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THREE ISRAELI ARMY REFUSERS: ‘WE WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN
GENOCIDE’  
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Oren Ziv
August 7, 2024
972 Magazine
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_ Conscientious objectors Yuval Moav, Itamar Greenberg, and Oryan
Mueller explain why they are willing to go to jail in order to stand
against the war. _

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This week, three 18-year-old conscientious objectors reported to the
Israeli army’s Tel Hashomer recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, and
declared their refusal to enlist in mandatory military servic

Mueller spoke of how revenge is the engine driving the cycle of
bloodshed. “The war in Gaza is the most extreme way the State of
Israel takes advantage of the urge for revenge to advance oppression
and death in Israel-Palestine,” he said. “The struggle against the
war is not enough. We must fight the structural mechanisms enabling
it.”

Several dozen people came to support the refuseniks at
a demonstration [[link removed]] outside
the recruitment center on Monday morning, as Moav received his
sentence. Nearby, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews also held a fierce
protest at the site, on the first day of their mandated conscription
following last month’s landmark High Court ruling
[[link removed]],
which overturned a decades-old military exemption. 

[Mounted police suppress a protest by ultra-Orthodox Jews against
mandatory conscription, at the Israeli army's Tel Hashomer recruitment
center, near Tel Aviv, August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Mounted
police suppress a protest by ultra-Orthodox Jews against mandatory
conscription, at the Israeli army's Tel Hashomer recruitment center,
near Tel Aviv, August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Mounted police suppress a protest by ultra-Orthodox Jews against
mandatory conscription, at the Israeli army’s Tel Hashomer
recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

The Haredim initially thought the left-wing protesters were
secularists who had come to demonstrate against them, but the two
groups of protesters soon found common ground in their shared
opposition to the military. “The holy Torah forbids us from
[engaging in] war, occupation, and the military,” one ultra-Orthodox
protester said, to applause from those supporting the refuseniks.
“We must not provoke the [non-Jewish] nations, we must compromise on
what is possible, because the most important thing is life, not
death.”

Before entering prison, the three teenagers spoke to +972 Magazine and
Local Call about the reasons for their refusal, the reactions of those
around them, and the prospects of convincing more Israelis of their
position. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

HOW DID YOU ARRIVE AT THE DECISION TO REFUSE?

MUELLER: I was born in Tel Aviv, and all my political education began
at home. I come from a family that is critical of the occupation and
other political problems, but it was still a Zionist home and my whole
family served in the army. There was an expectation that I would serve
too. But then I learned and understood more, and when the war broke
out [and I read] the testimonies that came out of Gaza, I realized
that I had to refuse.

I think the brutality undermined [for me] the idea that you can
distinguish between the occupation on one hand and the State of Israel
on the other, and that these are separate things. The level of
destruction and death in Gaza and the lack of attention it receives in
Israel — or the way in which it is actively concealed — broke that
dissonance.

GREENBERG: After growing up in an ultra-Orthodox home, I went through
processes of political and religious questioning. I left religion, and
because I’ve been a very political person since I was young, this
directed me toward justice, and I got to where I am today. I think the
decision to refuse is a direct result of that.

In an ultra-Orthodox family, supposedly it’s not a big deal not to
serve, but I grew up with a father who served in reserve duty for 25
years, and even now he’s been in the reserves for 10 months. It
greatly affects the atmosphere at home. It’s not easy. I don’t
talk about it with them because I know how painful it is. This is what
bothers me the most about the whole process. The real cost of refusal
is not prison but what happens outside. I care about the price [my
family] pay, because they don’t deserve it. I try not to hurt them
too much.

[Yuval Moav waves to friends and supporters before entering the
Israeli army's Tel Hashomer recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, August
5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Yuval
Moav waves to friends and supporters before entering the Israeli
army's Tel Hashomer recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, August 5, 2024.
(Oren Ziv)
Yuval Moav waves to friends and supporters before entering the Israeli
army’s Tel Hashomer recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, August 5,
2024. (Oren Ziv)

MOAV: I’m from Kfar Netter, a moshav near Netanya. Like Oryan, I
grew up in a left-wing Zionist family, but in a less political home.
They played a part in who I am, but my refusal didn’t come from
there. The truth is that I was lucky to be exposed to international
content that allowed me to change my mind about the place that I live.

I realized that I really didn’t know what was going on here. As soon
as I became interested and asked questions, I saw that I was alone: I
realized that I couldn’t enlist because it’s an occupying army,
and though I knew that there were others who refused, I felt
completely alone in my experience and in the reason from which my
decision stemmed. Then I heard about refuseniks, about Mesarvot, about
people who come out and speak their truth and pay a price, and I
realized that I belonged there, that I was not alone.

If you ask me why I refuse today, the answer is, ultimately, because I
refuse to participate in genocide. I’ve been met with violence [for
my decision], but I keep going. The war has only strengthened my
position.

DID EXPERIENCING THE OCCUPATION FIRST-HAND INFLUENCE YOUR DECISION?

