New Israeli refusers need your support

The Refuser Solidarity Network writes:

We bring you today, 5th September, a special message from four youth refusers – Shahar Schwartz (18 year old), Einat Gerlitz (19), Evyatar Moshe Rubin (19), and Nave Shabtay Levin (18) – who declare this week their refusal to join the Israeli army and take part in the Israeli occupation over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Shahar has refused before and was sentenced to 10 days in military prison. Einat refused Yesterday and was sentenced to 7 days in prison. Evyatar and Nave are refusing today and will likely be imprisoned. We reach out to you today because they need your help in getting their message across to Israeli officials. Click here to help them.

Israel will be holding parliamentary elections in November, and we need to make sure our Prime Minister and parliamentary candidates for office understand the occupation needs to end NOW. We will not accept nor participate in human rights violations. We have written the following statement and we need your help to make sure it reaches these Israeli politicians. 

We, Israeli youth, refuse to join the Israeli army and take part in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip. We call out to all citizens of Israel to open their eyes and see the policy of oppression over the palestinian people carried out by the Israeli government. We object to the militaristic education forced on us by the same oppressive policies, we object to the educational system teaching us to hate our neighbors, and we object to the social norms that prohibits the educational system from sharing the true reality in the Palestinian territories with children and youth. We feel it is important to show there is another way. We all have the option to refuse to take part in the oppression and in the occupation and we can all make sure human rights, including physical and emotional security, are provided without discrimination. Therefore we demand the following from the Israeli government:

Stop the killings of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; Stop the ethnic cleansing in the territories and the transfer of Masafer Yatta; Stop the siege of the Gaza strip; Stop home demolitions; Stop administrative arrests and arrests of minors; Stop supporting settler’s violence towards Palestinians and start acting against it.

We demand a stop to the Israeli military presence in the Palestinian territories and we demand giving the Palestinian people the right to independence. We, Israeli youth, born and raised in Israel, call on the Israeli public to see there is a better way to treat our neighbors, a human way that guarantees human rights for all. We demand an end to the Israeli occupation over the Palestinian territories and we declare today our refusal to take any part in it. 

Will you help us make sure the Prime Minister and the parliamentary candidates who are running for office hear our message loud and clear? We need you to send them an email saying that you support our statement, asking them to listen to us. The more emails sent the louder we will be heard. Click here to support our statement.

In solidarity,
Shahar Schwartz, Evyatar Moshe Rubin, Einat Gerlitz, Nave Shabtay Levin

Send the four refusers a letter of support

Here is Einat’s refusal statement

Hi,

My name is Einat Gerlitz, I am 19 years old, and I just completed one year of civil service.

At the age of 16, when the enlisting process started and discussions turned to what would be a “meaningful army service”. I asked myself what a meaningful service might mean.

In high school I was a youth activist on issues of climate change, and through this activism I met youth from all over Israel. I met Palestinian youth from Sakhnin, and together we thought about the future of our generation in the reality of the climate crisis. Through my connection with them I learned about the experience of Palestinians who live in Israel and that encouraged me to learn about the hard life of Palestinians who are under Israeli occupation. I knew there is a violent regime in the west bank, but I did not know how that statement translated into an everyday reality. The acquaintance with the Palestinian activists led me to start asking questions and to wonder about the connection between serving in the Israeli army and the violent regime of the occupation.

I wondered how I could work  in solidarity  with Palestinians, while at the same time being part of the army that violently controls them. As time went by, I was exposed to the hidden realities of the occupation. To the reality of hundreds of children being arrested by the army every year, and by the effect of these arrests on the children’s future; the reality of soldiers who prevent Palestinians from accessing their land and limit their ability to earn a living; the reality of the support that the army gives settlers’ violence against Palestinians. I realized that to serve in the army is a political choice, and I chose to refuse.

My friends say that serving  in the army is a lifetime opportunity. But I think that the act of refusing is my chance to use my privilege as an Israeli Jew in order to actively change our cruel reality. This reality hides behind the one-sided Zionist narrative that we learned. The generations before us did not build the nation on empty lands, but they built the nation on top of Palestinians who lived there before. We are not better than the Palestinians. They deserve the same basic democratic rights, the same independence, the same access to water, freedom of movement, education, and a secure life.

Therefore, I choose to refuse to take part of an army that control the Palestinian people and deprive them of their freedom. 

In my act of refusal, I take responsibility for the society I live in. I want to live in a society whose people do not surrender to silencing. I want to live in society that knows how to acknowledge the experiences of different people even if it destabilizes its official narrative.

I call on my age group to open their eyes and ask questions – does violent control over civilian population can bring security? Do not weapons and violence increase hatred and desire for revenge? Who would you be if you grew up with the threat of guns and with nightly searching operations in your neighborhood? I refuse because I want to remind you that there are children living there, on the other side of the wall. Children like you and like me. 

In solidarity,
Einat