[ Eight new draft refusers speak about the occupation, the
anti-judicial reform protests, and conscientious objection as a tool
of protest.]
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‘YOUTH AGAINST DICTATORSHIP’: MEET ISRAEL’S NEW CLASS OF
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS  
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Oren Ziv
September 5, 2023
+972 Magazine
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_ Eight new draft refusers speak about the occupation, the
anti-judicial reform protests, and conscientious objection as a tool
of protest. _

Eight of the conscientious objectors who signed the "Youth Against
Dictatorship" refusal letter., Photo: Oren Ziv / +972 Magazine

 

On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of Israelis gathered outside
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Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium high school in central Tel Aviv for the
launch of a new letter by young conscientious objectors under the
banner of “Youth Against Dictatorship.” Despite pressure from the
far right and the Education Ministry, and despite the decision of the
high school’s board to cancel the event, hundreds came to hear the
students read out the letter, participate in workshops, and to support
the 230 young people who signed the letter and who plan to refuse
enlistment into the Israeli army.

As opposed to previous so-called “refusenik letters,” the current
letter connects opposition to the government’s judicial overhaul to
conscientious objection due to the occupation. Signatories +972 spoke
with said they had planned to refuse to join the army even before the
current government was formed, to protest the occupation.

Others decided to do so in recent months, saying that the government,
the most extreme in Israeli history, was what tipped the scales and
pushed them to refuse. Some of them explained that the presence of the
“anti-occupation bloc” at the weekly demonstrations against the
judicial overhaul helped them make the decision, and that in today’s
public atmosphere, conscientious objection is more widely accepted
than in the past, particularly in the wake of mass refusal by army
reservists in the wake of the overhaul.

“As young women and men about to be conscripted into Israeli
military service, we say NO to dictatorship in Israel and in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories. We hereby declare that we refuse to
join the military, until democracy is secured for all who live within
the jurisdiction of the Israeli government,” the statement said.
“Despite our six months of determined struggle for a genuine
democracy that has been waged in the streets almost daily, the
government continues to pursue its destructive agenda. We truly fear
for our own future, and for the future of all who live here. In view
of this, we have no choice but to take extreme measures and refuse to
serve in the army.  A government that destroys the judiciary is not a
government that we can serve.  An army that militarily occupies
another people is not an army that we can join.”

We interviewed eight teenagers who signed the letter and spoke about
their decision to refuse to join the army.
 

Nuri Magen, 17

I thought I would enlist until a little after the government began
passing the law to the reasonableness clause. I was against the
occupation before that, but I thought I was going to serve in a
position that wouldn’t be directly involved in it. I thought about
serving in the navy, and I could sort of justify doing that. That was
before they started passing the laws.

Most of all, it scared me what horrors could take place in a year, two
years, when I will be stuck [in the army]. I don’t want to feel like
I am part of this thing. As the situation gets more extreme, even
non-political people or those who hold centrist positions are becoming
more open to opinions that were considered “extreme” until
recently. Two years ago conscientious objectors were a very small
minority. Now we took over the school and held an event with hundreds
of people and the media; it’s unprecedented.

Sofia Orr, 18

I signed the letter because I oppose the dictatorship and want to
fight for true democracy for all, both in Israel and in the occupied
territories. It was important for me to sign this letter because it
makes this connection, which for me is self-evident, that the reform
and the occupation cannot be separated.

I think this event and the number of signatories shows that these
opinions are slowly starting to enter the mainstream, or at least that
the mainstream is ready to hear them and engage with them. This is
really a blessing. It shows the change that is happening here. We have
to continue and not let them silence us. Trying to silence us is part
of their dictatorial policy that we oppose.

Itay Gavish, 17

 

During the protests, I came to the anti-occupation bloc, where I
realized that I did not want to take part in the occupation, and that
I would refuse to join the army. I signed the letter to show that I,
and hundreds of other young people, would not serve in the occupation
army. Through these demonstrations, I felt it was legitimate to come
out to protest.

I think I was afraid of being too radical, and the anti-occupation
bloc was a place where you could go to demonstrate with the other
Zionists, and then go a little further. The fight against the judicial
overhaul shows people who don’t necessarily relate to the occupation
and don’t necessarily care that refusal is an important tool of
protest.

Lily Hochfeld, 17

I asked myself what my red line was, if I was willing to serve in any
army of any country. I decided that there are armies I want to believe
that I would not serve in. For me, to give full support to settler
violence, decades of military rule, and judicial reform that gives all
the power to corrupt and clerical politicians completely crosses my
red line. I can no longer enlist in such an army and not fear for my
future and that of my country.

The protests have brought all the demons out of the closet. Suddenly,
we woke up one morning and there were people sitting in the government
who were once illegitimate even on the right, such as [Itamar] Ben
Gvir, who continues in [Meir] Kahane’s footsteps. The new government
has made everything clear — we understood their true intentions.

Tal Mitnick, 17

I and other youths realized that the dictatorship that exists in
Israel and the dictatorship that has existed for decades in the
occupied territories are inseparable. The great goal of the
politicians and the settlers is to deepen the occupation and the
oppression of more populations inside Israel and in the occupied
territories, and to annex Area C of the West Bank [which is under full
Israeli military control].

For many of us, these demonstrations were an awakening. I was not
politically active before the protests. They made me understand what
it means to demonstrate as a draftee, with hundreds of others before
their enlistment, and to say “we will not serve.”

Ella Greenberg Keidar, 16

We were interviewed by the media ahead of today’s event. In almost
every interview, the interviewers tried to seize a moment [and ask]:
“Are you against the occupation or are you against the reform?”
Because, they say, opposing the occupation is irrelevant — it is
yesterday’s news. What we are interested in are those who refuse the
judicial overhaul. What does the occupation have to do with it? This
is the kind of language I encounter from demonstrators who come to the
anti-occupation bloc with Israeli flags.

Opposition to the occupation is incomplete without opposition to the
legal reform, and vice versa. The people promoting the reform —
Simcha Rothman, Itamar Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich, are settlers. Their
agenda is a settler agenda, of expanding the occupation, ethnic
cleansing, and expulsions. The reform is intended to clear Area C of
Palestinians, to legalize new outposts, and to grant even more
privileges, enshrined in law, to settlements and settlers. I want to
tell the media and the public in Kaplan that these things are related.

Ayelet Kovo, 17

I signed the letter because I am not ready to be part of the violent
arm of the state, which is used to oppress people. I am not ready to
be the person who oppresses Palestinians in the occupied territories,
nor to be the one who oppresses Jewish and Palestinian people in
demonstrations in Israel. I know there has never been a democracy or
equal rights here, and I am not ready to serve a country that is
fundamentally unequal.

Iddo Elam, 17

I signed the letter because I will not agree to enlist in this army.
It is an army that is occupying the West Bank and millions of
Palestinians, and an army of an extreme right-wing government that is
trying to bring the dictatorship from the occupied territories into
Israel. We see it well in recent weeks, with the threats to our event
at the gymnasium and with police violence against demonstrators.

_[OREN ZIV is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a
founding member of the Activestills photography collective.]_

_A version of this article was first published in Hebrew on Local
Call. Read it here
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* Israel
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* refuseniks
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* Conscientious Objectors (2141
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* Israeli army
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* IDF
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* Israeli military
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* Israeli peace movement
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* Israeli left
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* Israeli protests
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* Israeli politics
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* Netanyahu government
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* Palestine
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* Palestinians
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* Occupied Territories
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