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Fighting for a Free Jerusalem in Israel-Palestine
Dear Friend,
Free Jerusalem are here. We are an activist group that has been organizing grassroots resistance activities to Israeli apartheid since 2014 and has recently started collaborating with the Resistance Solidarity Network. With their help, made possible through the generous support of people just like you, Friend, we can keep organizing and fighting on the ground. Let us tell you a little about our work over the past few years, and what we’re bracing ourselves for in the future.
Support the Resistance Solidarity Network
Based in Jerusalem, over more than a decade we have been organzing demonstrations and direct actions against the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank, and particularly in East Jerusalem. Recently, and in light of the broader events in Palestine/Israel, we have also been organizing against human rights violations as part of the genocide in Gaza, the torture of Palestinian political prisoners, and the ongoing attacks on Lebanon and Iran.
Living in Jerusalem, our main concern is the struggle against the apartheid regime’s actions in occupied East Jerusalem, where Israel relies on its oppressive laws and biased legal system to discriminate against Palestinian residents. It has utilized these supposedly “legal” practices for decades now, openly collaborating with settler organizations to displace Palestinians from their homes across East Jerusalem’s neighborhoods.
Source: Free Jerusalem Instagram page
Since October 2023, it has only been getting worse. One of the most highly targeted areas is Silwan, a district in East Jerusalem. Recently, we’ve seen an unprecedented increase in home demolitions and deportations in the neighborhood. It is estimated that over the last 24 months, 450-500 Palestinians have been displaced in Silwan: around 300 residents had their homes demolished in the Al-Bustan neighborhood alone, and around 160 people in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood were forced to leave their homes, which have now been repopulated with settlers. Over 1500 Palestinians in Silwan are currently facing similar threats.
In the past, we at Free Jerusalem have been active in solidarity with Palestinian families’ legal struggles against ethnic cleansing and displacement. Some have been more successful than others, when the Supreme Court has ruled against or at least postponed evictions and demolitions.
Support the Resistance Solidarity Network
Following the recent escalation and the further threats and violence against acts of resistance shared by Palestinian and Israeli activists, we started organizing more activities also on the Western side of Jerusalem. Some of the actions we organized include:
Protests in Jerusalem’s City Center, interrupting live cultural events aimed at highlighting the “unity” of the city.
Joining Palestinian-led protests organized by Silwan’s residents; hosting screenings of the film One Street in Silwan (2025), which included discussions with the audience and the neighborhood’s residents.
Handing out leaflets with information across the city, including university campuses.
Collecting signatures from Jerusalemites, directed at the city’s mayor, demanding that he stop the displacements; holding a fundraiser for the families of Batn al-Hawa.
And, only a month ago, we joined a solidarity presence action in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood in Silwan, accompanying a family who has been subjected to harassment from settlers.
Silwan, Occupied East Jerusalem
As more and more Palestinians are at risk of eviction and displacement, our fight is far from over. We have just started operating a new group for sharing updates on the situation at Silwan, and coordinating new actions at a larger scale. We work in collaboration with Palestinian-led activist groups in Jerusalem, and hope to continue to evolve and grow our actions until all people are free.
Thanks to the support of the Resistance Solidarity Network, we can keep doing just that: remain in Jerusalem, struggle together, and promote change.
You can help RSN support movements such as Free Jerusalem, making our fight for freedom and justice for all just a little more bearable. Donate today here.
In solidarity,
Free Jerusalem activists
What My Experience in the Israeli Prison Taught Me
Dear Friend,
Mattan here. In 2017, I was imprisoned for 110 days because I refused to join the Israeli occupation army. Today, I am the team coordinator of RSN. I would like to share with you today my experience in prison and how grateful I am for the support I got from people just like you, support that helped me during these dark days to continue to fight against the occupation.
Being in prison was one of the hardest times of my life. I remember the first day there. They put me in a small cell, around 12 square meters, with three more people. Then, reality hit me. The noise and chaos that surrounded my refusal were suddenly replaced by the day-to-day consequences of it. Having my freedom taken away from me, being shouted at by guards every day, not seeing loved ones and not knowing when I will be released. I remember being forced to stand for a long time just because the guard was counting the prisoners and one prisoner didn't shout his name loudly enough for them to hear.
The worst part is not knowing if my actions are making any difference. Did I bring the occupation one step closer to its end? Am I able to influence others to act? Does anyone even know that I am here?
It may not look like it, but being an anti-occupation activist in Israel-Palestine is hard. We are subjected to police brutality, imprisonment, and isolation from society. Many do not talk about it; we do not want to be perceived as weak or admit to ourselves that it is hard because we are afraid we might crack. But mainly, we do not talk about it because we feel like we cannot complain. At the end of the day, the Palestinians are the ones who are truly suffering, and our actions are about them, not us. What is my suffering compared to the Palestinians' suffering?
For a long time after prison, I did not talk about my struggles there. I mostly talked about the funny moments in prison and how boring it was. In the last few years, I have come to realize how important it is to talk about the harsh parts of the experience and process it. I realized that this is important for me personally, but also for ending the Israeli occupation. We cannot end the occupation if we do not take care of ourselves; we cannot end the occupation if all of us are burned out. This is why we at Resistance Solidarity Network place such importance on burnout prevention in our work and in our support for activists.
This is something that you could help us with, too! What helps me the most is knowing that I have a community behind me that supports me. I know that I have a community that amplifies my voice so my actions will impact more people. I received hundreds of support letters in prison that gave me strength during my darkest time and helped me continue fighting. The more people we are, the more support the resisters receive. You can help the resisters by growing our community. Share this link with 3 of your friends and family members and invite them to join us in supporting the resistance from within.
In solidarity,
Mattan Helman
Team Coordinator
Resistance Solidarity Network
The new plan to end the Israeli occupation – and thank you!
Dear Friend,
My name is Shimri, I refused military service I spent 21 months in Israeli prisons. Today I am the international coordinator here at Resistance Solidarity Network. Tears come to my eyes as I think of you, those who supported our network, during the destruction of Gaza. Your dedication and support in the past few years gave us hope in some of the darkest hours. These were some of the hardest years of my life, as we were organizing day and night for a ceasefire. Knowing that you are here with us, this gave and gives us hope.
Nonviolent struggle is often associated with leaders: Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Greta Thunberg. But leaders do not create movements. Movements create leaders. Thousands of people who marched, resisted, went to prison, supported organizers, and helped to pay the bills. People like me and you.
