Before I refused to serve and spent 110 days in prison, people tried to convince me to join the army so I could be the "nice soldier" at the checkpoints. They believed I could make a difference in how Palestinians were treated and many served in the army for that reason. As if the oppression, occupation or massacre can be moral if the soldiers were more moral. The truth is, there is no moral form of oppression. It is not about individual soldiers or units in the West Bank or Gaza and how they treat the Palestinians, it is the fact that there are soldiers there in the first place. The whole Israeli military is responsible for systematic oppression, occupation, massacre in Gaza and ethnic cleansing.
--- Mattan Helman, from the Israeli group Refuser Solidarity Network, in the article The problem is not a specific soldier, it is the entire army
#MattanHelman #RefuserSolidarityNetwork #Palestine #oppression #occupation #EthnicCleansing