'I couldn't believe I was doing this'
Last year Rami Kaplan was a loyal commander in the Israeli army. Now he is going to court to prove that the occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal. Here he tells Jonathan Steele how the destruction of an orange grove led him to lay down his gun

It was in Gaza that Major Rami Kaplan, a 29-year-old "veteran" of Israel's prestigious Armoured Corps, began to feel that he had had enough. He was increasingly uneasy about the orders he was given, and the next time he was called up for his annual reserve duty, he said no. Now, after a month in a military prison, he has gone on the attack. Along with seven other refuseniks, he is taking an unprecedented petition to Israel's supreme court. Their case is not that they have a right to conscientious objection. They are going further. They claim that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories on the West Bank and Gaza is illegal, and that as soldiers they have a duty not to take part in an illegal enterprise.

This marks another leap forward in the story of the refuseniks, who first came to public notice earlier this year when some 200 reserve officers signed an open letter explaining their case. The number of signatories has now reached 491.
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Expulsion, Not Just a Test

Around 150 people were forced to leave their homes in the West Bank village of Khirbat Yanoun. They packed some of their belongings and hastily rushed away in six rusty trucks, which hauled them away from the northern West Bank town.

If you are confused regarding the timing of this scenario, don’t be. Although a typical scene if compared to the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homeland in Palestine in 1948, the above story has took place on 19, Oct 2002. The tragedy is that the incident at Khirbat Yanoun might be the first step in the renewal of the infamous expulsion policy.
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