GREENBERG: I am active [in solidarity activities] in the West Bank,
mainly in the village of Mukhmas [a Palestinian community that faces
regular army-backed settler violence]. Being present in the West Bank
changes perceptions, makes you familiar with the occupation and
oppression, and turns you from a listener into a physical partner in
the experience. While I don’t experience it myself, I have friends
who face daily oppression, people who want to kick them out of their
homes. When you see it with your eyes, it doesn’t go away. I’m
walking around here, but my head is there.

MUELLER: I didn’t get to experience it, but unlike most of Israeli
society, I was exposed to testimonies from the field, mainly online. I
am active in forums for political discussion. When I try to talk about
these testimonies with people who are not exposed to them, I encounter
a huge wall separating Israelis from what is happening 5 kilometers
south of where they live. I don’t know what kind of cultural
upheaval it would take for them to start seeing testimonies coming out
of Gaza on the Israeli news; at the moment we just don’t see it
[[link removed]]. 

If you can talk about it, you have to: about the scale of destruction
and death in Gaza, about the oppression, and about how deep the roots
of apartheid are in the West Bank. There’s a limit to how many
[videos of] children without arms you can watch until you realize
something is wrong.

[Palestinians bid farewell to their relatives killed in Israeli
airstrikes, at Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza
Strip, April 21, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)]
[[link removed]]
Palestinians bid farewell to their relatives killed in Israeli
airstrikes, at Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza
Strip, April 21, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
Palestinians bid farewell to their relatives killed in Israeli
airstrikes, at Al-Najjar Hospital in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza
Strip, April 21, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

MOAV: My process was more personal. The main cause of my
radicalization has to do with Israeli society and its opacity. In the
end, I decided not to enlist because I was exposed to international
content. I came to the understanding that the average Israeli knows
less about what is happening 2 kilometers from his home than anyone
who has access to the internet abroad, and you encounter zero sympathy
from many people, some older than you, who are supposed to protect
you.

DO YOU SEE YOUR REFUSAL AS A WAY TO TRY TO INFLUENCE ISRAELI SOCIETY
— ESPECIALLY IN TODAY’S EXTREME ENVIRONMENT, WHERE MANY HAVE NO
DESIRE TO LISTEN TO ANTI-WAR VOICES?

GREENBERG: I think this is an important message to Israeli society:
to start saying no. I urge my peers to think about what they are
doing. Enlistment is a political choice, and that’s how it should be
treated. We have the right to choose what we believe in.

MUELLER: Refusal is like holding up a mirror to Israeli society,
first of all to show that it is possible to resist the militaristic
death machine and the cycle of bloodshed. We don’t have to take part
in it. It’s also a kind of platform that makes it possible to show
Israeli society what’s happening beyond what you see in the media,
which doesn’t really reveal what’s happening in Gaza and the West
Bank. 

MOAV: Unlike my friends, I’m less optimistic about the impact of
what we do on Israeli society, and in the end it’s also less
important to me. First of all, I do this out of solidarity with the
Palestinian people, and in the hope of elevating the voice of people
in Israeli society who are waiting for the day when we can build a
shared future. But my call is first and foremost to the Palestinian
people. 

However, it’s very important for me to do this also for the people I
love, to show them that there is another way. I can only hope that
people will stop and think when they carry guns and are asked to do
things they might not want to do. I also hope that it will reach the
world, because in the end people from all over the world see the
horrors that are happening in Gaza.

[Conscientious objectors Oryan Mueller, Itamar Greenberg, Yuval Moav
participate in a protest at the Israeli army's Tel Hashomer
recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]]
Conscientious objectors Oryan Mueller, Itamar Greenberg, Yuval Moav
participate in a protest at the Israeli army's Tel Hashomer
recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Conscientious objectors Oryan Mueller, Itamar Greenberg, Yuval Moav
participate in a protest at the Israeli army’s Tel Hashomer
recruitment center, near Tel Aviv, August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

GREENBERG: I think our biggest message to Palestinian society is that
there are people here who are fighting, maybe not enough, but still
fighting, and are willing to pay a very heavy personal price for
choosing to fight for justice and equality.

MUELLER: There is the bigger picture of the conflict and the
occupation, as a whole historical process, but there is also the
immediate struggle of war and of death that needs to be stopped. And
the most practical way to participate in this struggle is refusal.

UNLIKE MANY PAST REFUSENIKS, YOUR REFUSAL COMES DURING WARTIME. DO YOU
THINK THIS GIVES ADDITIONAL MEANING TO THE DECISION?

GREENBERG: We had a discussion about the privilege of refusal, and I
think that refusing during war really is a privilege. But refusing is
also the strongest act we can do in the face of war.

MUELLER: If I can prevent one Israeli from going to Gaza, from
killing and dying, then that’s worth it. And of course, we want to
support and promote the struggle against the occupation. The change
that the Israeli consciousness undergoes quite extensively during
wartime turns our refusal into something even more fringe than it was
in the past. It’s going against Israeli society and saying, “No,
we don’t need to build monuments to the dead if we can prevent the
deaths in the first place.”