After these three dark years, we at RSN, together with the movements and groups we support, are now in a phase of re-organizing for campaigns and action. A key question in our work nowadays is this: What is needed for a mass nonviolent struggle to emerge in the Middle East, and specifically inside the Jewish and Jewish-Palestinian groups? How can we replicate what movements such as the civil rights movement, the Indian independence movement, or the climate movement have achieved? How can we create a movement infrastructure that grows organisers and leaders like Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Greta Thunberg?
For the coming years, one of our main priorities is working to develop the infrastructure needed for waging a nonviolent struggle against the occupation of the Palestinian territories. A key part of this is building a mass training program for organizers in the nonviolent struggles in Israel-Palestine, in Hebrew – where disruption and nonviolent direct action can be most powerful and impactful.
As a writer and educator of nonviolent struggle, I know that a key part of many successful nonviolent movements had a mass-training program. People learned how to become organizers and leaders in nonviolent struggles through training.
The civil rights movement, for example, had the Highlander Folk School. Rosa Parks, a famous leader of the civil rights movement, arrived there as an organizer, and spent two weeks in one of their training programs, an experience she later described as transformative.Not just Parks, but many leaders and rank-and-file organizers in the civil rights movement took part, as trainers and participants, in training at Highlander. There, they learned how nonviolent struggle works, the history of past movements, methods to prevent mental burnout and trauma during disruptive nonviolent direct actions, and tools to develop and execute a strategy of civil resistance campaigns locally and internationally.
While some trainings already happen on an ad-hoc basis, a training program like Highlander does not yet exist in Israel-Palestine. For many organizers, and for myself, it has always been a dream to have one created.
Now we are making this dream come true. Those of us who had the privilege of participating in training sessions by one of the modern-day reincarnations of the Highlander School know how meaningful these training sessions were for us as activists. My personal participation in trainings offered by centers like Ulex, Momentum, Ayni, Einstein Institution, and International Center for Nonviolent Conflict, was life-changing. The toolbox I took from that on avoiding burnout, as well as on campaign planning and movement building, helped me become a better organizer.
Today, together with a network of local organizers in Israel-Palestine, we’re helping to build a training program that will teach nonviolent struggle to those who want to campaign for a just peace. You will no doubt hear more about the project in the months to come, from the people who are directly involved in planning the training, and hopefully also from some of the participants.
Building a nonviolent struggle to end the Israeli occupation is not a short-term task, for the civil rights movement it took decades to end the segregation regime in the South of the United States. The climate movement is already decades old, and is still fighting. We know that, and we are here to stay. Here to struggle until we win. In the words of Miles Horton, co-founder of the Highlander Folk School, words that gave the title to his autobiography, we are here for the long haul. Help us today to build a training program and the anti-occupation movement.
Again, thank you so much to the supporters and donors of Resistance Solidarity Network.
Without you, we honestly could not do any of this.
In solidarity,
Shimri Zameret
Resistance Soldiarity Netowrk
Jewish anarchist activists resist Israeli settler terror against Palestinians
Dear Friend,
Shimri here. I refused to serve the Israeli occupation forces as a teen, and today I serve as Resistance Solidarity Network’s media coordinator. We have been reporting on the escalating Israeli settler-military terror in the West Bank in recent months. As I write this, the Palestinian town of Qusra is under total siege by Israeli settlers and military. That is in addition to the other towns and villages that have been attacked, Palestinians shot and killed, and people’s worlds destroyed across the West Bank.
There are pockets of resistance. We have reported on several emergent activist collectives. One of them is Black Rose Action. Last week, the collective targeted the endless Israeli flags that line the streets of the West Bank. Outside the Palestinian city of Rawabi, where dozens of Israeli flags were erected by occupation forces as part of their effort to claim ownership over the land, Black Rose Action targeted the flags with red paint and called attention to the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, and the appropriation of their lands. Groups like Black Rose Action rely on you to carry their message to the world. Will you support them? Share their message on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
A statement released by the group reads:
"Israel is attempting to erase Palestine and its people through genocide and ethnic cleansing. No number of Israeli flags will cover the fact that this land is Palestine.
The Israeli colonial project has faced no sanctions and continues to receive support for the genocide it is committing in Gaza. It has subsequently expanded its campaign of extermination to the West Bank and Lebanon using the same genocidal blueprint they used in Gaza, displacing tens of thousands of people from refugee camps in the Northern West Bank and hundreds of thousands from Southern Lebanon and intentionally and systematically destroying civilian infrastructure so that the displaced have no where to return to. Settler terror gangs are rampaging through Palestinian communities in the West Bank, directly aided by the occupation forces. The colonial project used this tactic before, when they expelled the majority of the population from the areas they occupied in 1948 and systematically destroyed over five hundred Palestinian villages for this same purpose. When such criminal actions are tolerated and even supported, they expand.
We, Black Rose Action, call on people of conscience to take action and raise their voices for freedom in Palestine. We call on people of conscience to heed the Palestinian call to Boycott Divest and Sanction Israel until it complies with the three demands of the BDS Movement:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
We encourage activists across the world to participate in direct action campaign, striking where it hurts. The Empire is afraid. Make it more afraid."
In solidarity,
Shimri Zameret
Resistance Soldiarity Netowrk
Resisters say no to Israeli settler terror
Dear Friend,
Romi here. I refused to serve in the Israeli military as a teen, and today I work as Resistance Solidarity Network’s media coordinator. Last week, we wrote to you about the wave of settler attacks across the occupied West Bank and the emergency protest that followed in Tel Aviv. In the days since, the violence has continued, but so has the resistance.
This past Saturday, Jewish and Palestinian citizens gathered once again in Tel Aviv, alongside demonstrations in towns across the country, to protest the escalating settler violence and the Israeli military's campaign in the West Bank.
What struck me most wasn't only the protest itself, but everything around it. There were only a few hundred demonstrators, yet the streets were flooded with police. Patrol cars blocked intersections, Border Police units stood at nearly every corner, and undercover officers moved through the crowd. It was hard to shake the feeling that the authorities had prepared for something far larger, as though simply gathering to oppose settler violence had become a threat that demanded an overwhelming show of force.
And despite all of that, the protest was impossible to ignore. Journalists and photographers from Israel and abroad packed the sidewalks, documenting what was happening from every angle. If the intention was to intimidate people into staying home or to prevent the demonstration from having an impact, it didn't quite work. The cameras were there, and so were the people who refused to stay silent.
That is becoming a familiar pattern. As the occupation deepens and settler violence becomes increasingly normalized in Israeli public life, a relatively small number of people continue to organize, demonstrate, and insist on telling a different story. It often comes at the expense of work, friendships, and family relationships, and sometimes at the risk of arrest. They show up anyway.
