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Woche der Brüderlichkeit Projekte |
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Israels Muskeljuden |
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Pacified into fighting How Israeli Jewish men are manipulated into fighting There is nothing more horrendous than sending people off to war. This is what my country is doing. Israel is sending off its children to war. It has been doing this for many years now. We have been warring from as early as we have begun, and have been involved in conflicts pretty much ever since. For many of us who live in Israel, it seems almost natural, almost like a necessary part of our lives, that at 18 we will be enrolled in the army and made to fight wars. Going to war seems almost integral to our nature. This, however could not be further from the truth. Although human history is filled with wars, human being going off to fight in war is thoroughly inhuman, and intrinsically against our nature and intelligence. Human beings have been manipulated and set up for centuries devastate their lives in worthless wars, against our own intelligence and humanness. This is true of the situation in Israel and for Israelis today as well. In the pursuing paragraphs, I will try to show how Israeli's have been manipulated to fighting in these wars. Jews are a truly peace loving nation. In almost every historical struggle for peace and social justice Jews have stood in the forefront of the struggle, and have often led it, and participated fought against injustice in many brave ways. And still, today, we are fighting an unjust that we must take responsibility for, end it, and solve the problems that it has caused and that had caused it to occur. I consider it something to be very proud of that the Israel peace movement has persistently fought against the occupation, and that at many times it has come off very strongly and effectively against the injustices our country has committed. And yet my people have been committing injustice, oppression and occupation, without, by and large, being able to take full responsibility for it. How does this happen? I think it is no accident that the ones who are asked to carry out the heaviest oppression, to do the worst, most dangerous and hurtful acts are young Israeli Jewish men. Throughout history, it has almost always been men who have fought wars and asked to give themselves as the major agents of oppression. This has been so historically pervasive that in people's minds it is almost obvious that it is men's second nature to be aggressive, to hurt each other, that this is part of their humanness. This is not true. Human males are not naturally aggressive or violent. We are not born with a natural inclination to hurting each other, or any inherent need to fight. This can especially be seen in the context of the violence in Israel. From the very beginning of our lives, as Israeli Jews, we are taught to "tough things out", to figure out how to handle things on our own, and how to suffer hard pain by ourselves, and not to feel a thing. Every young boy hears has his mother tell him phrases such as: "be mommy's hero", "big boys don't cry", "be tough, be brave for daddy". These words are said to us mostly at times when we get hurt, physically or otherwise, and we look to people who are close to us and who we can trust to give us some caring attention as we try to heal from our hurt feelings. This happens to everyone. We fall or trip and scrape ourselves, and as we begin to cry, the person closest to us would utter something it at us making it clear that our pain is no welcome, that we must handle it out on our own. And so we grow up thinking that we must battle things out on our own. We think that we mustn't feel, or we will be isolated and humiliated. We spend out time pushing our feelings away, ignoring them or putting them aside. We walk around feeling lonely, feeling like our challenges are our own and must not show them or show that we have a difficulty. As young people we become often very angry at the adults around us for how they treat us. For letting us alone, for acting unkindly towards us. And we are nto allowed to show this anger we hold. In addition, and perhaps especially in Israel, comes the heroism. We are taught and showed in many ways that being brave is about fighting things out on your own. We are taught that it is heroism to give our lives for this country. As children, we are constantly told stories about brave Israeli men who "gave their lives for this country". Every year, we commemorate the wars these young people fight in and their heroism and sacrifice. In many ways, there is a lot to commemorate about the generosity of these people. But for children it is very scary and confusing to have to mourn about people you do not know, who gave their lives for something you do not understand. The war stories become modules for how we should be, and who we should become, modules of how we should give our lives. On top of this, Jews feel scared. As a people we have a history of being persecuted and set up as victims, and we have many stories and feelings past on, which keep us feeling unsafe and isolated, and thinking that for our own survival we must not trust anyone else, and that in the final end, no one will every be willing to be fully our allies. These messages and stories are conveyed in many ways. And in Israel they receive a special twist, because these feelings are directed towards the Palestinians, and our other Arab neighbors. And so we have developed fear of them, and are mostly too scared to even consider the possibility that the Palestinians are willing to live as our partners in this land. We are told that the Palestinians want to drive us out of hear, that they only have hate in their hearts, and that they don't really want peace. It is very scary for us, especially when we are young, to see terror attacks. Because we don't get good information as young ones - or a adults - about how the Palestinian people have suffered, and because we don't get to express how we feel, we are left stuck with a lot of fear and confusion and it is becomes easier for us to believe the lies and racism that we have been taught about the Palestinians, as well as the lies that we have been told and made to feel about our people not being safe. At the age of 18, when we are asked to serve in the army and go to combat, we have been so scared and isolated that most of us believe it is our duty, that we must do it, and do it alone, without raising our voice, without thinking things anew, without noticing what we really think or feel. By the time we are asked to become soldiers, many army personnel have come to our schools to tell us, in a scary and authoritative tone, how important it is to serve our country, how we must put our lives on the line because there is no choice and because people have done this before us. I have spent the last few years listening to soldiers before, after and during their service, and have heard many of their stories, thoughts and feelings. They are good intelligent people who have been manipulated and tricked against their own good to fight this war. These people, my people, fighting this war have been isolated and terrified into it. They were not born to fight. They were not born to kill. They were born to be alive. We will make this war stop if only so that men in Israel will never have to become victimized, isolated and angry in to being oppressors, so that these men will get to have the peaceful, kind and fully human lives that they deserve. Kontakt: gsanktmich@freenet.de Freundeskreis für Re´ut/Sadaka e.V. |
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