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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Related Issues Home page  back Print  Send To friend Refuser Diaries: Alon Gurman By: Alon Gurman Mondoweiss 12 April 2012 http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/refuser-diaries-noam-gur-and-alon-gurman.html Noam Gur and Alon Gurman are keeping a diary of the week leading up to their refusal to serve in the Israeli military and their likely imprisonment. For their first entry, click here. Thursday, 13th April, 2012 Alon Gurman (Photo: Activestills) Today was a day of extreme dichotomy. Starting out with a few old friends contacting me to express their support and wish me luck, I go on to spend the rest of my morning dealing with hate-spammers on our Facebook event for the demonstration on our day of imprisonment. I have quite a bit of experience with this type of harassment, that usually incorporates cursing and racism and renders our event page useless. Eventually we overcome the spammers and the day goes on. Next, I am nervous for the very first time in regard to my imprisonment. I am filled with fear of the unknown, but I remind myself that many have been through much worse and have come out just fine. I relax again. I am suddenly filled with a slightly different anxiety. I feel as if I have already been through quite a bit and am quite glad thinking about being freed eventually. I’ve also been dealing with criticism regarding my contribution to society, or at times - the state. Noam and myself haven’t addressed the subject publicly as we chose to focus our message on the oppression of Palestinians by Israel and its military. First, I’ll state with no apologies that I have no affinity to nations or states, and do not wish to contribute to such. Second, in relation to the “civil service” (a voluntary program for people who did not serve in the military) - I have considered taking part in such, but not out of obligation or need to fill a void of contribution to society left empty by my refusal. I take part in voluntary work, but do not feel the need to apologize for not serving and substitute my service for anything. My refusal is a contribution to society, and in my eyes - serving the Israeli military is not. -Alon gm Links to the latest articles in this section Adam Keller in Berlin, Sept 5-8 Activists protest Tel Aviv arms exhibition: `Arms trade is death trade` In Memeoriam Beate Keller Zilversmidt, 1942-2021