[ "I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter," said
18-year-old Tal Mitnick, who was sentenced to 30 days behind bars for
refusing to participate in what a fellow draft resister called a
"genocide" in Gaza.]
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ISRAELI TEEN JAILED FOR REFUSING TO TAKE PART IN ARMY’S ‘CRIMINAL
ATTACK’ ON GAZA  
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Brett Wilkins
December 27, 2023
Common Dreams
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_ "I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter," said 18-year-old
Tal Mitnick, who was sentenced to 30 days behind bars for refusing to
participate in what a fellow draft resister called a "genocide" in
Gaza. _

Tal Mitnick, 18, jailed for refusing to serve in the Israeli military
because of assault on Gaza.,

 

A young Israeli man was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days behind bars for
refusing to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces as it wages a
genocidal assault on Gaza, a war the teen condemned as "a revenge
campaign... not only against Hamas, but against all Palestinian
people."

Tal Mitnick, an 18-year-old from Tel Aviv, entered the Tel Hashomer
enlistment center with other members of the Mesarvot Network—a group
of young conscientious objectors—and announced his refusal to enlist
in the IDF, citing the war on Gaza and Israel's illegal occupation of
Palestine.

"I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter," he said outside the
base. "The criminal attack on Gaza won't solve the atrocious slaughter
that Hamas executed. Violence won't solve violence. And that is why I
refuse."

The 30-day sentence imposed on Mitnick is exceptionally long; Israeli
refuseniks are usually first jailed for 7 to 10 days, with the
possibility of up to 200 additional days added for unrepentant
resisters after their initial release. Numerous observers believe the
teen is likely being punished for his outspoken criticism of Israeli
government policies and practices.

Mitnick expects to be imprisoned for an additional period after he
serves out his month behind bars. In a statement
[[link removed]] shared
Tuesday on social media, he slammed "the notion that this land belongs
to only one people."

Mitnick wrote:

I refuse to believe that more violence will bring security, I refuse
to take part in a war of revenge... We must recognize the fact that
after weeks of the ground operation in Gaza, at the end of the day,
negotiations, an agreement, brought back the hostages. It was actually
military action that caused them to be killed. Because of the criminal
lie that 'there are no innocent civilians in Gaza,' even hostages
waving a white flag shouting in Hebrew were shot to death. I don't
want to imagine how many similar cases there were that were not
investigated because the victims were born on the wrong side of the
fence.

The path to peace, Mitnick argued, will not come from Israeli or
Palestinian politicians, but rather "from us, the sons and daughters
of the two nations."

Supporters accompanying Mitnick at Tel Hashomer held signs with
slogans like "an eye for an eye and we all go blind" and "there is no
military solution."

Last month, Mitnick explained
[[link removed]] to _TRT World_ that
"the army that we have in this area is the operational wing of Jewish
supremacy in the area and it's bent on the oppression of the
Palestinian people, and I refuse to take part in that oppression and
instead fight against it in my activism."

Mitnick said that the first day of the war was "defensive," but after
that, it "turned into a war of aggression against civilians in Gaza."

"I refuse to agree with the idea that killing civilians in Gaza would
provide security for anyone," he said. "It doesn't bring security to
anyone, neither to the people of Gaza nor to the people of Israel. I
believe that the only path to security and peace lies in coexistence."

Another Israeli conscientious objector, 19-year-old Ariel Davidov,
told _TRT Wor__ld_ that "I cannot take part in something that is so
immoral, so unjust. This is a genocide that has been going on since
the beginning of Zionism."

Davidov said that prior to the establishment of the modern state of
Israel in 1948, largely through terrorism and ethnic cleansing
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"there was settler colonialism," and that Zionists—Jews seeking to
establish a homeland in Palestine—"wanted to use this land and its
people for their own interests."

"However," he stressed, "this situation cannot continue like this."

Yet another resister, Ella Keidal, said: "I don't wish to serve an
army that is enacting an occupation, an apartheid regime."

"I don't want to serve in an army that enforces the occupation,
implements a racist regime, and plays a role in oppressing the
Palestinian people in this exploitation project," Keidal added.

As the teens were speaking to _TRT World_, a group of Israelis
physically and verbally assaulted them, calling them "terrorists" and
"Hamas supporters," forcing the interview to be cut short. The
incident underscored the societal scorn and ostracization that Israeli
conscientious objectors often face.

Teens like Mitnick, Davidov, and Keidal made the decision to become
conscientious objectors even before the current war on Gaza. They are
part of a group of more than 200 high school students who announced in
August that they would refuse to enlist due to Israel's occupation of
Palestine—which includes not just the West Bank and East Jerusalem
but also Gaza
[[link removed]] under
international law—and the anti-democratic judicial
overhaul spearheaded
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far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"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," the teens said in a
statement published
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a month before the Gaza war began. "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."

Earlier this year, 10,000 IDF reservists threatened to refuse service
over the judicial overhaul. Hundreds of Israeli Air Force
and cyberwarfare
[[link removed]] reservists went
on strike
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the legislation.

There has been no such act of mass conscientious objection during the
current Gaza onslaught, which has left more than 80,000
[[link removed]] Palestinians—mostly
women, children, and elders—dead, maimed, or missing
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82 days of near-relentless Israeli attacks.

Military service is mandatory for most Israelis, including men and
women. Exceptions include people with medical or psychological issues,
certain criminal convictions, ultra-Orthodox Jews, Arab Muslims and
Christians, Druze and Circassian women, and pregnant people and new
mothers.

The IDF does allow exemptions for some conscientious objectors, but
these are almost exclusively granted on religious grounds, not
political ideology or principle.

_Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Israel-Gaza War
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* IDF
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* anti-draft movement
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