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Refusal to serve in the Israeli military includes both refusal to obey specific orders and refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in any capacity due to pacifistic views or disagreement with the policies of the Israeli government as implemented by the army. People who refuse to serve in either capacity are sometimes called refuseniks (Hebrew: סרבנים, pronounced sarvanim).

Overview

Although Israel has a universal draft, many Israelis do not serve in the military for a number of reasons. Israeli Arabs are not drafted, though they may enlist, and small numbers serve voluntarily. Haredi Jews are exempt so long as they study in yeshivas, based on an arrangement worked out with David Ben-Gurion in 1948, though small numbers of them do serve. Orthodox women can avoid service in the military by doing national service work instead. Also, many people who are "unfit" or "unequalified", either mentally or physically, are also exempt. Military service can often be postponed for further education either college or university, or technical studies. Finally, a number of people refuse to serve because of pacifist views, or refuse certain orders based on their disagreement with government policy.

Some distinguish between refusal to serve in the military because of a pacifist world view that rejects any manifestation of violence and encompasses a refusal to submit to compulsory military service in any form, and partial refusal to serve, such as the refusal to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. The diverse range of opinions regarding the refusal to serve is the reason why there is no single umbrella organization that encompasses all groups of refuseniks. While most instances of refusal to serve have historically been found among left-leaning Israelis, there is a rapidly expanding movement among right-wing soldiers to refuse orders to remove Israeli civilians from settlements in the West Bank (and formerly in the Gaza Strip).

Contemporary instances of refusal to serve occur among individuals and in groups. Some claim that the rise in instances of soldiers refusing to serve, as well as the gradual shift in public opinion regarding the phenomenon, has been influenced by the growing politicization of the IDF.

The issue of refusal to serve is now the middle of a hot, passionate and emotional debate within the Israeli public.

In February 2004, Israeli Chief of Personnel Major-General Gil Regev told a Knesset committee that the number of soldiers refusing to serve in the territories had dramatically decreased in 2003 despite the increase in the number of high-profile refusals. He said that 18 reserve soldiers and 8 officers had been imprisoned for refusal in 2003 compared to 100 reservists and 29 officers in 2002, a decrease of 80%. Members of the refusers' organization Yesh Gvul claimed in reply that actually 76 people, including 11 officers, had been jailed for refusal in 2003. They also said that 79 soldiers and 18 officers had added their names to the Courage to Refuse letter in 2003, and that the number of high-school refuseniks had risen to 500.

The first well-known instance of an individual refusing to serve in the IDF occurred in 1954 when Amnon Zichroni, a lawyer, asked to be released from military service as a pacifist. Initially, then Minister of Defense Pinhas Lavon refused to release Zichroni, though he was eventually discharged from the army reserves.

Refusals actions and movements

The high school seniors' letter

This letter was sent by a group of high school seniors about to be drafted to Prime Minister Golda Meir on April 28, 1970. In it they expressed their reservation about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the War of Attrition, and the government's failure to take steps to avoid conflict.

Yesh Gvul

Yesh Gvul (Hebrew: יש גבול, literally "there is a limit") is a movement founded in 1982 at the outbreak of the Lebanon War by reservists who refused to serve in Lebanon. A petition, delivered to Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon was signed by 3,000 reservists, some of whom were court martialed and served time in military prison for refusing to obey orders. Currently it sees its main role as "backing soldiers who refuse duties of a repressive or aggressive nature" . It also engages in other political activities of distinct leftist nature. As of 2004, it is probably the biggest and most active group supporting refusal.

Courage to Refuse

In January 2002, 51 reserve soldiers and officers signed a "Combat Troops' Letter" or "Combatants' Letter" in which they stated their intention to refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories and announced the establishment of a new group, Courage to Refuse (אומץ לסרב, pronounce Ometz Le'sarev) to support their position. Courage to Refuse distinguishes itself by using conspicuously Zionist discourse. To quote the group itself "Refusal to serve in the Territories is Zionism" .

New Profile

New Profile is a movement for civilization of the Israeli society. It's a voluntary organization that acts against the compulsory law of enlistment and supports people who refuse to enlist to the Israeli army. New Profile is a feminist organization and most of its activists are women.

The pilots' letter

"The pilots' letter," published on September 24, 2003, was signed by 27 reserve pilots and former pilots already exempt from reserve duty. One of signatories was a famous former pilot Brigadier General (res.) Yiftah Spector. In their letter, the pilots stated:

We oppose obeying illegal and immoral orders to attack, such as those carried out by the State of Israel in the Occupied Territories... These orders are illegal and immoral, and the result of an ongoing occupation that has had a corrupting effect on all of Israeli society.

The signatories clarified that they do not reject military service in the IDF:

We will continue to serve in the Israel Defense Force and the Israeli Air Force in any assignment in defense of the State of Israel.

In response, the Chief of Staff announced that the pilots would be grounded and will no longer be allowed to train cadets in the country's flight school. In response to their letter, hundreds of IAF pilots signed a petition denouncing the pilots' letter and their refusal to serve. Because of the harsh response, several of the pilots who originally signed the letter reneged and removed their signatures. Later, in an interview given to Israeli journalist Dan Margalit, Yiftah Spector told that the letter was misunderstood and that pilots should not refuse to perform "targeted killing" of "terrorist leaders".

