERUV – Hebrew for ‘courage to refuse’. He was one of 200 reservists who last year signed an open letter refusing to uphold the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. Today, more than 500 have signed.Rally chant: Occupation, no! Peace, yes! Occupation is terror…
12:20 Hutcheon: This rally in downtown Tel Aviv, represents all types of groups representing the soldiers, or civilians who refuse to serve.
12:51 Yoni’s parents at rally Supporters of Yoni Ben Artzi – including his parents Matania and Ofra – are also here. Many of those taking part, have completed their compulsory military service and are called upon once a year as reservists like Noam Weiner.
13:02 Hutchison with Noam He’s never been to jail for refusing to serve in the territories. But he recalls that, as a young soldier he wielded power over ordinary Palestinians during routine checks such as manning checkpoints.
13:23 Noam: It can be as fickle as their lunch is late, so they’re upset, so they might decide to search the cars to make the time go past.
13:40 Checkpoint
You have road blocks, this is the middle of the city so a lot of cars come by. You can take the driver out, you can search him, have him open the trunk, empty it out, take out the chairs in the car, look under them and put them back together. Think of somebody going to work, there are seven roadblocks where they can be detained anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes at each roadblock, and there's lots of cars going to work. This can be quite harsh on your daily living.
13:54 Avnery with Hutchison
Hutcheon: Veteran peace activist and former soldier Uri Avnery, says it’s a dangerous precedent for Israel to convict a young man for conscientious objection. He applauds Yoni Ben Artzi’s courage.
14:24 AvnerySuper: Uri AvneryGush Shalom
Avnery: Turning people into symbols is always dangerous. He will become a role model for many young people, who will say, well if he can sit in prison for months and years, so can I. I am not weaker than he is and so on. It’s a stupid thing to do, apart from being completely immoral.
14:39 Yoni at military tribunal
Hutcheon: Though he’s facing a tough legal battle, Yoni Ben Artzi is undaunted. His struggle is already giving courage to other young conscientious objectors. It’s a struggle he believes he’s already won.
15:05 Artzi For me, it’s a win-win situation. Even if they give me 3 years in prison and I have to do them, and be there, and not go home, eventually,
15:20 Yoni I will be home, and that’s not the main part. The main part is that I will not have backed from my position, and I know within myself that I have the correct view and that no one can take that away from me.Uri Avnery: For a young person to stand up against practically the whole world, against the immense pressure of organised public opinion, including all the media in Israel, without exception I can only
15:33 Avnery
admire the steadfastness and moral courage of these people. I must say I’ve been in a war and I’ve seen many acts of courage and I think moral courage is more important than physical courage.
16:11 Checkpoint Music
Hutcheon: Saying no to serving in the army may never be a mass movement, but it’s a sign that Israelis increasingly question the logic that peace may be gained through force.
16:33 Music
Credits: CAMERA/SOUND – MARK SLADE, KHALIL MARI RESEARCH – AYELET COHENEDITOR – STUART MILLERREPORTER – JANE HUTCHEON
16:53