We'll continue sharing these updates from the ground, because these are stories that rarely make it into the headlines: not only the violence itself, but the people who continue to resist it.
Amid pogroms in the West Bank, activists resist
Dear Friend,
Romi here. Israeli occupation forces and settlers have made it clear time and time again: they do not care that the world can see their crimes, which are well-documented. The pogroms are becoming widespread, the number of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli forces continues to grow and Israel’s annexation of the West Bank continues to expand. Last Friday, Israeli media widely reported on what it called a “terror attack” targeting Israeli settlers. As videos emerged, it became clear the story was, as is often the case, flipped on its head: Israeli settlers entered a Palestinian town without permission, threatened residents after they were not welcome, and the situation escalated, until a Palestinian man shot two settlers dead in what most would call self-defense.
Jewish anti-occupation activists urgently gathered in Tel Aviv for an emergency protest against the violence soon after, without permission from police. The feeling among activists was not only that the grip of Israeli occupation is deepening, but that even in the face of the most obvious case of self-defense, the story is always twisted and fictionalized in Jewish supremacist fashion. There was a frustration shared among the demonstrators: in what world is this possible? In a society built on Jewish supremacy, whether its liberal or fascist, it’s possible.
The demonstration was met with a heavy police presence. Officers forcibly dispersed the crowd and arrested several protesters. That same night, hundreds of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages across the West Bank. Homes and public spaces were vandalized, cars were burned, and residents were terrorized. According to reports, at least six Palestinians were killed and around seventy were arrested in the aftermath.
For many Israelis, these events have been presented as a justified response to what much of the mainstream media described simply as a "terrorist attack." Calls for revenge quickly became normalized, while the collective punishment of Palestinian communities received little scrutiny.
Yet even in this climate, some refuse to accept the consensus. They leave work to attend emergency demonstrations, risk arrest, and strain relationships with their families, friends and colleagues as they are doxxed by growing right-wing media. They choose to stand publicly against war, occupation, and settler violence when doing so carries profound social and political consequences.
These acts of dissent rarely make headlines, but they matter. Resistance from within Israeli society is often small, fragile, and isolated. It survives because people continue to organize and build an ecosystem of resistance, from organizing to media work and protective presence.
We'll continue sharing these stories from the ground: stories of people who refuse war, challenge occupation, and insist that another future remains possible.
Palestinian prisoners are the central issue
Dear Friend,
Romi. I refused to serve in the Israeli occupation army as a teenager, and today I work as the media coordinator for Resistance Solidarity Network. I spend a lot of time on the ground at demonstrations, documenting the people in Israel/Palestine who are organizing and struggling against genocide and occupation. Of the many developments I document, one stands out as particularly important: we are seeing the rapid emergence of left-wing organizing in support of Palestinian prisoners beyond Palestinian society itself. Activists started their campaign by highlighting Palestinian doctors imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, like Dr. Husham Abu Safiya, but have expanded towards a broad call: free them all. The Palestinian prisoners movement is one of the central pillars of Palestinian politics and society, and we are seeing its cause transcend communal boundaries. This is not only powerful in its own right. It strengthens my belief in the growth of co-resistance, not coexistence, based in organizing around shared values, not just shared interests. This is the only way we can organize for justice for all.
Over the last several weeks, I have witnessed a surge in organizing in support of Palestinian prisoners in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, not exactly traditional centers of organizing around the issue. New activist collectives have sprung up with Palestinian prisoners at their center.
These activists started out small, with a demonstration outside the Israeli Medical Association to highlight the complicity of Israeli doctors in the daily operations of Israeli prisons, which amount to torture camps with the assistance of Israeli doctors carrying out medically negligent operations among other reports that have emerged from rights groups.
Since then, their demonstrations have only grown, including a demonstration earlier this month we reported on last week outside the personal home of Liav Goldstein, the chief medical officer of Israel’s prisons. “You know exactly what is happening each and every day,” protesters blared on their loudspeakers. “Prisoners are emerging from your prisons starved; people are being beaten every day. Your face is known. You’re a criminal.”
Israel is ramping up its apparatus against Palestinians taken prisoner: the death penalty law, the increasingly gruesome stories and reports emerging from prisons-cum-torture camps told by survivors themselves and a growing number of prisoners.
This is not new: Palestinian prisoners have always determined the Palestinian political agenda precisely because the number of Palestinians taken prisoner is astounding. In the West Bank for example, virtually all Palestinians are related to or know someone who has been imprisoned. But the fascist Israeli state has ensured that the conditions of extra-judicial torture camps become the new status quo.
We must all take after these emerging groups organizing around the prisoners movement: they must lead our organizing work and resistance to genocide and occupation. We must amplify their voices to the world.
Last chance: Help us back war resistance to Israeli attacks
Dear Friend,
Mattan here. In 2017 I spent 110 days in a military prison for refusing to join the Israeli occupation forces. Over the past month, we’ve shared stories of the front-line activists we support: reservists refusing to serve in Israel’s genocidal war, activists confronting settler violence, and organizers building anti-war coalitions. This is our last day of the mid-year campaign, and we are still $18,000 short of our goal. We need your help to close the gap; without that, we will not be able to provide the support that the activists on the ground need.
The war machine is heavily funded and expanding. To fight back, internal resistance relies on networks of solidarity. RSN provides critical support: from organizing tools to financial aid for anti-occupation resisters.
As dissent inside Israel is increasingly criminalized, this work has never been more difficult, or more vital. They continue to resist because they know that together we can end the occupation.
This is our final appeal. Please make a gift today to ensure those resisting from within have the support they need to keep fighting in the difficult months ahead.
In solidarity,
Mattan Helman
Executive Director
Resistance Solidarity Network
As Israeli occupation of the Middle East grows, resisters need support
Dear Friend,
Shahaf here. I refused to enlist in the Israeli army as a teenager, considering it the only moral choice after learning about the realities of occupation. Today, I organize with Resistance Solidarity Network, supporting those inside Israeli society who refuse war, occupation, and apartheid. We amplify, support, and fund a wide-range of resistance groups opposing Israeli wars and occupation: anti-war Jewish-Palestinian partnerships, anti-occupation activists, and conscientious objectors. We do this through direct funding, training and organizing support. I want to share with you the political landscape in which our work now takes place, because we are entering a new and dangerous period. And if we are to meet this moment, we need your support.
A new regional order is emerging before our eyes. It is being sold to the world as "ceasefire." But for millions of people across the region, ceasefire increasingly means something else: slower violence, normalized occupation, and endless militarized control.
