A letter from an israeli soldier refusing to serve in the army
By Chaim Feldman

To:
Second Lt. Adi Boneh
Liaison Officer
Liaison Unit 02043

Shalom,

My message is brief and clear - I have no intention of wearing the uniform of the so-called IDF, and will not serve it in any capacity. I won’t be connected to an organization that fires tank shells into a crowd of human beings that includes children and adults. I won’t be connected to an organization that builds a crude and racist concrete wall that separates simple people from their work, their fields, their football pitch and even from their cemetery. I won’t be connected to an organization that defends the fascist law-breaking settlers who cut down and burn olive groves, attack children, damage property and humiliate normal people. I simply won’t be attached to an organization that commits crimes. The IDF should have remained a small, dynamic army, but in fact the state turned it into a monster; for this state is alienating itself from its neighbors in the Middle East by building racist apartheid walls in order to rabidly protect its shitty Jewish character! By so doing it tramples the amazing potential for co-existence with the Arab people, a people who are no less talented or good than the Jews. Just imagine what a wonderful country this could be if we only got closer to them…if we all learned to speak Arabic before English…but no…we didn’t learn the big lesson of the holocaust…we continue to hate and we still isolate ourselves within our Polish ghetto…

All my actions are geared to a real peace, between all the people who dwell here, and between the people and our environment. This is the real service that I have to do here in Israel, and if people would use their energy on this, and not on the army, this would have been a better place long ago. Now, in July 2004, I am coordinating the struggle against the Trans-Israel Highway, which threatens to destroy the Menashe Heights. Our tent was put up amongst the olive groves and peach orchards of the Kafr Kara’a village, where the trees are fated to be uprooted…In addition I have been active in the struggle against the terrible Apartheid wall which threatens to raise up more hatred against us from the ranks of the Palestinians and the Israeli Arabs. In the impoverished camps of the Palestinians some other good souls and I are trying to help set up gardens and farm plots for food for the villagers. In addition I have to help support my unemployed parents and be responsible for the upkeep of our home, so please release from this criminal burden. I have no intention of lowering my profile, I am a combatant and proud of what I am - and now my real battle is for peace between the people and with the land.

Even if you decide to send me to prison for two years, I will refuse. I have no regrets. Anything is better than being a criminal in IDF clothes.

Thank you,
Chaim Feldman