MOAV: At the end of the day, what is most important for me to say is
that I refuse to participate in genocide. Speaking of privilege, I’m
not going to jail with a clear conscience because I don’t know if
I’m doing enough, I don’t know what my responsibility is in this
situation. I recognize that younger people and children my age in Gaza
and the West Bank cannot do something similar to me; they cannot
decide that they refuse to raise arms, to communicate this act, and to
try to improve the situation of both peoples.

IS YOUR REFUSAL ALSO A STATEMENT AGAINST THE MILITARISM THAT HAS
FURTHER INTENSIFIED IN ISRAEL SINCE THE WAR?

MOAV: Yes. We are people of peace. But there is something bigger
here, a process that corrupts society. Ours is a society that can
remain silent in the face of crimes of such magnitude. It’s a
society where right now the only thing I can do about it as a human
being, as painful as it is to say, is separate myself from it. If
repeating again and again, that I refuse to be complicit in genocide,
or even to say this phrase at all, may harm my ability to reach the
Israeli public, so be it.

GREENBERG: It’s a bit complicated. I’d really love to tell you
yes, because I think militarism is one of the worst things. At the age
of 12, I decided I would enlist because I understood that this was my
way of integrating into Israeli society, and I think it was one of the
most accurate observations I’ve made. It’s such a great injustice
to everyone who grew up in this society — this is the way to be part
of it? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. But public refusal also has a
militaristic aspect, of mobilizing for a cause, just a different one.

[Conscientious objectors Oryan Mueller, Itamar Greenberg, Yuval Moav
at the Israeli army's Tel Hashomer recruitment center, near Tel Aviv,
August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)]
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Conscientious objectors Oryan Mueller, Itamar Greenberg, Yuval Moav at
the Israeli army's Tel Hashomer recruitment center, near Tel Aviv,
August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Conscientious objectors Oryan Mueller, Itamar Greenberg, Yuval Moav at
the Israeli army’s Tel Hashomer recruitment center, near Tel Aviv,
August 5, 2024. (Oren Ziv)

DID YOU PREPARE FOR PRISON? DID YOU TALK TO REFUSENIKS WHO ALREADY
SERVED SENTENCES?

MUELLER: Within Mesarvot, there is a role called an escort: a former
refusenik who served time in prison and helps prepare the future
refusenik — whether it’s mental preparation regarding the
difficulties in the process leading to incarceration, or in
understanding life in prison, learning tricks that can make everyday
life easier, knowing the laws, procedures and routine.

MORE OR LESS LIKE A PRE-MILITARY PREPARATORY PROGRAM.

GREENBERG: A pre-refusal preparatory course — that’s the dream.

MOAV: The main tip was that the more you talk, the more you get
screwed.

BOOKS AND CDS ARE ALLOWED INSIDE PRISON, SUBJECT TO INSPECTION AND
APPROVAL AT THE ENTRANCE. WHAT WILL YOU BRING WITH YOU? 

MUELLER: First of all, “Israelis and Palestinians: From the Cycle
of Violence to the Conversation of Mankind” by Jonathan Glover
[[link removed]].
It’s a great book but super difficult, and I’m reading it slowly.
I’ll also bring Ilan Pappe’s “The Biggest Prison on Earth
[[link removed]],”
and a lot of Hebrew prose. I have a Johnny Cash CD, “At Folsom
Prison,” which he recorded in a U.S. federal prison. I also have an
OutKast CD that I got from the refusenik Ben Arad, which I’m very
excited to take.

e in protest of the occupation and the current war on Gaza. Yuval
Moav, Oryan Mueller, and Itamar Greenberg were each tried and
sentenced to an initial 30 days in military prison, which is likely to
be extended. The only other refuseniks to have publicly opposed the
draft for political reasons since October 7 —  Tal Mitnick
[[link removed]], Ben
Arad
[[link removed]],
and Sophia Orr
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were recently released after serving prison sentences totaling 185
days, 95 days, and 85 days respectively. 

The three latest refuseniks — who are being accompanied through the
refusal process by the conscientious objector network Mesarvot
[[link removed]] — each released statements
prior to appearing in military court. Greenberg, who grew up in the
ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, said he originally saw enlisting as
a way to become more integrated into Israeli society, before coming to
realize that “the door into Israeli society goes through the
oppression and killing of another people.” He added: “A just
society cannot be built on gun barrels.”

Moav addressed his statement to Palestinians. “In my simple act, I
want to stand in solidarity with you,” he said. “I also
acknowledge that I do not represent the majority opinion in my
society. But in my action, I hope to raise the voice of those of us
waiting for the day we can build a joint future [and] a society based
on peace and equality, not occupation and apartheid.”

_Oren Ziv [[link removed]] is a
photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a founding member of the
Activestills photography collective._

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+972 Magazine [[link removed]] is an independent,
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journalists. Founded in 2010, our mission is to provide in-depth
reporting, analysis, and opinions from the ground in Israel-Palestine.
The name of the site is derived from the telephone country code that
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Our core values are a commitment to equity, justice, and freedom of
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In partnership with Local Call [[link removed]].

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* Israeli army refusers
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