Israeli Heroes.

In Blog, Politicsby Fedayn11 Comments

Screen Shot 2014-07-23 at 11.46.14

Screen Shot 2014-07-23 at 11.45.57 Sahar Vardi protects a young Palestinian boy from a soldier at March of the Flags day.

Amid the massacres in Gaza it can be easy to forget that not all Israelis back the slaughter. Meet Sahar Vardi a brave young Israeli who has dedicated her life to activism.

The  Nobel Women’s Initiative gives us this background:

“Activism has always been a part of her family’s life. Sahar’s father refused to do his obligatory military service in the first intifada. During the second intifada he became active with Ta’ayush, a coexistence group of Israelis and Palestinians that mostly work in the occupied territories. When Sahar was a young girl she would join her father to do agricultural work with Palestinian villagers, mainly planting trees.”

Sahar witnessed first-hand the impact the occupation had on the livelihoods of the villagers. Sahar recalls that:

“The shock was not from the brutality of the occupation or of a specific soldier, but from witnessing the ordinary day to day situation of going through checkpoints, fearing the demolition of their homes and knowing that every 18-year old soldier has the power to control their life.”

At age 14, Sahar began to go to demonstrations against the Israeli separation wall, mostly in the village of Bil’in in the West Bank.

“I realize that the soldier at the checkpoint is not responsible for the wretched policy of oppression of Palestinian civilians, and yet I am unable to relieve that soldier of the responsibility for his own actions … I mean the human responsibility of not causing suffering to another human being.”

Sahar served three prison sentences for her refusal to be conscripted into Israel’s military service.

In the video above she speaks of gender and refusal in Israel, regarding her long experience with protests and joint Palestinian-Israeli activities. Sahar speaks about how she broke out of what the Israeli education system had taught her to finally refuse military service and become part of a joint Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

(via Nobel Women’s Initiative)

Comments

  1. Wish there were many more of her in the world.

  2. What is going on in the West Bank concerning the wall (which has actually eliminated terror attacks and allowed Palestinian businesses to thrive) has little to do with Gaza. Israel’s policies in the West Bank do need changing but defending itself from indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza is not related. And trying desperately to protect civilians in Gaza, sending in food and humanitarian aid, setting up hospitals to treat the wounded is not “slaughter”. Blame Hamas for its civilian losses.

    1. Suzanne, read this please:

      «Israel wants peace? Perhaps, but as the veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy has pointed out, it does not want a just peace. Occupation and creeping annexation, an inhumane blockade, the destruction of olive groves, the arbitrary imprisonment of thousands, torture, daily humiliation of civilians, house demolitions: these are not policies compatible with any desire for a just peace. In Tel Aviv Gideon Levy now moves around with a bodyguard, the price of speaking the truth.»

      http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/07/22/beautiful_dream_of_israel_has_become_a_nightmare.html

    2. It’s so sad that after reading this article (and hopefully watching the video), you immediately have to jump in and enforce blame and justify genocide, when what this woman is campaigning for is a mutual understanding and a just peace on both sides.

      Btw, Israel has bombed all but one hospital in Gaza, leaving the rapidly increasing numbers of wounded civilians to be treated in only one facility.

    3. Shame on you for condoning the slaughter of innocent Palestinians. Israel broke the 2012 ceasefire with Hamas and launched this POGROM against Gaza. Israel is notorious for targeting UN protected civilians. Qana 1996, operation cast Lead use of phosphorus bombs against UN schools and in this conflict 4 UN schools have been hit. THis is the modus operandi of the murdering apartheid state of Zion. Read how terror gangs ethnically cleansed Palestine in Illan Pappe’s book based on Israeli archives. The tale is one of massacres, rape and THEFT on a grand scale. Israel does not want to give up peace for land so occupies land stolen from Palestinians. That is why your hero Yitzhak Shamir killed Count Bernadotte the first UN peace envoy to the region.

  3. No. Blame indiscriminate/anger-fuelled attacks on the Palestinian civilian population. Outright mass attacks on unarmed civilians contravenes the Geneva Convention and empowers the UN to intervene but no one has the balls to stop the bloodshed. Imagine Bloody Sunday, every day, while the world looks on in apathy or powerless sympathy.

  4. These facts that you talk about are not facts at all, the western media biase ensures israel is not condemend in the manner it deserves for the ethnic cleansing of these people. America stands idly by because from the US point of view, they voted the wrong way in the 2006 election which were carefully monitored and pronounced free and fair by international observer despite US attempts to swing it to their preferred candidate Abbas and his fatah party. But thats the US for you, all for democracy- but you better vote for this guy, oh you didnt? Now we’ll let israel destroy you. Hamas is an elected party. Their is illegal occupation in yhe west bank by israel, any idiot knows this. You think any elected government in the western world would accept this act of aggression? Yet the palestinians are supposed to just accept it? Lets talk about peace talks.. Israel has not accepted each ceasefire offered. Its not interested in peace. Since then it has witheld 600 million of funds it was legally obligated to transmit to palestine, it cut off their water, they cant fix their homes. For palestinians to have any existence at all they must 1. Recognize israels right to exist. 2. Renounce violence. 3 accept past agreemengs, particularly the Road Map of the Quartet. Now, 1. israel does not recognize palestine. 2. Israel does not renounce violence, the israeli cabinet proclaimed that “the road map will not state that israel must cease violence and incitement against the palestinians. Do you understand what this means? Needless to say, that 3. Israel rejects past agreements, instantly rejecting the road map for peace. So these are the actions of a state activelynseeking peace. The hypocrisy is stunning! No one would accept this. No one. Why do we expect the people of gaza and the westbank to. And another thing, israel and america know they wont. They have made the terms so harsh and unfair because they want them to fight. They want that land!!. You still seriously think because people on the tv are saying they want a ceasefire, that they actually mean it? judge a politician by what he does, not by what he says.

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