Palestina en Israel #153

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To whom this may concern,

We, The League of Lone Soldiers, are a group of around 30 former lone soldiers who all came to Israel over the last years as part of the Machal program, coming from countries across the world such as the US, UK, France and others. This is a track in the army available to anyone who isn’t an Israeli citizen, it means serving 18 months in the IDF standing shoulder to shoulder with our brothers from Israel. Most of us served in combat units including all Infantry units such as Tzanchanim, Golani, Nachal, Givati and Kfir.

We are writing this letter to serve a purpose. When we heard the news of the IDF beginning Operation Protective Edge we opened a WhatsApp group with the aim of discussing how we can re-join the IDF and defend our country. We were all in unison that we didn’t join the IDF in order to serve 18 months and go back to our normal lives. Many of our units are still in active duty. We found it impossible to be in a situation where our “brothers” are fighting and defending our country and we are not there with them. Many of us called in every favour possible in order to try and re-join, however we were met with rejections across the board.

We sit at home helpless, reading the news about each soldier who has been injured or killed and each one is like a bullet piercing our hearts. Most of the soldiers who have been killed have been known personally by at least one of us.

A few of us decided enough was enough and we were going to push our way back. We went to the Tel Hashomer base and stood outside for hours on end waiting to be let in. The soldiers at the main gate of the base kept asking us what we were doing there. Our answer remained the same each time. We are here from all over the world to go back to the army and defend our country. The reaction from each soldier who asked us was the same, are you crazy? they asked us, so many Israelis want to get away from the army and you crazy people not only volunteered to join in the first place, you want to go back now?
After many long hours under the burning Tel Aviv sun, we managed to get a high ranking officer who happened to pass by us to listen to our story and he brought us into the base. However our happiness was short lived. We were told unequivocally by the Reserve Office that there was no way we could go back.

Morale unbroken we decided to take a few days and see what we could come up with to get our wish. Yesterday we, as well as most of the world read a Ynet article on 50 soldiers who refused to answer the call of the country they were born and lived in to go back for reserves after disobeying the Tzav 8 (the IDF order calling reservists back for duty). We were in shock, the immediate reaction of everyone on the group was why waste the Tzav 8 on them? Here we are waiting and ready, bags ready to go back to the army. We decided to write this open letter and send it to whoever will listen.

We, the Lone Soldier family of the IDF, while we mourn the loss of all our brothers throughout the IDF, especially the heart-breaking losses of our friends, Max Steinberg z”l, Shawn Carmeli z”l and Jordan Bensimol z”l. 3 lone soldiers, heroes, who fell while defending this land, this safe zone for Jews across the world.

We will not back down, we will not sit quietly in the corner. We want to go back to our boys in the field. Please share this letter on your Facebook so it reaches as many people as possible and opens the ears of those who need to hear about it.

Ynetnews.com

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 14:29 schreef Aloulou het volgende:
Over Lone Soldiers gesproken (niet-Israeliers die zich aansluiten bij het IDF), hier 30 man die een open brief schrijven om terug te mogen en het Gaza-offensief te joinen nadat ze zagen dat aantal dagen geleden 50 Israeliers weigerden om opgeroepen te worden als reservisten:

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An Israeli Soldier's Story - Eran Efrati

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The talk by Eran Efrati was filmed in Denver, Colorado on March 3, 2014 as part of The Soldier and the Refusenik U.S. tour with Maya Wind. Eran talk about his experiences in the IDF and then more broadly discusses Israel, its relationship to the U.S. and the global expansion of militarism.

Eran Efrati, 28, was born and raised in Jerusalem. After graduating high school he enlisted in the IDF, where he served as a combat soldier and company sergeant in Battalion 50 of the Nachal Division. He spent most of his service in Hebron and throughout the West Bank. In 2009, he was discharged and joined Breaking the Silence, an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers working to raise awareness about the daily reality in the Occupied Territories. He worked as the chief investigator of the organization, collecting testimonies from IDF soldiers about their activities. He also guided political tours and to the West Bank and worked to educate Israeli youth about the reality of being a soldier in an occupying army. His collected testimonies appear in the booklet Operation Cast Lead and their most recent release Our Harsh Logic. Since leaving Breaking the Silence, his investigative reports appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Guardian. Today he is active with the Israeli groups Anarchists Against the Wall and Boycott from Within.

