![](\"https:\/\/ePalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/omar-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\nOctober 27, 2012<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m Omar Saad and I will not be a soldier in your army <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Omar Saad, a young (Druze) Palestinian musician from the Galilee village of al-Mughar has received a summon to the Israeli enlistment army. The Druze citizens of Israel are forced to enlist in the Israeli military, since 1956, when conscription law applied to Druze men (not to other Palestinians). Recent studies show that two thirds of Druze youth would not enlist in the Israeli military if given the choice, read more here. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Omar is one of the many Druze youth who refuse to serve in the Israeli military, in his letter below (which I translated from Arabic), he says it all: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n To the Israeli Prime Minister, To the \u201cDefense Minister\u201d, <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Subject: refusal to appear for compulsory military recruitment. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m the undersigned, Omar Zahr Eldin Mohammad Saad from the village of Mughar \u2013 Galilee, have received a notice to appear in the military recruitment offices on 31.10.2012 to conduct tests according to the conscription law imposed on the Druze community. I would like to make the following points: <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I refuse to appear for tests, because I oppose the law of conscription imposed on my Druze community. I refuse because I am a man of peace and I hate all forms of violence, and the military institution represents for me the peak of physical and psychological violence. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Since I received the notice to appear for tests, my life has changed, I became more nervous, my thoughts were distracted, I remembered thousands of cruel images, and I couldn\u2019t imagine myself wearing military uniform and participating in the suppression of my Palestinian people or fighting my Arab brothers. I oppose the recruitment to the Israeli military and any other military for conscience and nationalistic reasons. I hate the injustice and oppose the occupation; I hate intolerance and restriction of freedoms. I hate those who detain children, the elderly and women. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I am a musician, I play the Viola , I have played in many places, I have musician friends from Ramallah, Jericho, Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus, Jenin, Shfa\u2019amr, Eilabun, Rome, Athens, Amman, Beirut, Damascus, Oslo, and we all play for freedom, humanity and peace, our weapon is the music and we shall not have any other weapon. I am from a community that was unjustly treated by an unjust law, how can we fight our relatives in Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon? How can I hold arms against my brothers and people in Palestine? How can I be a soldier standing at Qalandia checkpoint or any other checkpoint, after I experienced the injustices at these checkpoints? <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n How can I prevent someone from Ramallah to visit his city, Jerusalem? How can I guard the apartheid wall? How can I be a jailer to my own people while I know that the majority of prisoners are freedom prisoners and seekers of rights and freedom? <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I play for joy, for freedom, for a just peace based on halting settlements, the end of the occupation in Palestine, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem its capital, the release of all prisoners in prisons and the return of displaced refugees to their homes. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Many of the youth from my community have done the compulsory service in the army, what have we received? Discrimination in all areas, our villages are the poorest, our lands were confiscated, there are no master plans, and no industrial zones. Percentages of university graduates in our villages of the lowest in the region, the unemployment rates in our villages are the highest. This mandatory law has kept us away from our Arab connection. <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This year, I will finish high school, and I seek to complete my university education. I\u2019m sure you will try to make me concede my human ambition, but I announce it loudly: <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n I, Omar Zahr Eldin Mohammad Saad, will not be the fuel to the fire of your war, and will not be a soldier in your army . <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Signature: Omar Saad<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n http:\/\/abirkopty.wordpress.com\/2012\/10\/27\/i-omar-saad-will-not-be-a-soldier-in-your-army\/<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n ———————————————————————–<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n ePalestine Blog:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n http:\/\/www.epalestine.com<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n ———————————————————————–<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Everything about this list:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n http:\/\/lists.riseup.net\/www\/info\/epalestine<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n To unsubscribe, send mail to:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n epalestine-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n To subscribe, send mail to:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n epalestine-subscribe@lists.riseup.net<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/434809649908445\/?ref=ts&fref=ts October 27, 2012 I\u2019m Omar Saad and I will not be a soldier in your army Omar Saad, a young (Druze) Palestinian musician from the Galilee village of al-Mughar has received a summon to the Israeli enlistment army. The Druze citizens of Israel are forced to enlist in the Israeli military, since 1956, when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[96,880,831,235,881,882],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-4077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-96","tag-al-mughar","tag-druze","tag-galilee","tag-refuse-to-serve","tag-soldier"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"1","first_name":"Sam","last_name":"Bahour","user_url":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour","job_title":"","description":" Sam Bahour<\/strong> is a Palestinian-American business consultant, writer, and commentator based in Al-Bireh\/Ramallah, Palestine. He is the principal of Applied Information Management (AIM)<\/a>, a consultancy specializing in business development and startup advisory services.<\/p>\r\n Bahour played a foundational role in establishing two of Palestine\u2019s publicly traded companies: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He co-founded Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE), of which he is now an emeritus member, and served as an independent director on the board of Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. from 2004 to 2025. He currently serves on the board of Just Vision<\/a> and The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS)<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n He frequently gives talks to delegations visiting Palestine on the subjects of Palestine\u2019s political economy, Palestinian Politics 101, and a general orientation to the state of affairs under Israeli military occupation.<\/p>\r\n A prolific writer on Palestinian affairs, Bahour has been published in major international outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Haaretz, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera America, Le Monde diplomatique, Al-Monitor, +972 Magazine, The Hill, and Arab News. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, CNN, BBC, and other broadcast media.<\/p>\r\n Bahour is the co-editor of Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians<\/a><\/em> (Olive Branch Press, 1993) and was profiled in the bestselling anthology Kingdom of Olives and Ash<\/a><\/em>, edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, in a chapter authored by Chabon titled \u201cThe Tallest Man in Ramallah<\/a>.\u201d He holds an Associate\u2019s and Bachelor\u2019s degree in Computer Technology from Youngstown State University, and a Kellogg-Recanati International Executive MBA \u2014 a joint program of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Recanati Business School at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\r\n He tweets at @SamBahour<\/a>, blogs at www.epalestine.ps<\/a>, and may be reached at sbahour[AT]gmail[DOT]com.<\/p>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4077"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
\n <\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n