Dear Rabbi Lerner,
Hi. You may remember me. When Tikkun's first ad in support of Israeli 'refuseniks' came out in March, and you guys were then under heavy attacks from the mainstream Jewish public, I wrote a public letter defending your ad and defending the wisdom of what we Refuseniks were doiing in Israel--the group that TIKKUN had the courage to defend even though some American Jewish "peace" supporters were attacking you for doing so.
I am now turning to your community for help. You may remember, that one side issue on which your ad was attacked, was that in fact we Refuseniks supposedly take advantage of the amazing tolerance and democracy of Israel, and are never in danger of being thrown to a Gulag like in good old dictatorships.
My response to that was that people don't know how cynical Israeli politics are, that appearing tolerant to us serves the government's purpose, and the only thing effectively preventing us from being 'Gulag'ed is public opinion in Israel and in the West.
So: I'm in no risk of being Gulag'ed. I came to the US to do my Ph.D. But one of my best personal friends, Yigal Bronner - in fact, the friend who set the example of activism for me - is being Gulag'ed, right now as I write.
Dr. Yigal Bronner, 36, a father of two sweet children, lives in Jerusalem. He teaches Sanskrit and Indian studies at the University of Tel-Aviv. There he was involved, among other things, in a professors' lobby to secure the rights of young girls who were employed in cleaning the university by night (a very rare type of activity in Israel).
He is also chair of the PTA of the only Arab-Jewish school in Jerusalem, where his son studies. He is a leading activist at Ta'ayush, an organization which works with the Tikkun Community, modelling nonviolent action and coexistence, sending convoys and solidarity visits deep into the Occupied Territories. He is one of the key figures in the struggle to prevent the expulsion of South Hebron cave dwellers.
All these years, out of a sheer sense of duty, he has continued to serve as a combat reserve soldier in a tank unit. But naturally, already a couple of years ago he knew he CANNOT serve the Occupation any more, and let his commanders know about it. The unit was called up to serve in the Occupied Territories this week.
Dear Rabbi Lerner: as I write, my friend Yigal Bronner is being imprisoned in a remote desert base, a sole reservist among 19-year-old convicts, and is forced to work 15 hours a day scrubbing dishes in the base's kitchen. He is forbidden from talking to others, from using the phone except late at night, and is forced to wear a special hat, even indoors. He is subject to other forms of humiliation there such as incessant roll calls, etc.
This is a dangerous precedent since all previous 'new refuseniks' were sent to prisons intended for reservists, and 'enjoyed' a prison term without such massive invasion of their privacy and abuse of their time and body.
Yigal's colleagues and friends and activists of Ta'ayush and the Combatant's Letter have been working on this case from the moment it started (the news came out Monday night or Tuesday). It seemed that the army was about to reverse on this renegade colonel's vendetta. However, as of yesterday the Army Spokesman office announced that there's nothing illegal with sending Yigal to this desert base, and that he will stay there.
I hope you're keen enough to understand, that now it's not just Yigal's 28-day prison term that is at stake. If we want to make sure future refuseniks don't spend their (increasingly longer, perhaps?) prison terms toiling in menial labor and subject to humiliation, we better act now and flood Israel's government and embassies with letters of protest.
Letters that put a mirror in front of Israel, and tell it what kind of regime subjects people like Yigal to this sort of treatment.
Please use your Tikkun mailing list to spread the word and call for action.
Asaf Oron
