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• Donate to the Refuser Solidarity Network
• Read or subscribe to the Refuser Solidarity Network's Newsletter.
RSN Supports...
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Yesh G'vul, an Israeli group supporting soldiers with the difficult decision to refuse. |
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New Profile provides education and support for nonviolent solutions. |
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Combatants for Peace brings together ex-soldiers from both sides for speaking tours. |
Events
"What Happened to Abir?"
Combatants for Peace U.S. Tour, January 16 - February 2, 2008, with Bassam Aramin, Yonatan Shapira, and Elik Elhanan
Breaking the Silence, an exhibit featuring photographs and other testimony of IDF soldiers, will be in Philadelphia in February and Cambridge in March.
RSN Store
BREAKING RANKS: Refusing to Serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip explores the personal and political acts of refusal by Israeli reservists. Read it and pass it along to friends and family. Receive Breaking Ranks for free by making a contribution to the RSN or purchase it from the RSN Store.
RSN News
An Urgent Appeal from the RSN Board:
The Refuser Solidarity Network is making an emergency appeal for contributions to support the Israeli group, New Profile, (www.newprofile.org) which faces two immediate challenges. The first is an appeal by the Attorney General of Israel to the Israeli High Court to close New Profile. The second challenge is an unprecedented number of young people who are choosing to go to jail rather than serve in the Israeli army. New Profile is in the forefront of providing legal assistance to this new wave of courageous young Israeli resisters.
Read more below. To make a donation, click on "Donate Now" in the next column. Thank you.
Double Standards
By Seth Freedman, The Guardian Oct 2, 2008
Conscientious objection is despicable, unless, of course, you're from the ultra-orthodox community... Refusal to play the game and join up is tantamount to treason... The latest target for the wrath of the righteous is New Profile...
Web site for IDF Draft Dodgers Faces Criminal Probe
by Amos Harel, Haaretz, 15/9/08
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz recently ordered the police to open a criminal investigation against the New Profile organization - the first time a criminal probe has ever been launched against a group that encourages draft dodging. The probe, launched in response to a request from the Israel Defense Forces, constitutes an intensification of the army`s war on draft dodging. It was prompted by concern over the growing extent of this phenomenon. Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Avichai Mendelblit asked Mazuz to order the probe in February, and earlier this month, Mazuz acceded to his request.
Israel--A State "War" on Youth
by Rela Mazali, Jewish Peace News
Ratcheting up their campaign against so-called `shirkers`, Israeli authorities have declared a new front in their 'war'on Israeli youth...Rather than listening to the voice raised by these future citizens, rather than fathoming the social change it reflects and responding with changed, innovative policies, Israel`s state institutions have chosen to wage a `war` against these youths and the developments they represent. Criminalizing the movement, state authorities will now attempt to seek out illegalities in open and legal resistance work, a move characteristic of a militarized state abusing its power in a bid to keep in place an old, cracking order.
Read New Profile's 2008 Annual Report
The Shministim Movement
The Ordeal of Sahar Vardi,Refusenik
By Neve Gordon
Eighteen-year-old Sahar Vardi is currently in an Israeli military prison. She is being punished for the crime of refusing to be conscripted into the Israeli military. A few weeks before her imprisonment she wrote Israel's Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, explaining her decision to become a conscientious objector.
ISRAELI CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS JAILED
CO Sahar Vardi, 18, from Jerusalem, has been sentenced today (25 Aug) to 7 days in military prison (more will likely follow after she is released).
CO Avichai Vaknin, 18, a pacifist conscient ious objector from the town of Yehud, near Tel-Aviv, has been sentenced on 20 Aug. to 21 days in military prison.
CO Udi Nir, 19, from the Tel-Aviv suburb of Hertzlia, has been sentenced yesterday (20 Aug.) to 21 days in military prison.
An Open Letter to Defense Minister Ehud Barak:
By Bassam Aramin, Combatants for Peace
Honorable General Ehud Barak, you don't know me personally. I am a seeker of peace, and I struggle with all my strength and ability for the realization of a just peace that will bring calm and prosperity to Palestinians and Israelis together. I have suffered personally from your criminal occupation and I have paid a heavy price.
CFP Receives Peace Abbey Award
Combatants
for Peace is being awarded the Peace Abbey Courage
of Conscience Award, in response to nomination by Andrea
LeBlanc of September 11th Families for Peaceful
Tomorrows. Founding members of C4P, Bassam Aramin and
Elik Elhanan, are speaking throughout the San Francisco
Bay Area to ask U.S. citizens help to press the Israeli
government to reopen the case of Mr. Aramin's daughter
and build a playground at her school in her memory.
[Read more]
CFP Tour Press: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Talk features former Israeli and Palestinian fighters
by Shanna McCord, 1/30/08
Combatants for Peace Receives Award
Search for Common
Ground honored Combatants for Peace with the 2007
Common Ground Award.
[Read more]
Yesh Gvul Calls for Investigation of Shehadeh Bombing
In July, 2007, Yesh Gvul, a major Israeli refuser
group supported by RSN, launched campaign calling for a
full investigation of the 2002 assassination of Hamas
leader Saleh Shehadeh which also killed 14 civilians
when Israel dropped a one-ton bomb on their Gaza
apartment building.
RSN has endorsed Yesh Gvul's campaign, which will include advertising on the internet and in Israeli newspapers as well as a major press conference and other actions on July 22, the fifth anniversary of the incident. RSN believes that the Israeli High Court's decision represents a major breakthrough in exposing IDF attacks on civilians.
Panel might probe 2002 killing of Hamas commander Shehadeh
By Yuval Yoaz | Haaretz | 2007.6.18
The ruling handed down at Sunday's hearing rested on an earlier decision issued in December 2006 by a panel headed by then Supreme Court president Aharon Barak. That ruling upheld the government's right to assassinate terrorists, but said that if an assassination resulted in the death of innocent civilians, the decision and its execution must then be 'objectively' examined to determine what went wrong. While the court did not clarify what it meant by this, legal experts believe an inquiry committee set up by the Defense Ministry would suffice. [Read More...]