Key points from this lecture
- There is a heavy indoctrination in Israel, from an early age in schools, which uses the holocaust to create paranoia and fear against the enemy

- Israeli soldiers are trained intensively for a war, whilst their actual military duties are to subdue and control Palestinians

- Israeli soldiers routinely humiliate, intimidate, arrest, beat and kill civilian Palestinians to protect illegal Jewish settlers in occupied territories

- Many Israeli soldiers are aware what they are doing is wrong, but have no way out and feel pressured to continue

- Palestinians who require medical attention, have to go through military checkpoints to do this they require permits
They give these permits to lawyers of Doctors without borders and then prevent them from going to the West Bank meaning Palestinians do not receive permits

- Israel uses a clever process to cover itself legally to the world

- During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli soldiers were traumatised and confused the atrocities they saw in Gaza
Israel would bomb civilian areas to clear the way for Israeli ground forces, use tank shells, air-strikes and illegal white phosphorus

- When wanting to speak out, via the Breaking the Silence Campaign the Haaretz newspaper refused to publish soldier testimonies after pressure by IDF Spokesman
Breaking the Silence campaign itself was censored by the IDF Spokesman
All media in Israel has to go through the IDF censorship

- The Israeli government and military make a lot of money by selling its weapons to other repressive regimes around the world,
Israel tries and tests its weapons on Palestinians this is not (just) an occupation this is a laboratory for Israeli military weapons

- Israel uses undercover units in the occupied territories to start riots, and then justify the use of weapons against Palestinian protesters

- All police departments in the US are trained by the Israeli military and are taught the same brutal tactics used against Palestinians
US police departments have already used such tactics in suppressing protests in the US, such as the Occupy movement

- Hit Israel where it hurts the most, boycott Israel


Everybody knows, the apartheid regime will stop. The question is how fast, and how many people are going to die until it will happen?

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:01 schreef J0kkebr0k het volgende:
Vandaag was er een Hamas demonstratie in Ramallah. Ik vroeg me meteen af waar dat precisiebombardement nu bleef.

[ afbeelding ]

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:03 schreef J0kkebr0k het volgende:

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[ afbeelding ]

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:12 schreef J0kkebr0k het volgende:

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Is dat boeiend dan, peenvogel?

Israël wil Hamas uitroeien. Waarom zou dat zich dan moeten beperken tot Gaza?

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:12 schreef J0kkebr0k het volgende:

Israël wil Hamas uitroeien. Waarom zou dat zich dan moeten beperken tot Gaza?

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Fatah and other Palestinian factions declare 'day of rage'
Following the death of two demonstrators during Thursday’s march from Ramallah to Qalandiyah, Fatah and the other Palestinian factions have declared a “day of rage in support of bleeding, besieged Gaza” and called for continuing popular protests throughout the West Bank.

Processions are expected to depart from numerous mosques at the end of Friday prayer services, with the principal demonstrations slated for Ramallah, Qalandiyah and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Hamas spokesmen both in the Gaza Strip and outside it urged Palestinians to turn out en masse and launch a new intifada against Israel. Fawzi Barhoum, the organization’s spokesman in Gaza, and Izzat Risheq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, both termed this an opportunity for the Palestinian people “to set the territory on fire and come out against the occupation, in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.607223

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Three Palestinians were shot dead in the occupied West Bank Friday in separate incidents involving both the Israeli army and a civilian who appeared to be a Jewish settler, medics and witnesses said.

Witnesses said one man was shot dead by an apparent settler near the city of Nablus, with another killed shortly after during clashes with the military. A third Palestinian was killed in Beit Ummar near the flashpoint city of Hebron, medics said.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the violence that coincided with rising tensions tied to the bloody, 18-day-old conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in the nearby Gaza Strip.

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:25 schreef Aloulou het volgende:
Overigens 3 Palestijnse doden in de Westbank gisteren na ook een incident met een kolonist in Nablus die uit zelfverdediging handelde:

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:25 schreef Aloulou het volgende:
3e intifadah op komst?

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Overigens 3 Palestijnse doden in de Westbank gisteren na ook een incident met een kolonist in Nablus die uit zelfverdediging handelde:

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:29 schreef HeatWave het volgende:
We verliezen!

Snel, nu alles en iedereen laten opblazen, dat zal ze leren!

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:31 schreef Aloulou het volgende:

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De Palestijnen verliezen?

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:32 schreef HeatWave het volgende:

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Nu al zo'n 800 man ja, gaat hard.

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:33 schreef Yi-Long het volgende:

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Bij 1000 doden geef je een feestje, toch...?

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:32 schreef HeatWave het volgende:
Nu al zo'n 800 man ja, gaat hard.

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:37 schreef Aloulou het volgende:

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Da's waar, alleen gaat het het probleem met Hamas niet oplossen in de gazastrook.

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:38 schreef HeatWave het volgende:
Nou ja, dat is niet zeker, maar waarschijnlijk niet helaas nee.

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Maar niets doen is geen optie met honderden raketten per week op je dak. Zo'n schild is niet 100% en kost elke dag bakken met geld.

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:41 schreef Aloulou het volgende:

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Het is wel zeker gezien de vele eerdere offensieven en dat Hamas er nog steeds zit en vergeleken bij vroeger militair gezien sterker is geworden.

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Hamas wilt wel een 10-jarig staakt het vuren met ook een voorstel voor een rol van de internationale gemeenschap. Je zou zeggen dat daar dan over onderhandelt kan worden in samenwerking met partners die beide partijen redelijk vertrouwen om het probleem voorlopig te op te lossen van raketten naar Israel?

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Op vrijdag 25 juli 2014 15:43 schreef Janneke141 het volgende:
Een terroristische organisatie heeft helemaal geen belang bij een (langdurig) staakt-het-vuren.