Hello, my name is Eran. I’m 19 y/o and I am from Tel Aviv. Maybe you remember me from the previous update I wrote in July. Back then I had already served one prison sentence and was sentenced to another. Now I have finished my fourth sentence and have spent a total of 64 days in jail. I wanted to share with you my thoughts and experiences from military jail.
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On my first imprisonment I was assigned guard duty of a cell block with two other prisoners in it. One of them had been imprisoned for a while and the other was new to jail. The veteran prisoner said to the new one: "Hey, you know who this guy is? This guy likes Arabs!" The new guy asked if I really liked Arabs. I told him I have a left-wing political perspective and that I want Jews and Palestinians to have equal rights. I also told him that I refused to enlist in the Israeli military because I refuse to cooperate with the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The veteran prisoner got mad and called me names. He threatened to harm me physically, explicitly mindful of the fact that this would increase his own jail time.
When I arrived at the jail for my third sentence the veteran prisoners already recognized me. They knew me as the 'left-wing guy', the 'Arab lover'; the weird guy that they can't exactly figure out. Every time a new prisoner came in they rushed to introduce me to him, to see how he would react to me. Ever since I got to prison the prisoners challenged my political position and made statements such as: "If the Arabs will stop using weapons there will be peace but if we hold down our weapons they will kill us"; "If we will give them an inch they will take a mile"; "If they kill your mother will you still support them?"
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After 54 years of illegal occupation, Israel imposes a harsh reality on both Palestinians and Israelis. In the military service Israeli soldiers learn that the strong survive and that there is no way to protect Jewish people except through force. This has a harsh effect on the soldiers themselves as they have no choice but to practice violence in the OPT and also experience violence by Palestinians who object to the military rule over them. This reality, in which youth are conscripted to become part of a violent system, is taking its toll on the soldiers and on the Israeli society as a whole.
The educational system, the media, and mostly the government tell you that you have no choice but to act violently and endure violence, or you will be betraying your country and your loved ones will be hurt. This message puts young soldiers in an impossible position. In order to cope with this dissonance, soldiers adopt the narrative that there will never be peace and that all this violence is justified to protect the Israeli citizens.
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This is one of the ways in which we see the violent cycle of the occupation in work. We need to make sure that every Israeli recognizes the reality of what it is to live as a Palestinian in the West Bank under military occupation. We need to make sure that Israel finally puts a stop to the occupation of the Palestinians’ lands and the violation of their basic human rights. I will continue to share my story and my political reflections with as many young Israelis as possible to make sure they know they have a choice.
In solidarity,
Eran