The commandos' letter

This letter, dated December 2003, was signed by 13 reservists of Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit, serving in the Occupied Territories (nine commandos in Sayeret Matkal, 2 soldiers who had been removed from reserve duty because of prior refusals to serve in the Territories, and 2 additional combatant soldiers). In it they announced that they would refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories. Their letter, addressed to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, states that they will continue to defend Israel against enemy attack, but that they will not participate in acts of oppression in the Territories and in efforts to deny the Palestinians their rights, and that they will not serve as a defensive wall for Israeli settlements, explaining:

We have long since passed the boundary of soldiers justified in their actions, and have reached the boundary of soldiers oppressing another people.

The letter, released just three months after the Pilots' Letter, was condemned sharply by politicians on both the right and the left of the Israeli political spectrum. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz claimed that the soldiers were exploiting the reputation of their unit in order to attack the government's policies.

Refusal to remove settlements

There are some Israeli Rabbis, former generals and public figures who call on soldiers to refuse orders to dismantle Israeli settlements and remove their residents. One of the promiment figures who call soldiers to refuse removal order is Uri Elitzur, a publicist and former civil servant. Eliztur claims that settlers-removal order is an illegal order, and therefore soldiers must refuse to obey it. He used the emotionally charged Hebrew term פקודה בלתי חוקית בעליל (literally, a clearly illegal order), which is a judicial term for an order that a soldier must refuse, coined in relation with the Kafr Qasim massacre. He used a Yossi Sarid (centeral left wing politician, Yachad) quotation that an order to transfer Palestinians should be resisted by any means, as a legitimation to a total and even semi-violent resistance against transfer of settlers.

Elitzur's and others calls to refusal were condemned by the many of the settlements' Rabbis and by the settlers leadership, including senior right wing politicians such as Efi Eitam.

On June 2004, Knesset members Efi Eitam (Mafdal) and Arie Eldad (National Union) initiated a law bill called "Unity of the Military Law." The law says that only police officers could engage in the removal of Jewish settlements, and soldiers could not.

On 2005, as a reaction to the disengagement plan, a right wing group called "Mateh Chomat Magen" (the name referring to Operation Defensive Shield) published a letter with 10,000 signatures of soldiers who signed a petition saying that they would refuse to uproot and remove Israeli settlements. The group now claims to have gathered over 30,000 signatures.

Reaction to the refuseniks

Almost all the political factions in Israel have condemned refusal to serve on ideological grounds, using terms such as dangerous and undemocratic. The refuseniks found support within leftist and the Arab parties, Hadash, Balad, Raam and parts of Meretz (Zehava Galon, Roman Bronfman and Shulamit Aloni). The Israeli Labor Party and other Meretz members have condemned the refuseniks and said that although their protests against the occupation are justified and understandable, the means they are taking to manifest it are wrong. Some major leftist politicians expressed the fear that leftist-oriented refusal to serve in the territories will lend legitimacy to right-oriented refusal to remove settlements.

Right wing politicians have claimed that the refuseniks' actions are helping the enemies of Israel in their anti-Israeli incitement. Some have even accused the refuseniks of treason during war-time. This viewpoint was given some support when the book The Seventh War, by Avi Yisacharov and Amos Harel was published in 2004; it contains extensive interviews with Hamas leaders, at least one of whom explicitly stated that the actions of the commandos' and pilots' letters encouraged to promote and continue the use of suicide bombers.

The Israeli High Court of Justice ruled in 2002 that refusal to serve was legal on the grounds of unqualified pacifism, but "selective refusal" which accepted some duties and not others was illegal. The court said that allowing selective refusal would “weaken the ties that bind us as a nation”. The court also said that the refusal to serve in the territories is selective refusal and not conscientious objection.

On January 4, 2004, a military tribunal imposed one-year prison terms on five young activists who refused to enlist in the IDF. The court accepted that the five acted in accordance with their conscience but "ruled that they did not refuse to serve as individuals, but rather as a group, with the explicit goal of bringing about a change in Israeli policy in the territories. As such, the court ruled, their action strayed from the norms of classic conscientious objection into the realm of civil disobedience" (Haaretz).

See also

• Refusenik (Israel)
• Refusenik (Soviet Union)

External links

• Shministim (Highschoolers)
• Tayasim (Pilots: in Hebrew)
• Hadash coverage of trials of highschool refusers
• [http://www.oznik.com oznik.com}
• Yesh Gvul (There is a Limit/Border)
• Seruv (Courage to Refuse)
• New Profile
• Free the Five (highschoolers)
• Refuser Solidarity
• Text of pilot's letter
• The IAF commander reaction to the pilot's lettero
• Amnesty International article on Israeli conscientious objectors
• Supreme Court of Israel's ruling in the case of the refuseniks: Full text in Hebrew.

• Israel Defense Forces
• Conscription