Published in the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/483927.html Fri., October 01, 2004 Tishrei 16, 5765 In the service of refusal By Amir Ben-David Now that he and the group he leads are candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, David Zonsheine is looking toward the next stage of the struggle. His charisma gave the refusal of soldiers to serve in the territories a measure of legitimacy in Israeli society. The same just cause, he believes, will ultimately lead the country to come to its senses. It seemed to be a routine interview to one of the many foreign media outlets that have shown an interest in the intriguing phenomenon of which Zonsheine is the leader: combat officers in the reserves who are telling the state that they are no longer willing to take part in the occupation of the territories. The Norwegians wanted to hear about the circumstances that led to the creation of Courage to Refuse, the organization of the refusenik soldiers. Zonsheine, experienced in interviews, described the night in 1995 when, as a young platoon commander, he and his troops escorted two Shin Bet security service agents to arrest a suspect. They surrounded the house, Zonsheine related, and then, as instructed by the agents, burst in and found a frightened, destitute family. The agents subjected the father of the family to a cruel interrogation, on suspicion that he was in possession of a Kalashnikov rifle. Afterward, they dragged out the bleeding man, who was unable to stand on his feet after the pummeling he took, and dragged him to a nearby field, in order to trap his 14-year-old nephew, who according to the suspect, knew more than he did. They found the boy sleeping next to his herd of goats on a light blanket in the middle of the field. He was roughly roused from his sleep and underwent a brutal interrogation, which landed him in hospital. Zonsheine has dealt extensively with the connection between the wrongs of the occupation and the anxieties from the Holocaust that he absorbed when he was growing up, and the subject came up in the interview as well. "The words that the Shin Bet agent used in the house were, `Separate the man from his wife and children.' So the associations with the Holocaust were triggered in me already then, though at the time I had no heretical thoughts. The only associations with the Holocaust at that stage were, that because of everything that happened then, everything that is now happening is fine. They killed us once, and since then we can effectively do whatever we want." During the interview, an older man, the father of the Norwegian director, sat in a corner of the room, listening intensely, and with obvious emotion, to Zonsheine's testimony. After the interview he asked Zonsheine if he could stay a little longer to talk about his feelings. He bid farewell to his son and the crew and remained for a conversation that lasted into the night. Zonsheine learned that the man's name was Hans Schilde and that he was the son of a former SS officer. "He told me that the things I talked about were exactly what had preoccupied him his whole life. `My father was an animal,' he told me, `and for my whole life I have asked myself how I could be the son of an animal. Since I reached maturity, all I have done is to try to prevent such things.' He told me that he himself had refused to serve in the German army and that the authorities let it go, he wasn't tried. We spoke for a few hours and then he left and disappeared - I didn't hear a word from him and had almost forgotten that night." But Hans Schilde didn't forget. He went back to Oslo and got his friends interested in the testimonies his son had photographed in Israel. And Schilde, it turns out, has influential friends. Three of them - Bishop Belo, the Guatemalan freedom fighter Rigoberta Menchu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992) and Dr. Matthias Roessler, the science and education minister of Saxony - were so impressed by Zonsheine's testimony that they decided to recommend him for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Zonsheine and the group of officers he heads are setting a moral standard for the entire world, Belo wrote. Anything can happen How likely is it that the Nobel Prize committee will announce, on October 8 at 11 A.M., that the Peace Prize for 2004 is going to David Zonsheine from Israel? Not very likely. Why should they choose a largely unknown person who heads a group of reserve officers to receive one of the world's most prestigious prizes? Still, you never know. The last time a prize was awarded to heroes of peace from the Middle East isn't remembered as one of the glorious moments in the history of the prize, so maybe this is an opportunity to make amends. And besides, the recommenders enjoy international renown, the eyes of the whole world are on the Middle East, and any way you look at it, Zonsheine and his buddies offer a challenging alternative. Just to think about the ruckus that will be kicked up here if Courage to Refuse gets the prize, and in Oslo, of all places. "I'm embarrassed even to talk about it," Zonsheine says. He himself was astounded when Hans Schilde visited Israel in February to tell him about the initiative. "He showed my testimony to a great many people and told them about Courage to Refuse and about combat officers who continue to serve in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and think that army service is critical for Israel's existence, but nevertheless refuse to serve in the territories and go to prison. He said he believes that not only does what we are doing engender hope - and all the words people like to use - but that he believes that a refusal movement will soon spring up in America, and then they will look at Israel and try to understand the story of the officers who think it's important for them to serve in the army but nevertheless refuse." What goes through the mind of a 31-year-old person when he discovers that two Nobel Peace laureates are recommending him for the prize? "I went into shock," Zonsheine says. "What a thing ... Fantasies? I can't deny it. But I am not Mohamed ElBaradei [the chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency and reportedly a leading candidate for the Peace Prize this year], whom you see on CNN four times a day. Forget it, I'm not going to win ... even though there are sometimes underdogs [who do win]. "The only thing I fantasize about is not my delivering a speech there. I fantasize that a Jewish soldier ... no, that hundreds of Jewish soldiers, a thousand Jewish soldiers, will get the Nobel for learning something from the history of their own people. The real fantasy is to say that with