Oren Ziv reports in +972 September 2, 2022
On Sept. 4, four Israeli teenagers will arrive at the IDF Recruitment Center at Tel Hashomer in central Israel to announce their refusal to enlist in the army in protest of occupation and apartheid. Such a collective act by young conscientious objectors has become rare over the last decade.
One of the four, Shahar Schwartz, has already spent 10 days in military prison, after which he was released. The remaining three — Evyatar Moshe Rubin, 19, from Jerusalem; Einat Gerlitz, 19, from Tel Aviv; and Naveh Shabtay Levin, 18, from Hod Hasharon — will likely be sentenced on Sunday.
Military conscription is mandatory for most Jewish Israelis, both men and women, and refusal or evasion to enlist without the army’s approval is a punishable offense. Conscientious objectors, commonly nicknamed “refuseniks,” are typically tried at the Recruitment Center and sentenced to prison terms of between 10 and 21 days. Upon their release, they are called to report back to the Recruitment Center, where they usually announce again that they still refuse to enlist. Thus, refuseniks can often spend months in prison over several consecutive periods, until the army decides to discharge them.
Of the four, only Einat appeared before the IDF’s conscientious objectors committee, which refused to exempt her from service. This is not surprising, since there is only one civilian representative on the committee, and objectors who are openly motivated by their anti-occupation views are considered “political refusers,” and therefore do not receive exemptions. Shahar, Itamar, and Naveh cut contact with the army after receiving their induction order, and did not bother to appear before the committee.
“My main problem is with what the army is doing in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza, but when you say things like that in the committee, they call it ‘selective refusal’ and don’t give you an exemption,” explained Shahar. “I felt that if I didn’t say it, I would be doing myself an injustice.”
The four teenagers are being supported by Mesarvot, a grassroots network that brings together individuals and groups who refuse to enlist in the Israeli army in protest of the occupation.