Feature: Reservists Draft Themselves to Demand Change

The protest began with less than fifty soldiers – fresh off the battlefield. They were outraged at what they saw to be indecisiveness emanating from the government echelons, orders they say left them stranded and endangered in the field.



The reservists set up tents the day after the cease-fire took effect, on August 21st, in the Jerusalem Rose Garden opposite the Prime Minister’s Office and the Knesset.



They shared stories of preparing for battle only to be repeatedly told to stand down, and of orders from the upper echelons that left them stranded in hostile territory without permission to go on the offensive.



They said they simply could not return to their homes until their emergency call-ups had been used to bring about change for the better for the State of Israel. More than 2,000 people joined them in the following days.



An open letter that an entire brigade sent to Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert outlined their demands. The reservists said that they and their comrades had lefts families and jobs, with attendance complete in all battalions.



“As we were signing for our battle equipment and weapons, we knew that we were signing for much more. We left behind wives and children, girlfriends and families. We put aside our jobs and our livelihoods; we were prepared to carry out our mission under the most difficult of conditions - in heat, thirst or hunger. At the back of his mind, each and every one of us knew that for the just cause of protecting the citizens of Israel, we would even put our lives on the line.



“But there was one thing we were not and would not be willing to accept: We were unwilling to accept indecisiveness. The war's aim, which was not defined clearly, was even changed in the course of the fighting. The indecisiveness manifested itself in canceling all the missions we were given during the fighting, leading to prolonged stays in hostile territory, without an operational purpose and out of unprofessional considerations, without seeking to engage in combat with the enemy.



“To us, the indecisiveness expressed deep disrespect for our willingness to join the ranks and fight and made us feel as though we had been spat on, since it contradicts the principles and values of warfare upon which we were trained at the Israel Defense Forces.”



The IDF is comprised of a professional standing army, navy and air force, in addition to reserve soldiers who have already completed their mandatory military service and returned to the civilian sector. Reservists maintain training once a year, and are called up on emergency orders in the event of a war or military emergency.



Not a Rose Garden

The core group of protestors mans a main tent in the Rose Garden 24 hours a day – assembling and disassembling their own private tents each night due to police threats of arrest if they leave them standing in the day time.



The reservists recall the protests by reservists following the 1973 Yom Kippur War that led to the fall of then PM Golda Meir’s government. Similar to the conflict with Lebanon, the Yom Kippur War began with an attack [from Egypt] that took Israel by surprise.



Every night at 8 PM, fellow reservists, dignitaries and supporters stop by the main protest tent for a nightly protest they say will continue until their demands are met. Musicians such as Nimrod Lev stop by to offer impromptu concerts in support of the cause.



Bereaved families of soldier's and civilians killed during the war soon joined the reservists. "The pain you [the government and military leadership] have caused us by your failure has succeeded in uniting us,” a joint statement said. “In the name of our friends, in the name of the hostages, their families and our sons, we declare the following: We will not desist in our struggle until the responsible parties hold themselves accountable for their actions."



A member of the Agranat Commission, established following the Yom Kippur War, Yaakov Hasdai, visited the reservists the last week in August. “I support the call for the resignation of the top political echelon and the establishment of an inquiry commission as part of the demand for a culture of accountability in the political system,” he told them. “I came here to tell the younger generation to rise up, protest and learn the lesson of the previous protest generation and call for a wide-scale plan to rehabilitate the country.”



The call for a new generation of leadership was echoed by Shlomo Lev Ami, formerly a member of the Irgun pre-state underground movement. “If we do not rise up and prepare an alternative for the rotten regime then a new regime will be established that will be similar to the one you are toppling,” he told the protestors. “Now is the new generation’s time. You should be a part of the next government.”



Haaretz senior columnist and ardent Disengagement supporter-turned-skeptic Ari Shavit visited the protestors and urged every Israeli who cares about the future of Israel to join the reservists in their protest.



Lamenting Israel’s standing at the heels of this war, Shavit lists why the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War was not as bad as the current situation: “In the fall of 1973, Israel was a powerful state that erred, was battered and got back on its feet. At the end of the summer of 2006, Israel is a country whose vital organs are rotting, afflicted by a corrupting virus.



”This is the reason for which one must rush, at this very moment, over to the protesters at the Rose Garden in Jerusalem. Not because Ehud Olmert must go. He will go in any case. And not because Halutz must take responsibility. He will take responsibility, whether he likes it or not. We must rush to the protest at the Rose Garden because that is where Israel is beginning to deal with itself. That is where truthful people are beginning to tell the truth to a nation that forgot what the taste of truth is all about.”



Conflicted Media Turns on ‘Right’ Protest

The reservists’ now three-week old protest has received conflicted coverage from Israeli media. Some media outlets have highlighted the difference between the diverse groups of reservists. Reporters have noted the “orange” anti-Disengagement activists among protesters, thereby labeling the reservists protest as “right-wing.” Other media outlets have been providing unprecedented media support for the protests, despite the relatively small number of participants.



There are certainly left-wingers involved, insists Baruch Eitam, who spent seven days in the Jerusalem tent before setting up a tent in Tel Aviv, opposite the main train station. Eitam himself previously refused to serve in Judea and Samaria for ideological reasons. “In the territories,” he told reporters, “Israel is fighting people who seek their own freedom. In Lebanon, we fought an organization whose clear goal is Israel's liquidation.”



Haaretz soon soured on the protests when it became clear that although there were left-wing individuals involved – they too were protesting the endangerment of IDF soldiers and not the decision to go to war.



The Israeli Hebrew daily newspaper then reported on August 28th that there were ten separate groups of reservists with different demands. “The right-wing side called for a state commission of inquiry, while the left called for the resignation of the prime minister, the defense minister and the chief of staff,” said the article.



“The most serious problem the reservists face is the attempt to drag them to the right. If the right-wing is able to use the protest to bring down the government, it will set back settlement evacuation for years,” Haaretz writes.



The Haaretz report posited that at the root of the protests was in fact Land of Israel activists. “A close look at the small group reveals their leaders are mostly from the right. Among them is a founder of an illegal outpost in the territories and a prominent activist against the unilateral withdrawal plan,” it said.



Meanwhile, the extreme leftist organization Peace Now, which at first tried, together with Haaretz, to portray the protest as anti-war, now dismisses it altogether.



Peace Now director Yariv Oppenheimer says the message of the reserve soldiers can only be understood as right-wing. "They want to bring down the government, but refuse to say what their option is. It's a nationalist movement that talks only about winning the next war and not how to prevent it. If they succeed, in the end Lieberman and Netanyahu will come to power," he said.



In the early days of the protest, the Channel 1 nightly news, at 8 PM opened with the lead headline, “The reservists protest seems to be fizzling out, with just scores of protestors taking place in a march from Tel Aviv.” The 9 PM news the same evening, on Channel 2, lead with “The protest intensified today, with members embarking on a hunger strike.”



Olmert Dismissive

"I won’t be part of this game of self-flagellation," Olmert said when asked about the protestors and growing calls for a state commission of inquiry.



"I won’t be part of this game of slandering the army. We have no other army. Who is the IDF? It’s our children, it’s our brother, it’s our public, part of it in the regular army, part of it in the reserves,” Olmert says.



Olmert’s own children do not serve as reservists and one son prominently refused to serve in the IDF at all.



“What are we going to do now?” Olmert added. “Stand them in a line and give them a slap on the face? Try them? Put them in front of commissions of inquiry each and every day, so they won’t be able to properly assess the next conflict because they will be afraid we shall come complaining to them?"

(Photos: Josh Shamsi)