Rela Mazali, one of the leader’s of New Profile, has this to say in the Guardian:
According to Ha’aretz, the criminal investigation of New Profile is motivated by “growing concern at the defence establishment of a growing trend of draft evasion”. It is not New Profile that is worrying them, we are just an easy scapegoat through which they hope to sow fear and intimidate future draft dodgers. The state has thus declared a war against the many thousands who resist the draft and refuse to place their bodies, their minds, and their morality at the disposal of visionless politicians.
For years now, the army has regularly been exempting tens of thousands from service without difficulty. In fact, several years ago the military and the (very same) defence minister declared a downsizing programme, towards creating “a small, smart army”. Their worry today is rather the popular vote of no-confidence in their easy use of the lives of soldiers – an anger no longer limited to alienated, impoverished parts of society but spreading deep into the middle class as well.
I don’t think an explicit political consciousness necessarily motivates most Israeli youth who evade service. But there is no question that more and more young Israeli’s no longer see serving in the army as a moral obligation or as a spiritual act, a value many older Israelis still cling too.
Tags: CO, Israeli Army