Human rights group, New Profile

An excerpt from their charter...


"We, a group of feminist women and men, are convinced that we need not live in a soldiers' state. Today, Israel is capable of a determined peace politics. It need not be a militarized society. We are convinced that we ourselves, our children, our partners, need not go on being endlessly mobilized, need not go on living as warriors. We understand that the state of war in Israel is maintained by decisions made by our politicians - not by external forces to which we are passively subject. While taught to believe that the country is faced by threats beyond its control, we now realize that the words 'national security' have often masked calculated decisions to choose military action for the achievement of political goals.

We are no longer willing to take part in such choices.We will not go on enabling them by obediently, uncritically supplying soldiers to the military which implements them. We will not go on being mobilized, raising children for mobilization, supporting mobilized partners, brothers, fathers, while those in charge of the country go on deploying the army easily, rather than building other solutions.

It is hard to express this type of opinion in Israel today. In a soldiers' state there are equal and less equal citizens: the social ladder is topped by those who fight. And those are unfailingly men. In addition, in Israel, they are Jewish men. As warriors, they are held to have privileged knowledge, giving them precedence in decision making. Attitudes casting doubts on 'security' related decisions, questioning the state's enormous military budgets, or its ongoing policies of military confrontation, are branded 'naive,' 'hysterical', 'ignorant'. An attitude that dares question the fundamental principle of willing enlistment, is almost incomprehensible in a soldiers' state. It is rejected as illegitimate.

Our position - the 'ignorant' one - is free of the mindsets responsible for perpetuating war in Israel for decades. It is a position prioritizing life and the protection of life. It condones painful compromises in the interests of preserving life. The hegemonic culture in Israel nurtures admiration for might and physical prowess, an aggrandizement of Jewish nationals, and a devaluation of the lives of Arab nationals.

The militarized consciousness imbued with this message sees opting for war as reasonable. Young people enlist putting their trust in the wisdom and honesty of those who bid them to serve. Each of us is accountable to them and to ourselves. Every parent takes an active part in educating sons or daughters to become soldiers. And yet, there are many women and men, parents and youngsters, who object profoundly, morally to Israel's continued wars-of-choice. We oppose the use of military means to enforce Israeli sovereignty beyond the Green Line."


Human rights groups like the one above are being targeted by the Israeli government. The following page from Jewish Voice for Peace has a form for sending a message to the attorney general in Israel to call for an end to harassment of human rights groups in Israel...

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27127