We see this most clearly in Gaza. The bombs may fall less frequently than before, but people are still dying every day. Hunger is widespread. Families remain without adequate shelter, clean water, healthcare, or education. Military control continues to expand even as reconstruction plans are discussed in diplomatic circles. The war has not ended. It has simply entered a new phase. The same dynamic is taking shape elsewhere.
In Lebanon, Israeli forces continue to occupy territory despite ceasefire agreements. In Iran, political leaders openly discuss the next round of military confrontation even before the current one has fully subsided. Across the region, temporary pauses in large-scale warfare are being transformed into a new normal: one in which military domination persists, territorial expansion is accepted, and the suffering of civilians fades from public attention.
This is what makes the current moment so dangerous. When bombs dominate the headlines, outrage is easier to sustain. But when violence becomes slower, more bureaucratic, and less visible, it becomes easier to normalize. Media attention disappears as international pressure weakens and Western media learns to look away.
Inside Israel, this process of normalization is already well underway. Gaza is disappearing from public discourse. Protest is increasingly marginalized, censored, or criminalized, all while the government continues to advance annexation in the West Bank while settler violence escalates daily. Palestinian shepherding communities are attacked, homes are burned, and entire communities live under constant threat. Much of this violence is carried out by settlers armed, trained, and protected by the state.
Under these conditions, internal dissent becomes more important than ever. Israeli activists continue to accompany vulnerable Palestinian communities, document abuses, organize protests, carry out direct actions, and publicly refuse participation in the machinery of occupation. They insist, often at great personal cost, that another future is still possible.
RSN exists to make sure these people do not stand alone. We provide financial support, training in civil resistance, media amplification, psychosocial support, and the infrastructure that allows resistance from within Israeli society to survive and grow.
Intensified political struggle, further attempts to silence dissent, and new efforts to use fear and militarism to squash resistance are expected. We are preparing now because in this new era of permanent war and normalized violence, resistance cannot be improvised. It must be organized. We are asking you to help us do exactly that. Please support Resistance Solidarity Network today. The people resisting from within need solidarity now more than ever.
In solidarity,
Shahaf Weisbein
Resistance Solidarity Network
Genocide refusers in Israel need urgent support
Dear Friend,
Daniel here. As a soldier, I recently refused to serve in the Gaza war, and spent time in military prison for that. Nowadays, I organize fellow refusers in Israel. Every day, I speak with soldiers who are questioning the war, struggling with what they’ve seen, and wondering whether there’s another path. I wouldn’t be able to do this work without Resistance Solidarity Network standing behind me. They provide the resources, the backing, and the help create this great community of international supporters that make resistance possible. As part of RSN’s mid-year campaign, I hope you’ll consider supporting them too. They’re not funding abstract ideas. They’re funding real people on the ground who are taking real risks. And they need our help: if they don't raise the money, they cannot carry on with their work. Support them today.
When I was drafted in 2012, I never imagined I would become one of those people. I grew up in a humanist family in the 1990s. Peace was always part of the conversation. But believing in peace and refusing military service are two very different things, or at least that’s what I thought at the time. For years, I served in the reserves, mostly in the West Bank, without spotting the dissonance. Believing, every time less and less, in the war ethos and that I am protecting civilians.
The doubts were already there before October 7. It had become harder and harder to ignore that my service was protecting settlements while making Palestinian life impossible. But when October 7 happened, I was swept up like so many others after learning of the magnitude of the Hamas massacres of Israeli civilians. I answered the call and served another round. It took time to admit that something had fundamentally changed.
When I received another reserve call-up in 2025, just before Israel expanded its offensive in Gaza, I couldn't convince myself anymore. By then it was obvious that this war had no clear end and no real strategy for bringing the hostages home. I had watched Israeli forces kill three Israeli hostages. I had watched the government repeatedly undermine opportunities for deals that could have saved lives. And of course, I witnessed the endless genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, killed indiscriminately and the overwhelming majority of their homes destroyed. The slogans about security stopped making sense.
So I decided it was time to refuse. Soon after, my picture was shared by a right-wing influencer calling me a traitor. For refusing the draft order, I was sentenced to two weeks in military prison. People often ask me if prison was the hardest part. It wasn't. It was realizing I had stepped outside the consensus I grew up in for refusing to participate in war crimes. Overnight, I was no longer part of the mainstream story Israelis tell themselves about who we are.
And yet, something surprising happened. The Israeli soldier occupies an almost sacred place in our society. But I've also discovered that many Israelis, including people I never expected, understand refusal more than they admit publicly. Reality is more complicated than politics makes it seem. Sometimes the people who quietly support you are the ones you least expect. That has made me hopeful. While governments can feel immovable, political change rarely arrives the way we imagine. The consensus can crack, and new possibilities can emerge. I have received significant support for refusing, something I could not even imagine ten years ago when I was first drafted.
The war hasn't really ended. Bombs still fall in Gaza and Lebanon. Palestinians continue to face displacement and violence in Gaza and the West Bank. We are governed by leaders who seem convinced that force alone can solve every problem and who speak openly about visions that leave no room for Palestinians at all: transfer, ethnic cleansing, genocide, apartheid and endless militarization.
But even during this age of violent ceasefires and ongoing killing, I think we have an opportunity to build something different, where our compass isn't endless war and death but shared life. That's the future I'm organizing for every day on this path.
And that's why organizations like Resistance Solidarity Network matter so much. They make sure people who choose conscience over conformity don't have to stand alone.
Thank you for standing with us.
In solidarity,
Daniel Yahalom
War Refuser
Activists are Disrupting the Israeli Occupation From Within
Dear Friend,
Mattan here. I spent 110 days in prison for refusing conscription into the Israeli army. As a staff member in RSN, I am writing to tell you what we support today. As part of our mid-year campaign, I am writing to tell you we need $60,000 to continue providing crucial support for the growing needs of the anti-occupation movement. From capacity building and strategising to financial support, legal aid, and amplification, we, the RSN community, are here for them. Let's show them Friend that we are here to support them, the resistance from within.
Resisting the genocide in the last few years has once again showed us how poweful it is when many people decide to refuse and how it can force Israel to change direction. Without active soldiers, there can be no occupation nor genocide – which is why we have always supported refusers and will always continue to do so.
Beyond refusal, I am so inspired looking at the different groups we support: a coalition leading street protests against Jewish settlements in Palestinian lands, collectives doing sit-ins and blocking main roads to protest the war, and an embargo campaign.
