By Stan Goodenough
Aug 08, 2007
Twelve Israeli soldiers were sentenced to 28 days in prison and expelled from their combat unit Tuesday after refusing tat o help government forces uproot two Jewish families from their Hebron homes.
The 12 were orthodox Jews, and it was against their faith to help expel fellow religious Israelis who were obeying a biblical injunction when they chose to build their homes on lands Arabs stole from their Jewish owners 85 years ago.
While their commanding officers would have been well-aware of their sensitivities to this situation they nonetheless ordered the men to take part.
When they refused, the outcry from the anti-religious sectors of Israeli society was immediate and loud.
Labor Party leader and former Prime Minister Ehud Barak employed demagoguery, declaring that such behavior was intolerable and posed a threat to the army and, by extension, to the nation.
"Our army is the only one we have, and soldiers take their orders from the company commander, the unit commander, the brigade commander and no one else, important and dignified as they may be.
"The army of a nation seeking to survive must be adamant about this principle," he said.
"This phenomenon of refusing orders does not belong here... Any act of refusal – of any stripe – does not belong here with us, in an army like ours. We have no intention indulging it," he added.
Some rabbis and a few right wing leaders came out in support of the soldiers.
Knesset members Aryeh Eldad and Zvi Hendel extended their congratulations to the men for "refusing to be the executioners of a blatantly immoral decision" that was "politically motivated, and its aim is to evict Jews from Jewish property in Hebron."
"This is clearly an illegal order," Hendel added.
"There is a limit to the extent to which the Jews can be abused, only because the extreme left has taken over the Supreme Court. The IDF needs to prepare for war and not deal with political policing actions."
Left-wing MKs rounded on them.
Senior Labor Party member Ophir Pines-Paz said the soldiers' disobedience was "a dangerous crossing of lines [and that] refusing will lift the barrier before a torrent of political refusals to serve, which will disintegrate the IDF."
Observers noted that it was immoral to order soldiers to uproot fellow citizens of Israel against their consciences. Men and women entered the army to defend Israel against its external enemies, not to be used against their fellow citizens.
"There are plenty of leftists in the police force," said one man. "Let them give that kind of job to them - they will happily act to carry out the 'laws' of a leftist Supreme Court and give great coverage to the leftist-dominated Israeli press."