Israeli army objectors spark national debate

JERUSALEM -- It began with a modest act of defiance: In newspaper ads, 52 Israeli reserve soldiers declared last month they would no longer serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Their number has since more than quadrupled, and has sparked a passionate debate in Israel about the limits of legitimate protest.

For many Israelis, the soldiers' accounts of acts of random brutality toward Palestinian civilians have also added a new urgency to resolving Israel's most burning problem -- what to do with the territories conquered in 1967.

The protest has reinvigorated an Israeli peace camp cast adrift by the collapse of peace talks and almost 17 months of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. It is now regrouping under the slogan "Get out of the territories," with many advocating a unilateral Israeli withdrawal rather than waiting for a peace deal that may never materialize.

Peace rally

On Saturday night, thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to call for a pullout in what appeared to be the largest peace rally since fighting began in September 2000.

Conscientious objection has been rare in Israel as long as the consensus held that the country was fighting for its survival.

But Israel runs a citizens' army, leaning heavily on reservists who can spend up to a month a year in uniform, and it cannot be isolated from the national mood. So every time the consensus has wavered, small groups of soldiers have refused to serve -- most notably after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

The army has usually opted for a low-key response, jailing offenders for a few days, then transferring them out of the line of fire.

The latest objectors, who include a deputy brigade commander, refuse to talk to the foreign media, saying they don't want to air Israel's dirty laundry abroad.

But Israeli newspapers and TV broadcasts have become confessionals for soldiers haunted by their experiences in the Palestinian areas.

The Tel Aviv weekly Ha'ir recently published statements by 40 reservists recalling events that led them to join the protest, including what they described as unwarranted killings of unarmed Palestinian teen-agers and the routine humiliation of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints.