‘you can’t run from responsibility’

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Har_Avital.jpg

_{Unit 8200 Basis auf dem Har Avital, Golanhöhen, Foto von Marion Doss, entnommen bei Wikimedia}

Die Unit 8200 war mir erinnerlich im Zusammenhang mit Stuxnet, als deren Urheber sie vermutet wird. Sie ist als Kooperationspartner und Äquivalent zur NSA und als Karrieresprungbrett bekannt: Meet The Ex-NSA And Ex-Unit 8200 Spies Cashing In On Security Fears.

Nun haben 43 Reservisten einen offenen Brief an Netanyahu veröffentlicht:

°We the undersigned, veterans of Unit 8200, current and past reserve soldiers, declare that we refuse to take part in activities against the Palestinians and refuse to participate in or enable the deepening of military rule in the Occupied Territories.

There is a view that service in IDF intelligence is devoid of moral dilemmas and contributes only to preventing violence and injury to the innocent. However, during our military service we learned that intelligence is a inseparable part of military rule in the Territories. The Palestinian population, living under a military regime, is completely exposed to spying and surveillance of Israeli intelligence. As opposed to Israeli citizens and citizens of other nations, there is no supervision ["review"] of methods of gathering, tracking or using intelligence information related to the Palestinians, whether they are involved in violence or not. Information gathered damages the innocent and is used for political persecution and creating divisions within Palestinian society through recruitment of collaborators and turning of Palestinian society against itself. In many cases, intelligence prevents doing proper justice to the accused under military courts through preventing him from seeing the evidence against him. Intelligence enables continuing rule over millions of people, authority that is deep and penetrates into every facet of daily life. These things prevent normal life and spark further violence and further distance any end of the conflict.

Millions of Palestinians have lived under Israeli military rule for 47 years. This rule negates their basic rights and expropriates their lands in order to settle Jews upon them who are subject to a separate police, legal and judicial system. Such a reality is not a part of the efforts of the state to defend itself, but rather a result of a choice. Broadening the settlements has nothing to do with self-defense. Nor does limiting [Palestinan] building and development and economic exploitation of the West Bank, or the collective punishment of residents of Gaza, or the route of the Separation Wall.

In light of this, we have reached the conclusion that we who served in Unit 8200 have a responsibility for this situation and a responsibility to act. Our consciences do not permit us to continue serving this system, which damages the rights of millions of human beings. Therefore those among us who are reservists declare that we will refuse to take part in operations against Palestinians. We call upon intelligence officers, currently and in future, and all Israeli citizens, to make their voices heard against these injustices and to act to bring them to an end. We believe that Israel’s future depends on it° (Übersetzung entnommen aus Richard Silversteins sehr lesenswertem Artikel IDF Unit 8200 Officers Refuse to Fight Palestinians)

Im Guardian ist ein Interview mit 3 der Unterzeichner erschienen, in dem Entwicklung und Gründe der Verweigerung genauer beleuchtet werden: Israel’s Unit 8200 refuseniks: ‘you can’t run from responsibility’, es geht darin um angeordnete Verleugnung der Verantwortung mittels Klitterungen und Befehlsketten, um Inkaufnahme getöteter Zivilisten im Rahmen extra-legaler Hinrichtungen, um die Abnahme des Unrechtsgefühls in der israelischen Gesellschaft, um Staat, Recht, Dienste, Spionage.

°When you look at [things] in terms of intelligence you can broadly say that there are two types of intelligence in the world. One is gathered – say in a democracy – that a regime collects against its citizens. For example, as an Israeli the government might collect intelligence on me but it has severe limitations on how to do that, and the way that it can use it against me is very limited. Even if it is taken to court in the end if there is a punishment it is only a punishment directly related to the offence I committed. So that you can, if you like, call civil intelligence.

Then there is military intelligence, which a country collects on another country. Then there’s no laws governing that, only diplomacy and international relations. That’s intelligence. It’s pretty dirty. But that’s the inherent rules of the game. The other country can defend itself to some extent. In most cases this kind of intelligence won’t have direct consequences for the actual civilian citizens in the other country that might be the target of this intelligence.

[But] in this situation, what’s common to the Palestinian situation – and the situation in Argentina [under the military dictatorship] – is that people get the worst of the two types of intelligence°

Und das zeigt nicht nur Spionage ohne jede rechtsstaatlich zu nennende Kontrolle, sondern auch die Asymmetrie zwischen Israel und den besetzten Gebieten wie unter einem Brennglas.