[News] Israel jails Druze conscientious objector for the sixth time

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Israel jails Druze conscientious objector for the sixth time

Submitted by Maureen Clare Murphy on Mon, 03/31/2014
*http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/101469*

Eighteen-year-old Omar Saad 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/omar-saad> was recently handed down 
a sixth prison sentence for his ongoing refusal to serve in Israel's 
occupation army.

"I declare that I will refuse to serve in the army even if I'm jailed 
sixty times," Saad stated in Arabic on his Facebook page 
<https://www.facebook.com/omar.saad.395> on 23 March.

The anti-militarization group New Profile is encouraging 
<http://www.newprofile.org/english/node/421> letters of support to Omar 
Saad, as well as letters to the Israeli authorities calling for Saad's 
release, and letters to the media to bring attention to Saad's 
imprisonment (see here for more details 
<http://www.newprofile.org/english/node/421>).

Saad, a violist, was first jailed in early December last year after he 
and his siblings performed a musical protest outside of an Israeli 
military induction center in the Galilee, where the majority of 
Palestinians in present-day Israel reside. He has since been handed down 
six consecutive sentences of twenty days' imprisonment.

The Israeli authorities also denied visiting rights to Saad's attorneys 
until these arbitrary restrictions were successfully challenged 
<http://adalah.org/eng/Articles/2259/Military-Prosecutor-General-withdraws-decision> 
by Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

Saad is a member of the Druze religious minority, which, unlike the 
majority of Palestinian citizens of Israel, are required to serve in the 
military.

However, growing numbers 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-tried-brainwash-us-says-druze-pioneer-who-refused-army-service/13047> 
of Druze youth are refusing 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/growing-numbers-druze-refuse-serve-israels-army/12285> 
their conscription orders, facing jail time for doing so.

Before he was first jailed last year, Saad told 
<http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/i-refuse-take-assault-rifle-and-point-it-another-human-being-2013-12-04> 
Amnesty International: "I don't want to be part of the Israeli army 
because the Israeli government is responsible for the occupation [of the 
Palestinian Territories]. As an Arab Druze I consider myself part of the 
Palestinian people --- so how can I be part of the army that occupies my 
people? I won't sell all my beliefs and my identity to anyone."


    Divide and rule

Not only are growing numbers of Druze youth refusing to serve in the 
Israeli army, they are also calling for the abolishment of compulsory 
service for the Druze community. Members of the community across 
generations state their opposition to conscription in this video:

As Jonathan Cook reported 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-army-recruitment-plan-aims-incite-christian-muslim-tensions/12645> 
for The Electronic Intifada in 2013: "The Druze community ... has been 
conscripted into the army since the 1950s. As a consequence, Israel 
designated the Druze a national group distinct from the rest of the 
Palestinian minority, and created a separate education system to 
inculcate 'Zionist values.'"

Now Israel is undertaking new efforts to enlist youth from the 
Palestinian Christian community, numbering 125,000 persons or 
approximately nine percent of the Palestinian population with Israeli 
citizenship, into the army. Like it did with the Druze community, Cook 
writes, Israel is attempting to exploit sectarian differences to isolate 
Christians from the rest of Palestinian society and break Palestinian 
communal solidarity.

Nadim Nashif, director of Baladna: the Association for Arab Youth, wrote 
for The Electronic Intifada last week 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-must-resist-israels-efforts-foment-sectarianism/13269>:

    Many from the 1948 community (Palestinian citizens of Israel) see
    that preserving our Palestinian identity is our main struggle.
    Unfortunately, as in neighboring countries, the Palestinian
    community has not been immune to the phenomenon of sectarianism.

    Sectarianism is further provoked by the "divide and rule" policies
    of the state which refuse to recognize us as a single Palestinian
    minority, avoid police intervention in cases of violence against
    Arabs and consistently discriminates against us in many other ways.

    Participating in a military that commits egregious crimes against
    our own people in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel, will not
    improve the circumstance of Palestinians. Participating in the
    military apparatus fractures our identity and contributes to an
    immoral system that abuses the rights of our own people.

-- 
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