‘MORE KILLING WON’T BRING BACK LOST LIVES’: TAL MITNICK, 18, ON
GOING TO PRISON INSTEAD OF JOINING IDF  
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Michael Segalov
January 23, 2024
The Guardian
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_ The first conscientious objector to be jailed in Israel since 7
October says ‘there is no military solution’ to the conflict _

Tal Mitnick says he plans to refuse conscription again this week.,

 

On Tal Mitnick’s first morning inside an Israeli military prison
last month, he was ordered into a small classroom. Pinned to its walls
were various famous quotes. One caught his attention: “Education is
the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” The name
beneath it: Nelson Mandela.

“I nearly laughed to myself,” says the 18-year-old, speaking over
Zoom from the bedroom of his family’s Tel Aviv home. “A military
upholding apartheid putting _that_ on their wall,” he says,
“while South Africa was preparing its case against Israel for the
international criminal court? I pointed out how ridiculous this quote
being there was. No other prisoners engaged or agreed. I realised how
alone I was.”

In late December, Mitnick refused his mandatory draft to join the
Israel Defense Forces. As a result, a military court sentenced him to
30 days in custody, making him the first conscientious objector to be
jailed in Israel since 7 October. He spoke to the Guardian late on
Friday afternoon, one day after his release. Over the weekend, Mitnick
spent time with friends and family and attended an anti-war march.
This freedom will be short-lived. “I’ve already had my draft order
from the army for Tuesday morning. Again, I’ll go to the military
base and tell them I refuse to serve. Again, I’ll be sent to
jail.” On Tuesday morning, Mitnick was sentenced to a further 30
days in prison.

No policy dictates how long this cycle might continue. Often refusers
spend stints totalling 100 days or more locked away, after which the
IDF eventually concludes they’re unfit for service.

Mitnick’s last enlistment date was 26 December 2023. “I was due to
enlist that day, yes, but so were many others. My peers were there –
with their mothers, fathers and siblings, too, all knowing they were
sending their children off to maybe risk their lives.” He counted
other conscripts in their hundreds. “Seeing someone else there, in
this case me, refusing to do the same? It creates clashes. A lot
either ignored me and kept walking, or said just a few words as they
passed. They’d call us traitors, say it should have been me in
Be’eri
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[people hold up signs in hebrew]

Protestors support Mitnick on 26 December. Photograph: Mesarvot
Network

A small protest had been organised by Mesarvot
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– to show support for Mitnick outside the Tel HaShomer military
base, his conscription location. Friends and family were also more
understanding. “They know what I want is moderate, non-violent and
peaceful,” he explains, “even if my outlook isn’t the norm
here.”

Mitnick said he had known he wouldn’t serve for many years. While he
studied maths and computer science at school, a teacher suggested his
natural aptitudes would suit a role in an elite intelligence unit.
“So I looked into it more. Intelligence units, I learned, blackmail
LGBTQ+ Palestinians
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people needing health treatment in Israel into being informants. I
started to see how the system is built on oppression. Once I realised
this, I knew I had to not only refuse, but also work against it.”

The events of 7 October only affirmed his decision. “Israel has
already lost this war,” he believes. “More killing and more
violence won’t bring back the lives lost on 7 October. I know people
are hurt. Traumatised. But this doesn’t make anything better. To
root out extremist ideas from Palestinian society, we must root them
out in Israel.”

And so, once inside the military base last month, Mitnick presented
the recruitment officer with his ID. “I said: ‘No, I’m not doing
this.’ I was yelled at, told I had no choice. I had to stand up for
myself.” He was sent from commander to commander. “To each of
them, I said the same thing: I believe there is no military solution
to this conflict. I’m a pacifist.”

For first-time refuseniks, seven to 10 days is a standard sanction. On
26 December, Mitnick received 30 days to be spent at a prison just
outside the town of Kfar Yona.

