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Laura
Milo: "I'm going to jail today" I'm
going to jail today. If the authorities don't get wise at the last moment,
I'm going to languish in jail for an undefined period, until the army
decides that I have "paid my debt to society". I'm
going to jail today, and therefore will have to stop doing social and
educational work, I'll be going in to a totally depressing
environment instead of being an involved person. Some
of my partners in this country have lost their moral compass, and I refuse
to come to terms with that. Injustice has been done here, not only to me
but also to citizens who have honestly declared what their conscience
tells them. Injustice is being done to all those who refuse to shirk
responsibility and become mere cogs in a system that destroys us as a
society and as individuals. Those who have gone before me are already
paying the price for insisting on making their contribution according to
their conscience and not against it. This isn't a case of civil
disobedience; rather we are following our consciences. This is my one and
only conscience, which tells me what is right and wrong; I don't have
another. All
I ask is to continue my community service that I have done for two years, in
Yeruham, in the old neighbourhoods of Ashkelon, in Kiryat Moshe in Rehovot,
in Jesse Cohen, Holon, in the Katamons of Jerusalem, in Shlomi, Acre and
other places that have need of me. It's a simple request that should be
acceptable. Why should I have to fake my way, or lie in order to be
allowed to do things according to my lights? Doesn't
the state understand that it harms itself with this base behaviour?
For the great ideals of a democratic society should be to encourage
active and critical citizens. The IDF and the Supreme Court have managed
to turn the fact that we are political people into a curse. This shouldn't
be my country's way. I'm
not a destructive virus, and I won't allow anyone to turn me into one. I
am a young idealistic woman who struggles for her obligation and right to
take an active part in shaping a just society - an Israeli society that
pursues justices and places people in a central place. I
believe that every person has a sense of justice, which is pure and
beautiful, and they only need to be reminded to use it. I believe in
people, and not even the IDF and the Supreme Court can take that away from
me. This
letter from Laura Milo was printed in Ha'aretz on Monday (August
23,2004). The same day the army sent her to Prison 400 for the second
time, for another 14 days. She's there because the Israeli army and the
High Court of Justice judged her conscience and found it wanting. For them a
refusal to oppress another people is unconscionable.
Laura
is alone in jail and urgently in need of moral support. Please send
e-mails of support as quickly as possible to: For more information: http://www.refusersolidarity.net/default.asp?content_new=one_story_lm |