In the past few years, during the genocide, our activities expanded to support also other forms of nonviolent struggle and civil disobedience against the occupation of Palestinian lands. This happened because only a small part of the population, those in active service or just before it, can refuse military service. During the genocide in Gaza, it was clear to us that resistance by other parts of the society is crucial – and that those undertaking it needed our support, your support. This change happened gradually over the past few years, and recently, as we mentioned in our last newsletter, we have even (slightly) changed our name from Refueser Soldiarity Network to Resistance Solidarity Network – to better reflect this growth.
One of the amazing coalitions we’re now proud to support is the “Peace Partnership”, a coalition of over 60 Jewish and Palestinian organizations that was able to mobilize the anti-occupation movement after the 7th of October and during the current so-called ceasefire. They organized the largest anti-war protests in recent years, solidarity days with Palestinians, protests against settlers' violence, webinars with Francesca Albanese and took part in many other actions. Additionally, in their protests, there were calls for an arms embargo as the Israeli occupation depends on arms and support from the international community.
We also support other activist groups and initiatives. We support activists who blocked roads and governmental buildings as a protest against the occupation. Their actions disrupt the “business as usual” of the occupation-war machine, making it difficult to continue the status quo, and for people to ignore what’s happening on the other side of the fence.
In these days of violent ceasefire, the occupation continues and is getting worse while the attention of the world is shifting away. We need wider tactics of resistance to bring an end to the occupation. We need to reorganise, remobilise, and act in any possible way that disrupts the occupation. This is why we need your help in raising $60,000 to continue supporting this crucial work. Your support will make it possible. Join us in supporting resistance from within.
In solidarity,
Mattan Helman
Team Manager
Resistance Soldiarity Netowrk
Supporting resistance from within Israel/Palestine
Dear Friend,
Mattan here. In 2017 I spent 110 days in a military prison for refusing to join the Israeli occupation forces. Today, I support others who resist as staff at RSN. We live in unprecedented times: years-long genocide in Gaza, the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon and parts of Syria by Israeli forces, and a violent regional order that gives Israel free rein to bomb and starve entire populations – even under the cover of a “ceasefire”.
After October 7th, RSN supported and amplified soldiers who refused to participate in the genocide and who organized others to refuse as well: we knew the best way to stop the assault on Gaza was through mass refusal.
Thanks to you, RSN supporters, the refuser groups and individuals you supported were able to bring refusal to the mainstream. During the genocide, the Israeli government faced the largest refusal wave recorded in history. We have seen massive milestones, yet we find ourselves in a difficult place today.
While the Israeli occupation is nothing new today, whatever gap exists between “war time” and relative calm has been totally fused. Today, we are seeing a brutal occupation and settlement expansion, killing, and displacement across the region at the hands of Israel not despite the existing ceasefires that went into effect in Gaza and Lebanon, but under the cover of these ceasefires. We live in the age of the violent ceasefire, the type of slow violence that stifles movements and the urgency around the Palestinian cause that swept the world since 2023.
Since October 7th, 2023, our activities have expanded to support other forms of nonviolence resistance – as anyone reading this newsletter regularly has noticed. We continue to support and update about refusers when they are imprisoned, and as a network, we came to see refusal as part of a larger world of tactics, that of nonviolent struggle, or civil resistance. We came to firmly believe that to end the occupation and genocide, it is important to use an array of tactics that can involve all parts of society: old and young, rich and poor, of all races and genders. After a few years of supporting various forms of civil resistance, we decided to (slightly) change our name to reflect better what our network now does: That is why we are changing our name to Resistance Solidarity Network. We will always continue to support refusers, and in fact, all of our staff are refusers, but we are proud that our work now supports a wider ecosystem of resistance: those who oppose the occupation, war refusers and other civil resisters.
Together, our resistance is going to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories!
Mattan Helman
Team Manager
Resistance Soldiarity Netowrk
We demand the release of imprisoned Palestinian doctors
Dear Friend,
Romi. I am the media coordinator for Refuser Solidarity Network: I work to report the latest demonstrations and actions against genocide and occupation from the ground here in Israel-Palestine. While an official “ceasefire” is in place in Gaza, Israeli bombs continue to be dropped on Palestinians. And nearly three years since Israel embarked on a genocidal mission in Gaza, Palestinians from Gaza, kidnapped without trial, are still detained in Israeli torture camps. These include doctors who were violently detained while treating patients maimed by Israeli bombs. They remain imprisoned out of sight but activists are making sure they are not forgotten, and reminding us all that we must continue to fight for their release.
Two weeks ago, activists stood in front of the Israeli Medical Association, calling on Israeli doctors to honor their medical oaths. The message was simple: the Israeli medical system is not only silent, but complicit in the detention, torture and normalization of violence against Palestinain medical teams.
Doctors from Gaza have been arrested and detained for years now without trial, with reports from major humanitarian groups attesting to the torture they continue to face. Dr. Husam Abu Safiya is the most well-known doctor being held in what have become known as Israeli torture camps. Dr. Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, has been detained by Israeli forces since December 2024, under the "Unlawful Combatants Law" without charge or trial.
“Stop kidnapping medical teams from Gaza,” protesters demanded, “and torturing them in torture camps. Release Dr. Husam Abu Safiya from the torture camp in which he is kept.” The protesters highlighted what many of us already know: from approving brutal interrogation techniques to writing false medical reports, doctors in Israel have taken an active role in the torture of Palestinian prisoners.
While I was filming videos for our media channels , we were met with hecklers and attempts by police to shut down the demonstration. And while the protest was modest in size, we should all be paying attention. These smaller demos are part of a much larger movement and set of actors.
Only joint Jewish-Arab struggle can stop Israel
Dear Friend,
Omri here. I was imprisoned when I was just 18 years old for refusing to serve in the occupation forces. Today, I co-lead the Peace Partnership, the largest joint Jewish-Palestinian group organizing against war, occupation and genocide, born from a dedication to co-liberation. We are extremely grateful to you, who are reading this, for your support and solidarity in the past few months. Your help means the world to us: thank you!
Share Omri's interview on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. Watch the full interview here.
Politics were part of my youth. I became politically active in middle school during the Second Intifada. I had just heard about five war refusers who were trialed and imprisoned for refusing to serve in the occupation army, which deeply inspired me. At the same time, I was profoundly impacted by the extreme forms of racism I saw being normalized around me. I knew I had to do something radical and a shock to the system. Alongside 250 other high scoolers, I declared I would refuse to serve the occupation forces in an open letter I organized as a teen. In 2006, I was tried in a military tribunal and sent to military prison. In prison, I refused to wear a soldier uniform and was sent to solitary confinement without any clothes. I was not allowed to bring my books. Of course, I fought for my books and for clothes and my struggle paid off.