“I don’t see myself as the hero or anything,” he says, “while
people are being massacred every day in Gaza. And I want to stress
I’m by no means the only one. There are other anti-occupation
activists. People opting to not join the army. Peace campaigners,
young and old. But at the same time, I do think this takes bravery.”

Online, at least, some pro-Palestine voices have questioned the praise
being poured on Mitnick, suggesting refusing to participate in the
slaughtering of civilians is the very least to be expected. “There
is a huge social consequence here for refusing to serve,” he says,
“especially doing so publicly. Israeli society is so militarised
that most conversations start with ‘Where did you serve?’ or
‘Where are you serving?’ When you say you didn’t, don’t or
won’t, a gap opens up. I’m paying a price for this. I was born in
Israel – I didn’t choose to live here. We have a test at 18, the
country and system tests us to see if we’ll be complicit. I chose
not to be.”

The events of 7 October shifted political paradigms inside Israel.
“Even four months ago,” says Mitnick, “we were in the middle of
the judicial reform protests
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He played an active part in the demonstrations. “The refusal
movement was gaining traction. Now the supposed liberals, that
protested judicial reform, are pilots massacring people in Gaza.
People who were speaking out about government corruption are now
supporting the far-right leadership, saying there are no civilians in
Gaza.”

[huge crowd holding up banner that says ‘israel’s coup
criminals’ with images including netanyahu]

Protests against Netanyahu’s judicial reform in Tel Aviv on 12
August. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

_Hitpakhut_ is a term much-used in Israel today. “It means sobering
up. Lots of Israeli liberals who were vaguely pro-peace are now for
Gaza’s destruction. They say they were high, drunk on the fantasy of
peace; now they’ve sobered up and say we have to kill the
Palestinians.”

Prison life, for Mitnick, took some adjustment. “You’re treated
like a soldier inside a military jail,” he says. “Staff aren’t
called guards, but commanders. Some of the day is spent being told to
stand in line for hours while they talk to you. Otherwise, you eat,
clean your room, maybe rest. Then repeat, over and over.” Access to
media was limited. “The only regular news source is the rightwing
daily paper Israel HaYom,” he says. Occasionally, a news programme
would air on his in-cell TV, although domestic broadcasters have all
but ignored Mitnick and the wider anti-war movement. “The media is
trying to manufacture consent to kill and massacre more and more,”
is Mitnick’s explanation. “If they show my opinion, suggesting
there’s another way, it undermines what the government is doing.”

Mitnick was reluctant to tell other inmates why he was inside. “I
was mostly in prison with deserters. People who served in the military
then didn’t come back. Mostly, that’s for socioeconomic
reasons.” Few, if any, shared his political position. “I knew I
couldn’t keep it a secret the whole time,” he says. “So I
talked. Initially, I was called stupid and naive. Worse, too.”

But he had the conversations. “Humanising my opinion is important.
One guy I got to know heard other prisoners talking about me behind my
back, and then defended me. He told them I don’t support Hamas, I
just want peace.”

In truth, Mitnick knows, his generation of Israelis doesn’t broadly
agree. “Young people here are more rightwing than their parents
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he says. Peace activists have been arrested
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face public condemnation.

“I still remain hopeful,” he says. “We don’t have the
privilege to lose hope here. I hope more and more young people my age
see that it’s not normal to live in constant fear of terrorist
attacks, nor to enlist 18-year-olds into the army. Nothing here is
normal, and we have the power to change that.”

On Tuesday morning, Mitnick returned to Tel HaShomer. He now faces
another month in custody. _“_There’s no end date to this in
sight,” he says, “which isn’t easy. Inside, I wasn’t counting
down the days. Here, I’m not celebrating being out either. This is
simply a step I have to take. At some point, they’ll have to release
me.”

_Michael Segalov is a freelance journalist, filmmaker and author_

* Israel-Gaza War
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* draft resisters
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* IDF
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* peace movement
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