Refuseniks in the Israeli Military

The UO Cultural Forum and the Committee for Countering Military Recruitment,
a project of the Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC)
and Eugene PeaceWorks, present:
1228 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1228    T (541) 346-4373    F (541) 346-4400

Lecture Notice
“My conscience could no longer be silent”

EVENT: Two young conscientious objectors, imprisoned for refusing to serve in the Israeli military, make their voices heard about the decision to standup against authority.

DATE:  Friday, November 19 at 7:30 pm

LOCATION:    University of Oregon’s Columbia 150

TICKETS:    Free

ABOUT THE EVENT:

What can youth learn about a possible U.S. Draft from two Israeli youth, just released from over 640 days of confinement for their refusal to serve in the Israeli military? This is one question to be pondered when Noam Bahat and Shimri Zamaret speak, at the Cozmic Pizza and the UO campus, Nov. 19th,. Their acts of conscience have gained them the status of Refuseniks and challenged them to consider their mandatory Duty and the possibility that this duty would have forced them to participate in military actions against Palestinians or other acts that betrayed their Conscience.

Zamaret, born into a family with revolutionary roots, attended the Teva school in Tel Aviv where students are treated as future world leaders.  In 2001, he started participating in the Landmark Forum, which encourages members to take responsibility for their own actions.

In court, Zamaret explained his decision to conscientiously object:  “I refuse, since I know too many people who were killed in the terror…. I saw their families—they are broken people. Nothing in their lives will be ‘all right’ again. The government, using the army in order to preserve the settlements, enabled these deaths to occur. If I was part of the army in this situation, and a friend of mine was killed, how could I look at his family’s faces?”

Bahat came from an entirely different world than that of Zamaret.  Disenchanted with the education system, he left school after tenth grade and began working.  He taught himself the material needed to pass the “Bagrut” examinations, which determine whether a student will attend college.  In September of 2001 he began a Year of Service in the Bnei Hamoshavim youth movement, mentoring disadvantaged youth at a boarding school and working in a “moshav” (an agricultural settlement).

Regardless of their different backgrounds, Bahat agrees with Zamaret.  “Every time an Israeli or Palestinian child is shot,” he stated, “our conscience gets a bullet straight in the heart. After mistreating our conscience so awfully, it sits alone in its corner and sulks, because it wants to avoid the pain of hearing, the anxiety of seeing and the nightmare of knowing.”

Noam Bahat and Shimri Zamaret's tour is made possible by the Refusers Solidarity Network and the American Friends Service Committee