Today, I co-lead the Peace Partnership, which came as a direct reaction to the war in Gaza. It was formed in December 2023, at a time where the anti-war movement in Israeli was largely demobilized.
It was impossible to act publicly in dissent against the slaughter in Gaza. Before the Peace Partnership was formed, there was only one legal protest against the war. It was clear to us that no organization alone could act on its own against the brutality that was going on inside Israel. It was clear that we had to work together in order to have any ability to operate against the war from within.
In December 2023, the representatives of several dozen organizations met together and decided to form the peace partnership on the basis of agreement on core principles: an end to the war in Gaza, an exchange deal for hostages and prisoners and an end to racist and political repression of anti-war activists and Palestinians. We all started organizing together. There were always coalitions and coordinating bodies on the left in the past.
But what was unique about the Peace Partnership was that it was formed as a genuine Jewish-Palestinian partnership. In a society that is structurally asymmetrical and repressive towards the Palestinian community, forming this kind of partnership is not just a technical issue. It means a very profound commitment in principle and in practice for this kind of partnership that actually confronts structural asymmetry.
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This is the Peace Partnership's strength, which allowed it in all of its organizing, to connect joint Jewish-Palestinian forms of resistance and mobilization, in ways that did not happen before. I come from a very radical left tradition. Since I was a teenager, I would go to Arab Palestinian communities and participate in political activities there. For the majority of Jewish leftists, because Israeli society is so segregated, it's not obvious to go protest in Umm al-Fahem, Nazareth or Sakhnin. Because of the Peace Partnership, we were able to bring Jewish and Palestinian activists together to resist the war, genocide and occupation. It would not have happened otherwise. I am one of the Partnership’s co-coordinators. As a Jewish-Palestinian partnership, I work alongside our Palestinian co-coordinator Sulafa Makhoul.
During the initial stages of the Israeli-American war on Iran, there was a widespread consensus of Israeli society that supported the war. Nationalism and militarism made it difficult for smaller groups to mobilize. That’s why the Peace Partnership was such a central actor that led resistance to the war from within. Each week, our demonstrations grew. Our first demonstrations were smaller, dispersed by the police within minutes. It was difficult to mobilize, but our demonstrations grew as more people joined, in parallel with growing resistance to the war. Soon we were thousands. And it’s because we are a coalition, we bring together the masses to break the glass ceiling of repression.
A big part of our work is to target wider society, not just stay in our ranks. Much of our demonstrations and educational efforts are targeted towards a big chunk of Jewish Israeli society that is not ideologically opposed to war and occupation, is inundated by militaristic rhetoric, and yet still opposes the current fascist regime of Netanyahu and his allies. We target this opening to expand our camp. Last month, we held a massive demo against settler terrorism, which much of the Israeli public has become open to hearing about. We partnered with organizations who oppose the current government who generally do not speak on the occupation, bringing them into our orbit in order to spread our message: that the occupation is the root. At the same time, many of our activities are aimed at the Palestinian Arab public as well, particularly backing them in opposition to the extreme repression we saw of Palestinian communities after October 7th.
Ultimately, we are not just opposed to war and genocide. Our partnership is committed to joint struggle and co-liberation in the face of a supremacist system. We organized the largest joint mobilizations the country has seen in years, breaking the wall of fear imposed by Israeli society. Our demonstrations against the war saw tens of thousands show up, both Jews and Palestinians, because they know we are building real bridges without the illusion of symmetry. We thank RSN for supporting our work, and we thank you, Friend, for your solidarity. Your support allows us to carry out this work.
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In solidarity,
Omri Evron
Co-Coordinator
The Peace Partnership
Learning resistance from the heart of the war machine
Hi Friend,
Shahaf here, writing from the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. I refused to serve in the Israeli army as a teenage conscientious objector. Led by a heart full of empathy and zero willingness to serve a violent regime, it remains one of the decisions I am most proud of in life. It was the only decision I could have taken after visiting Palestinian communities on the other side of the separation wall. I now know to say that it was only the beginning of my process of political thinking. Today I share with you some reflections from Israel-Palestine, Chiapas, and my work at Refuser Solidarity Network, where I amplify resistance to genocide and occupation. Will you join me in supporting the resistance?
Growing up in a militaristic society like Israel that is always on the verge of war has an impact that was not easy for me to unlearn. I was socialized to National trauma and anxiety, victim mentality, and the endless justification of Jewish supremacy. It is a tough starting point for political activism.
Growing up, I believed Zionism was a term representing collective autonomy from antisemitic repression and a more general care for my society. Once I visited Palestinian communities for the first time in my life after growing up in a segregated society, I began to understand Zionism from the standpoint of its victims. I dove deep into the history of Zionism and settler colonialism and I listened to the stories of Palestinians communities and activists. I began to wonder: is Zionism just racial supremacy and blind patriotism? This set me down the path of a years-long process of unlearning, asking questions, and soul searching: how to be part of resistance movements that are deeply solidaristic, knowing you grew up convinced you have a natural right to the land. How do we truly unlearn privilege?
I grew to love being an activist in the movement against the occupation, partaking in collective actions to dismantle apartheid from within. The best practices were always to fight the occupation with our feet, to be present where the abuse happens, to make our unlearning an act of civil disobedience. Israeli war resisters like those RSN supports are taking collective responsibility every day. At RSN, we support collectives who work and plan non-violent actions in opposition to war and genocide, collectives who stand with Palestinians in East Jerusalem against home dispossession, and groups who demilitarize society by supporting refusers. For me, activism and unlearning went hand in hand. The groups RSN supports do exactly that: they both take action and educate the public, reaching people who are in the same place I was as a young teen.
Many years of movements on the ground have taught me that as much as there is a need to unlearn, there is also a need to learn and inspire. I got to Chiapas five years ago eager to learn about the Zapatistas, the indigenous Mayan communities who took back their lands from an exploitative feudal system, and who declared autonomy, challenging their own erasure. They created their own school systems, modernized ancestral Mayan medicine, created a non-punitive justice system, and built true self-governance for their communities. Just last year, they made their lands common to anyone who wishes to come work on it, calling it COMUN, inviting the world to work the land together.
Walking alongside the Zapatista communities is a true learning experience of building, or rebuilding, from below, from a grassroots level, another way of doing politics. One that doesn’t look for power, but to be of service to others. Through my work in RSN, I am eager to accompany and walk alongside groups who bring to life this spirit, who continue to unlearn through action, and who rebuild and rethink. From Jerusalem to Chiapas and now through RSN, walking alongside the people’s movements is a process. Join us.