all the power of our army - and we have awesome power - we knew when to say no. That that is the real power of our country. That we said no in places where others didn't know how to say no. That we got to a place where we saw close up the demolished homes, the crying children, and we were able to stand up and say that this has nothing to do with Israel's security. It would also be nice, because Nobel himself was the inventor of dynamite and then created the prize. There's something splendid about soldiers, of all people, getting the prize." Hey, hold on, you haven't received it yet. "Right. Okay, it's not that I'm contemplating the idea of going to Oslo. It would be the surprise of my life and would change my life, but I'm not there." Aren't you someone who is prone to fantasies? "I am, as a matter of fact. If I weren't a fantasist, I wouldn't be here. The last time I left Kissufim checkpoint I made a childish vow - naive, unrealistic - to take the IDF out of the territories. I made a vow. I got out of there and I told myself I would take the IDF out of there. What's that if not a
fantasy?" True Zionism The speculations about the Nobel Peace Prize are bandied about in total darkness. The prize committee maintains secrecy and doesn't report on its considerations. Even after the year's prize winner is announced, the committee never reveals the shortlist. As in Zonsheine's case, the only information that leaks out comes from the recommenders. Zonsheine called the prize committee's office twice to try to find out his chances, but was politely denied any information. The committee would not even confirm whether he is a candidate or not. Questions to the committee from Haaretz last week on the same subject went unanswered. In addition to ElBaradei, who is an Egyptian, there are said to be two other candidates with good prospects, Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn, directors of the Cooperative Threat Reduction program to dismantle nuclear missiles and submarines in the former Soviet Union. Three other names mentioned as having reasonable, albeit fewer, prospects, are Hans Blix, the former head of the United Nations' group of inspectors to find and neutralize weapons of mass destruction; Jiang Yanyong, the Chinese physician who exposed his country's cover-up of the SARS epidemic; and Mordechai Vanunu, Israel's nuclear whistleblower, who was recently released from prison after serving an 18-year term. So maybe if Zonsheine doesn't win, another Israeli will. But even without the Nobel Peace Prize, Captain (res.) David Zonsheine has no intentions of vanishing from the scene. Since his reserve duty in December 2001, after which he decided that he was going to take the IDF out of the territories, his commitment to the struggle has not diminished and his fervor has not cooled. He was jailed twice by the IDF, in June 2002 and December 2003, serving a total of 35 days for refusing to serve in the territories, and he petitioned the High Court of Justice, asking it to rule that the very call-up to serve in the territories is an illegal order. The June 2002 petition drew extensive publicity but was rejected by the court. After the refuseniks' struggle had already been eulogized - in this magazine, too, two years ago - Zonsheine worked behind the scenes to organize the "Air Force pilots' letter" and the "Sayeret Matkal commandos' letter" (in both cases the signatories informed the defense minister and the chief of staff that they would refuse to serve in the territories in occupation missions, including aerial bombings and targeted assassinations). Now he is busy organizing what is emerging as the next stage in the struggle - he is organizing a group of parents of soldiers in the regular army who will declare openly that they support their sons' refusal to serve in the territories. "I tell parents who have a son doing compulsory service, `Look what's happening to your kid in the territories,'" Zonsheine explains. "`You have to make him understand that because of the way you raised him, he has to stop serving there.' A soldier like that can't refuse alone. At the age of 19 or 20 he can't decide on his own, because of all the mechanisms of manhood and the desire to be one of the group. He just can't. Even when you see true atrocities you bottle them up inside, or at most tell your buddies and repress it. My hope is that this approach will prompt parents to tell their children, `Guys, serve the state, for your whole life we educated you to serve, but this isn't the place. And if one day you make the decision, you won't get the cold shoulder at home.' "In some ways, that's the mechanism that keeps things running. People are more afraid of being cold-shouldered at home than they are of an enemy bullet. It's amazing. To get the cold shoulder from your dad? It's better to be shot by the enemy. It's incredible, but that's how it works. I say to parents: Explain to your children that they won't be cold-shouldered. We will understand what you did. That is the true volunteering." To be a Zionist today means to refuse, Zonsheine says. "If a soldier or an officer in the regular army refuses and calls me, he will know that he will get a loving embrace from a person who could be his company commander. He will have someone to talk to. To be a Zionist today means to refuse to serve in the territories. That is a new idea in the Israeli society. Zionism is refusal to serve in the territories. That is the arena of the true war. After all, why did I refuse? Do I have a problem with doing reserve duty? Do I have a problem about going to Nablus? I walked around the Casbah in Nablus like it was my house. Is that courage? Courage is to say `I am not running away.' I stand in front of all my detractors on the right and on the left, and I say, I am a company commander in an elite unit. You are all insane. You have gone nuts. You have taken Zionism to a place where God knows what you did to it, and you even wrapped it in poison candies and stuffed it into my mouth. But today I say to you: I will do everything that has to be done for this country, but I will refuse to do duty in the territories, because this is the true Zionism. Even if a million people tell me I am wrong, I am not wrong." More ... David Zonsheine. "I didn't set up a support group for guys to tell stories from their reserve duty. The goal is for soldiers not to die in the territories. That's all." (Eyal Toueg) For more information see the website of "Courage to Refuse" http://www.seruv.org.il/english/default.asp ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/MknplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VTJP/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
