. DISARMAMENT & SECURITY.
An article from Finalscape (translation by CPNN)
My name is Nattan Helman. I’m 20 years old, I come from Kibbutz Haogen.
On November 20, I will refuse to serve in the Israeli army for reasons of conscience. In the third year of college, I came across documents about the occupation and started asking: What are we doing there? How does this affect our society? How does it affect me?
Video of interview
(Continued in the right column)
“Put down the gun and take up the pen”, What are some other examples?
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After doing some research, after reading books, articles and testimonies of soldiers, after seeing the territories, I concluded that Israeli policies were oppressing Palestinians and Israelis.
When I received my first call from the army, I knew I would not go. I told my parents. At first they took it very badly, then they understood and they supported me.
At first, I felt lonely and thought I was the only one to think so. I knew that my refusal was a violation of the law but in front of every law there is morality, a conscience, a limit.
In the past, there was a lot of social injustice that was legal. The Holocaust in Europe, apartheid in South Africa, slavery in the United States are all examples of legal injustice. A law requiring enlistment in an army that opposes an entire population is not an ethical law and I do not feel the obligation to obey it.
I spoke with former objectors about the conditions of life in prison, and I try to get used to the idea of living there.
The situation is frightening and stressful, but I think if I continue to believe in my values, they will strengthen me and protect me there.
(Click here for the original French version of this article.)