It is a privilege to be able to walk this path, and to support resistance internationally. We cannot do it alone. That is why I ask you directly: donate to the resistance today, consider making a monthly donation. Your backing makes actual resistance to war and genocide possible. It funds organizing, demonstrations and everything in between. We are challenging the war machine from its heart. Please, walk this path alongside us. Join us.
Caminando con los pueblos,
Shahaf Weisbein
RSN
Take action: amplify war resistance on the ground
Dear Friend,
Tal here. This week, hundreds gathered in Tel Aviv to resist and protest against the state-endorsed terrorizing of Palestinians in the West Bank. Those who came to demonstrate did so at the risk of facing violence from police and ultra-right gangs that have targeted peace activists in the last few years.
It was by far the largest demonstration on the issue of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank in recent years. Thanks to you, our supporters, Resistance Solidarity Network was able to fund and support the demonstration and to provide significant assistance with press work. The demonstration was reported widely in Hebrew, in Arabic, and in international press, amplifying the crucial voices of Israeli citizens opposing the violence and ethnic-cleansing against Palestinians in the West Bank. This would not be possible without you, our supporters, so we wanted to thank you.
We are reporting daily on that demonstration and other actions and protests from the ground in Palestine-Israel against war, colonialism and occupation on our alternative media channels. Follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok to stay updated on the latest news.
The headlines make one thing clear: The lives of ordinary people in the entire region are in the hands of leaders who have no interest in peace whatsoever. I fear we could be plunged into an escalating war once again in Lebanon, Iran and not to mention the ongoing genocide in Gaza. One way you can help groups on the ground is by amplifying their actions which we report across social media platforms, to bring the latest movement news to the world.
Palestinian communities are suffering under an escalating policy of displacement, terror and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, carried out in collaboration between settlers and the Israeli army. Both inside Israel and internationally, most people do not hear about violence in the West Bank against Palestinians. This week, dozens of peace groups who together form the Peace Partnership coalition stood in the center of Tel Aviv in the hundreds to put a stop to the violence in the West Bank. Their brave action, in the face of police violence in recent actions, managed to get the story out.
Many of the activists who attended were people who personally witnessed attacks and in certain cases even suffered aggressions themselves for accompanying Palestinians in protective solidarity efforts. They have suffered police violence demonstrating throughout the recent war with Iran and Lebanon. These same activists are also the leading voices calling out the U.S.-Israeli aggression on Lebanon and Iran which threatens to plunge the region into endless warfare and expanded occupation.
Our movement on the ground in Israel-Palestine is keenly aware of the connections between the predicament of the Palestinian people at home and U.S.-Israeli imperialism in the region. They are connected by an insatiable drive for dominance, land and resources. That is why we bring movement voices against war, occupation and colonialism all in one place. Because these issues are inseparable. There is no resistance to the war on Iran without resistance to the occupation of the Palestinian people.
As we fear we may be plunged into an expanded regional war once again, we are working to make sure resistance on the ground reaches the world. Will you amplify the resistance and join us in bringing their voices to your communities? We ask you to keep your eyes on the ground. Follow us and share the latest news on Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok.
In solidarity,
Tal Marom
Solidarity Coordinator
Resistance Solidarity Coordinator
Israel Expected Silence. Instead, Resistance
Dear Friend,
Mattan here. When the war with Iran and Lebanon broke out, everything moved fast: airstrikes, headlines, fear. And with it came a familiar expectation: that people inside Israel would fall in line, that dissent would disappear, that war would once again close ranks and shut down opposition.
But that’s not what happened: instead, resistance to the war is growing.
Groups organizing weekly war resistance demonstrations and actions need your help. If you believe this kind of resistance needs to grow, please consider making a donation today.
On the very same day the war began, the Peace Partnership, a coalition of Jewish and Palestinian organizations came together within hours to organize anti-war protests: Their demonstrations took place every week since the beginning of the war: first in just one city, the following week in three cities, the following week in six cities, and today anti-war demonstrations are taking place in dozens of cities every week. Their activists, to much media attention, suffered police violence and attacks from ultra-right gangs – but they continued to show up on the streets.
Refuser Solidarity Network proudly supports the Peace Partnership coalition and the anti-war protests: we provide financial assistance for their core activities, for salaries for organizers, for signs and leaflets printing. We also support their press work, to make sure that their anti-war message is amplified in the press in Hebrew, in Arabic and internationally.
Two days after the beginning of the war, the Peace Partnership was already meeting to organize an emergency gathering to figure out how to resist in a moment like this. And by the end of that same week, nearly 60 organizations had signed onto a public anti-war statement in the Israeli daily Haaretz, breaking through the wall of consensus.
This is what it looks like when people refuse to be swept along. And this is exactly the kind of work Refuser Solidarity Network is supporting and funding: providing the Peace Partnership with resources, press work capacity in Hebrew, Arabic and English, support with buying needed equipment, and logistical support so that internal resistance will not be silenced.
What followed wasn’t a single protest or a one-time statement. It was something slower, more stubborn. Organizers began building through conversations, coordination, trust. Online gatherings brought together activists who, in quieter times, might never share a room. Jewish and Palestinian organizers, grassroots groups and established organizations, all trying to answer the same question: how do you keep resisting when everything around you is pushing toward war
And then, people took to the streets. The first protests were fragile. In Tel Aviv, demonstrators were attacked by right-wing activists and shut down by police within minutes. That could have been the end of it. Instead, they came back. A week later, the protest held. Then it grew. Then it spread: to Haifa, to Jerusalem, to more and more places where people refused to stay silent. What started as something small and exposed began to take on weight, and we were with them along the way to provide for their financial needs, making sure their organizers are paid for their valuable work, providing protest equipment and buses to bring people from across the country.
More groups joined. More people showed up. The map of resistance widened. That doesn’t happen on its own. It takes coordination, resources and people willing to keep going after the first setback, and the second, and the third. It takes networks that can hold together under pressure. This is where we come in.
Refuser Solidarity Network is helping sustain this kind of organizing by backing the Peace Partnership and others who are doing the difficult, often invisible work of building resistance from within. Not just reacting to events, but creating the conditions for something larger to take shape.
Because moments like this don’t just pass. They accumulate. We will continue to resist. Please donate today so we can continue to fund the Peace Partnership, the largest coalition of groups in Israel truly opposing Israel’s plans to destabilize the entire Middle East.
Please consider making a regular, monthly, contribution, because that type of donation allows us to support groups for the long term, and to plan for the long struggle ahead – it’s the type of support that is most stable and helpful for groups on the gound. With your support, their work becomes possible Join us.
