Bij de beweging van Israelische dienstweigeraars heeft zich een nieuwe groep gevoegd: middelbare scholieren. Udi Nir is 19, en werd opgeroepen voor de militaire dienst. Hij weigert. Dit is de verklaring die hij aflegde bij zijn arrestatie:

I cannot take part in the activities of an occupying army, which constantly violates human rights. As an Israeli citizen and as an adolescent liable for enlistment I feel a sense of extensive responsibility for the cycle of violence and for all the choices I am making. It is out of this sense of responsibility that I refuse to enter the cycle of bloodshed and to add fuel to the fire of hatred raging here. I refuse to enlist into an occupying army so that I will not lend my own hand to the occupation and to acts that contradict my most basic values: human rights, democracy and the personal responsibility each and every human being bears towards fellow human beings.

En dit is een fragment uit zijn motivatie, die hier compleet te lezen is:

At home and in school I was brought up on the values of freedom, equality, human rights and care for others. Today, these are the values that are most important to me, values that guide me in my decisions to react to various possible scenarios; values in light of which I act in a way a perceive to be moral and right.

Time and time again I find myself bewildered by the fact that the same education system, which has taught me these values early on, preaches me today to enlist into the army that brutally breaches in countless ways each and every one of the values I have mentioned.

I consider it immoral to deny millions of people of the right to free movement. It is immoral to “liquidate” people and to kill men, women and children who happened to be at the same place and time. It is immoral to keep people intolerably long hour at checkpoints in inhuman conditions. It is immoral to collectively punish many for the crimes of few. All these actions are immoral even if they were part of a “war of no choice”, even if these actions are intended to ensure my own security here in the centre of Israel, and that of millions of American citizens and of the citizens of various countries in Europe.

Udi gaat nu voor 21 dagen de gevangenis in. Dat zal niet de laatste keer zijn, want als hij er uit komt begint de procedure opnieuw.

Zie de website van New Profile, hier.