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From the cradle to the grave... Lothan Raz explains how ideals
of heroism, strength and security, conspire to create an
"inhumanly" militarised existence for Israeli men.
Pacified into fighting
How Israeli Jewish men are manipulated
Lothan Raz
There is nothing more horrendous
than sending people off to
war. This is what my country is
doing. Israel is sending its children to
war and it has been doing so for many
years now. Indeed we have been warring
from the moment we came into
being, and have been involved in conflict
pretty much ever since.
For many of us who live in Israel, it
seems almost natural, almost a necessary
part of our lives, that at the age of 18 we
will be enrolled into the army and made
to fight these wars. Going to war seems
almost integral to our nature.
But nothing could be further from the
truth. Although human history is filled
with them, people fighting wars is thoroughly
inhuman, and intrinsically against
both our nature and our intelligence.
Human beings have been manipulated
and set up for centuries, devastating their
lives in worthless wars. This is true of the
situation in Israel and for today's Israelis.
Big boys dont cry
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 pain
by ourselves, how not to feel a thing.
Every young boy hears his mother tell
him things like: "be mommys hero",
"big boys don't cry", "be tough, be brave
for daddy". These phrases are most frequently
said to us when we get hurt,
physically or otherwise, and when we
look to those close to us and who we can
trust, to give us care and attention as we
try to heal. 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 to us, making it
clear that our pain is not 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, and that if we
do we will be isolated and humiliated.
We spend out time pushing our feelings
away, ignoring them or putting them
aside. And we walk around feeling as
though theses challenges are ours alone,
that we must not show them or reveal
that we are having problems.
Herrorism
In addition to all of this, and perhaps
especially in Israel, we live with the ideal
of heroism. We are taught that it is heroic
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" and every year we commemorate
the wars these young people fought
in, their heroism and their sacrifice.
In many ways, there is a lot to commemorate
about the generosity of these
people. But for children it is scary and
confusing to have to mourn for people
you do not know, who gave their lives for
something you do not understand. The
war stories become models for how we
should be, and who we should become,
models for 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 to us
which maintain our feelings of fear and
insecurity, that in the end, no one will
ever be willing to be 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 neighbours. And so
we have developed fear of them and are
mostly too scared to even consider the
possibility that Palestinians are willing to
live as our partners in this land. We are
told that they want to drive us out, 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 witness terrorist attacks.
Because, as young people - or as adults
- we don't get good information about how
the Palestinian people have suffered. And
because we don't get to express how we
feel, we are left with that fear and confusion
and it 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 ourselves.
Scared into submission
At the age of 18, when we are asked to
serve in the army and go into combat, we
have become 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, army personnel have already visited
our schools to tell us, in an 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
experience of military 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 better nature,
to fight this war.
These people, my people, who are
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 live. We will make this war
stop, if only so that men in Israel will
never have to be victimised, isolated and
angered into becoming oppressors, and so
that they get to have the peaceful, kind
and fully human lives which they deserve.
Lothan Raz is an Israeli conscientious objector.
He works with New Profile.
Note: Herrorism is a completely fictitious word
invented at 5 Caledonian Road to represent the
dynamic between ideals of heroism and the
realities of terrorism (all behaviour which instils
terror state-sponsored or otherwise).
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