In solidarity,
Mattan Helman
Refuser Solidarity Network
Resisting Israel’s Death Penalty for Palestinians is on All of Us
Dear Friend,
Mattan here. In 2017, I sat 110 days in Israeli military prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli occupation army. Today, I am sad to report that it has happened: Israel’s so-called “death penalty for terrorists” law has passed. This is not just another piece of legislation. It is a line being crossed, openly. Behind the name is a law that effectively formalizes the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners, already condemned by an unjust colonial system, enshrining Palestinian death into law in unprecedented ways. It is the culmination of years of occupation, which has brought Israeli society toward something more dangerous, more violent, and more authoritarian.
We at Refuser Solidarity Network are supporting those who are refusing this reality from within. Follow our social media channels to stay connected to real-time updates and stories from activists on the ground who are resisting this shift every day. Help us amplify their voices on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and X.
This did not begin today. For decades, the occupation has meant that Palestinians live without basic rights or protections. Even before the death penalty was expanded to apply to Palestinian prisoners, extrajudicial killings of Palestinians without accountability was the norm. Land taken without recourse.. What this law does is strip away any remaining pretense. It takes what has existed in practice and gives it formal, legal expression. It is, as many have said, the final nail in a long process.
Even now, some international actors, notably Western governments, respond with cautious language, expressing “concern,” warning about risks to democratic principles. But at this stage, such statements ring hollow.
And still, there are those who refuse. Across Israel, activists and organizers are pushing back. They are in the streets, in communities, in direct confrontation with the systems and ideologies driving this reality. They are documenting, organizing, disrupting, and insisting that another path is still possible. We stand with them.
Refuser Solidarity Network is committed to backing this resistance. We support groups on the ground who are challenging the very occupation, militarism and fascist political structures that have brought us to where we find ourselves today. We help ensure that even as the system hardens, there are people actively working to resist it.
Because laws like this are not the end of the story. They are a test. A moment that forces a choice, between accepting a future defined by repression and inequality, or building the capacity to challenge it.
The people we support have already made their choice, the question is whether they will stand alone. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and X. Share their stories. Help ensure that resistance is not isolated, but amplified.
In solidarity,
Mattan Helman
Refuser Solidarity Network
While eyes are on Iran, we must resist settler terror in Palestine
Dear Friend,
Mattan here. In 2017, I spent 110 days in a military prison for refusing to join the Israeli occupation forces. While headlines are dominated by the ceasefire agreement with Iran, potentially putting a pause to the U.S.-Israeli assault that has killed thousands across the region, a different kind of violence is accelerating in the shadows, largely unseen, and almost entirely unchecked.
In the West Bank, Palestinian communities are facing a sharp escalation of attacks: families targeted, homes burned, entire villages living under daily threat.
This is not happening despite the headlines, it is happening because of them, under the cover of war. At Refuser Solidarity Network, we are actively supporting and funding activists who are working to resist those responsible for this violence: the ultra-right government.
If you can, please make a donation today to help sustain this urgent work.
Support War Resistance
In recent days, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian family in the northern West Bank while they were driving in their car. No investigation. No accountability. Just another world erased without consequence.
At the same time, settler violence is escalating. Armed groups are carrying out near-daily rampages in Palestinian villages: burning homes, injuring dozens, shooting at families.
There have even been documented cases of sexual violence. This is not random. It is part of a broader pattern: using violence to push Palestinians off their land in coordination with the state under the cover of war and a state of emergency.
This is what annexation looks like in practice. And it is happening precisely when public attention is elsewhere.
But there are Israelis who refuse to accept this and are organizing, documenting, intervening, and putting their bodies on the line to resist settler violence and dispossession. Others are exposing these crimes in activist displays, blocking government offices, and forcing the wider public to confront this reality.
With every time violence is documented and activists intervene, every act of solidarity, it becomes harder to deny what is happening. Harder to continue down the path of permanent occupation and endless war without reckoning with the price paid.
Refuser Solidarity Network is committed to strengthening those who choose resistance. We are also committed to amplifying their voices through our social media project, that has in the past few years documented and amplified both violence against Palestinians and the Jewish resistance to this violence -- reaching millions of people on a monthly basis.
Your support helps fund the amplification of the brave resistance of activists on the ground. It helps sustain the networks that respond in real time. It helps ensure that even in moments of war, the world cannot look away from Palestine.
If you believe this work must continue, please make a donation today.
In solidarity,
Mattan Helman
Refuser Solidarity Network
Israeli cops brutalized our friends
Dear Friend,
Shahaf here. We don’t normally send you two emails in one week, but these are not normal times. This past Saturday, hundreds of Israeli war resisters demonstrated across the country, in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, calling for an immediate end to the war on Iran. Our friends and allies were there, and the reports are shocking. Israeli police brutalized protestors, violently arrested many, and declared the demonstrations illegal.
This is just the latest in a concerted crackdown on dissent against the war. As the police response accelerates, we fear that these anti-war Israeli voices will be shut down. This is why we need you. Together, we are organizing a mass petition of war resisters from around the world calling for an immediate end to the US and Israeli attacks on Iran, and standing up alongside those still fighting within Israel itself. Your voice is the moral boost our friends and allies need to keep fighting. Friend , will you add your voice against the war today?
Since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran nearly a month ago, Israeli activists have mobilized for a clear anti-war call. Yet the government response has been swift, and extreme. Two weeks ago, a demonstrator was violently arrested and illegally strip searched. Police have denied permits for protests, and attacked the protestors defying those orders with batons and fists. And the brutality only grew this past week.
This crackdown on protestors is not just about Israel’s latest attacks on Iran. With an ongoing genocide in Gaza, a full-fledged ethnic cleansing campaign in southern Lebanon, daily pogroms against Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank, and the nonstop attacks on Iranian cities - the Israeli government is aiming to silence all who refuse its program of violence and expansion. But this is where you - and the many thousands in our network - come in. A united, international call against the war will support the Israeli demonstrators refusing the war, and break through the government’s censorship and crackdown. Let’s stand together against the war. Add your voice now:
Yes! I want to show my support!
Friend, this moment is not easy. After over two and a half years of genocide and war (and many more years of violent occupation), many of our allies are demoralized. But we know how critical internal opposition is.
We know the power of citizens who refuse - loudly and publicly - to walk along their government’s warpath.
We see it in the tens of thousands of brave citizens in Iran demanding their freedoms, and we see it in the persistence of activists shouting against war on the streets of Jerusalem. We face immense odds, but together, we know we can succeed in building a world of peace.
In solidarity,
Shahaf Weisbein
Refuser Solidarity Network