We Refuse: Saying No to the Army in Israel
At sixteen, I was with my best friend, a Palestinian when I received my first letter from the army. We had grown up like sisters. She glanced at the envelope. We looked at each other. Her eyes seemed to say: ‘Do you know what you are going to do?’ Then she said: ‘Do you know how difficult life will become, if you don’t go into the army?’ And, at that moment I realised that I couldn’t do military service. I did not want to be a good soldier in their apartheid system.
This book presents the words of men and women in Israel who refuse to do military service in the Israeli Defence Forces, so as not to participate in dirty wars in the West Bank and in Gaza.
| Weight | 0.190000 |
|---|---|
| ISBN13/Barcode | 9781854251206 |
| ISBN10 | 1854251201 |
| Author | Barzilai, Martin |
| Binding | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 29th July 2025 |
| Pages | 110 |
| Publisher | Greenprint |
It takes some courage to refuse to serve in an army, when people all around you support it. Yet Israeli men and women, young and old, make that choice.
The young are forced to justify themselves in front of multiple army interrogators without any support.
Their elders, some of them ex-officers, tell comrades why they cannot continue to carry out intimidation, destruction, and killing in the West Bank and Gaza. Persons from under 20, to over 60 tell of their particular experience, each one adds nuance. They tell us about their circumstances, the government and army, and their hopes for something different.
Their critical perspectives offer a challenge to the views and news that comes to us through the official Israeli media.
The book includes a note from Amnesty International