Anat Matar, mother of Haggai, (one of the Shministim up for court martial) , speaks out:
“These young objectors teach us an important lesson and I call on the people here in the audience, and equally — or perhaps even more — on those speaking here tonight, the Israel Prize Laureates, to understand and internalize this lesson. Haggai and his friends are realizing in full the concept “citizen.” To be a citizen means, first and foremost, to act. Just as being a soldier means being passive, obedient, well-disciplined, being a citizen means the exact opposite: action, resistance. In Israel in 2002 it is very difficult to be a real citizen. Precisely because of the near-total rule of IDF over everything, it is almost impossible to give expression to its civic, civilian “other.” But people unwilling to be swallowed up by fascism are compelled to turn resistance into practice — not into a single, one-time performance. ”
