I'm not a Conqueror
translated by Dorothy Naor
Uri Yakobi's letter in Ha'aretz Hebrew edition
December 24, 2002
I read in the newspaper that an 11 year old Palestinian girl, Nada Madi, was shot and killed in her house by Israeli soldiers in the south of Rafa. I read that since the beginning of December the army has killed more than 30 Palestinians, of which at least half were innocent civilians. I read about these things with sadness and embarrassment, that such things are committed by the country in which I live.
No terrorist acts can justify such killing of Palestinian civilians, or of demolishing homes and throwing entire Palestinian families into the street, and of additional acts by the military that can only be called "terror." I am happy that that when I read about such things that I am in military prison, serving my 6th successive sentence due to my refusal to enlist in the army of occupation, instead of being a soldier and small instrument in the huge brutal military machine.
I don't know whether or not the Palestinian leadership wants peace. I don't know whether or not the
Palestinians want forever to remain poor and deprived (even though I have a hard time believing they do).
What I do know is that Palestinians do not want us to occupy them. I know that they don't want war and to see blood continuously shed. I know that they are not the ones that cause us to occupy them. Not they turned us into occupiers. We did it well enough on our own.
I am not proud of my people.
I am not proud of my country.
I am not proud of the things that are being done in the name of defense.
I am also not proud that I am in prison because
I refuse to serve in the occupying military force (I am also not proud of the opportunity that was given me to suffer for my principles).
But I am very proud of the fact that I listen to my conscience. And I'll be happy if others, too, also listen to their consciences and not to what their commanders tell them. I don't know how long the military intends to keep me in prison.But I do know for certain, that no matter how many more times I will be sentenced, and no matter how many more times I'll be stuck in jail, I will not yield and become an instrument serving the occupation. I am not an occupier, period.
Uri Yaakobi is one of more than 280 signatories of the "High School Seniors' Letter" in which youngsters,
shortly to be conscripted for military service, placed Prime Minister Sharon on notice that they would take no part in the oppression of the Palestinian people
