The cracks are showing, and we must widen them

Atalya Ben-Abba here, media manager at Refuser Solidarity Network. Last week, the Israeli daily Haaretz published a brutal yet predictable exposé: Israeli soldiers were given explicit orders to shoot at unarmed Palestinians waiting at Gaza aid distribution sites. Soldiers are now coming forward to share what they witnessed and what they were told to do. These orders, to shoot into crowds at humanitarian aid drop points, are not accidental misfires. They are part of a pattern. And now, the truth is rising to the surface. This moment matters, because what we do with these cracks will shape what comes next. Which is why you should send this email to a friend who should be paying attention. Ask them to sign up to our subscribers list and follow this movement.

The latest reports remove any room for doubt: "It's a killing field," one soldier said. "Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They're treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire."

The soldiers speaking out in Haaretz aren’t radicals. They’re not activists. Many of them are still in uniform. But they are disturbed by the war crimes and abuses many of them have taken part in carrying out, and they are beginning to talk. This is exactly where disobedience begins: when orders no longer make sense, and when conscience becomes louder than nationalist illusion.

These testimonies point to something deeper: The war is unraveling. The official narratives are collapsing. Soldiers are losing faith in the mission. What we’re seeing isn’t just a moral rupture, it’s an operational one. It’s in these cracks that refusal can take hold. But only if we are organized enough to respond.

At RSN, we are working every day to meet this moment: tracking these stories, sharing them in international media, translating soldier testimonies, and supporting the emotional and legal needs of those willing to take the next step and refuse.

As we’ve said from the beginning: there is no occupation without soldiers. And as soldiers speak out, and begin to resist—publicly or quietly—they need to know they’re not alone. Despite the outrage and anger directed at them for their participation in a livestreamed genocide, we believe in providing them a way out, to refuse service, and to participate in resistance to the war. We’re ready to support any new refusers, and we need you to support us.

Thank you for helping us build the structures that make that possible.

I went to prison to end the occupation – now I need your help

Mattan here. I am the executive director of Refuser Solidarity Network and I am a refuser who spent 110 days in prison because I refused to take part in the occupation. Refuser Solidarity Network is a network–and that means that you are part of it. Our model is decentralized. We provide spontaneous refusers with the tools they need to get organized to become a political force. This work, of offering support, tools and amplification is at the core of our work, and it’s also how you, our supporters around the globe, can support the Israeli resistance and end the occupation. We rely on you to bring refusers’ stories and message to the world, to put a stop to the genocide in Gaza. When I was imprisoned for 110 days, I relied on supporters from far and wide, across the world, to make my refusal meaningful on an international scale. I hoped that my sacrifice and imprisonment would reveal the criminal Israeli state’s contradictions, and while I was behind bars, I relied on global supporters to carry my message forward. Today, as Executive Director of RSN, I continue to rely on global solidarity so that we can continue to carry out our work. We need you to help us reach our mid-year goal of $30,000 so that we can continue to expand the growing refuser wave currently taking place. If you have already donated, share our campaign with your communities.

Why is amplification so important? When I was 16, I decided to refuse to serve in the army because of the Israeli occupation. It was not out of a drive for moral purity, but rather to declare that this must end, and use my refusal to spread this message and confront others. Refusing is not only a personal act of conscience, but above all a political act to mobilise people against the occupation. Being imprisoned, sacrificing my freedom, social status and facing consequences for my choice put me in a position to create an impact. People are often puzzled at first. “Why doesn’t he serve like everyone else? Why does he prefer to be in prison rather than be in the army? What is the army doing that is so bad?” They are confronted with the injustice and the oppression, and can not ignore it. They must take a stand, an action. It’s true both in Israel and on an international scale. Our actions open up new possibilities, people become open to new perspectives, our voice creates an impact and mobilises people as part of a wider movement. That is why the act of refusal is so powerful, it is powerful as long as our voice has been amplified. That is why we are focusing on refusers’ voices at RSN, and it’s just as important that you do too. This is why we need you, and all our supporters to help us to amplify their voices.

This is how we build power across borders. This is how we grow a refusal movement that can take on a genocidal war machine and win. Right now, we are seeing a sharp rise in interest and resistance. Soldiers are breaking ranks. Protesters are flooding the streets. More and more people are starting to ask: What can I do? If you’ve been wondering the same thing, we are calling on you to join us.

Just last month, the Israeli authorities imprisoned the first reservist refuser in recent memory. The cracks are emerging, and the war effort is unraveling. Now more than ever, we are counting on you to help us reach our mid-year goal of $30,000 so that we can carry on our work in getting refusers organized and amplifying their actions. Just like I counted on you when I was imprisoned 10 years ago, I am turning to you today.

I was jailed and I felt alone: emotional support for refusers

Mattan here. In 2017 I spent 110 days in a military prison for refusing to join the Israeli occupation forces. Today, I am the executive director of Refuser Solidarity Network (RSN). Now more than ever, we urgently need a long-term movement to put a stop to the genocide in Gaza and end the occupation. But to build a sustainable anti-war movement, we also need to support people on another front as they face fines, jail time, and social exclusion: emotionally. I would like to tell you about our new emotional support program for refusers and the struggles I had as a refuser. We are counting on you to help us fund this vital program, so that every potential refuser knows they have a support system waiting for them. Help us reach our mid-year goal of $30,000.

We, refusers, do not talk as much about our emotional struggles following our decisions to refuse to join the army. As a public-facing activist, I forced myself to put on a brave face and keep my struggles in prison to myself. I wanted the focus on my message: a stop to the endless occupation. I also felt guilty admitting I was struggling because I felt that I could not complain or pity myself while there are Palestinians who suffer in Israeli military prisons and under the occupation. But today, I understand that this perspective is unproductive, for myself and for the anti-war movement, as it prohibits self-care, causes burnout, and makes resistance unsustainable.

I would like to share my struggles from that period with you. As a result of my refusal, I was facing the brunt of social exclusion at the hands of a thoroughly militarised Israeli society. I was forced out of my youth movement and the commune I was living in by friends I had lived with for over a year. I had fights with family members and I lost friends. Military prison, of course, was a struggle. My freedom was taken from me, I was forced to act like a soldier and spent my time there alone. I even received threats from other prisoners. The hardest part was that I didn't know when I would be released and how long I would be in prison. I remember that close to the end of my imprisonment, I started to feel like I could not handle it anymore. I was conflicted because I was suffering but at the same time, I decided to refuse and to put myself in this position. Until today, I carry with me scars that I didn't deal with from my time in prison. During this experience, there was no system of emotional support and a place to process my experience. I felt so alone.

Back then I thought that I was the only refuser who struggled. Later on, I realized these struggles were not only mine – they are shared by all refusers. In conversations with younger refusers, we decided to form a support circle. We offer an emotional support system through trained therapists that build a support group for past, present and future refusers, where bravery and heroism can be put aside. Our support circle equips refusers with a necessary infrastructure of support and care: they receive emotional and social support, learn coping strategies and hear about each other's experiences. We help refusers to transform their experience from emotional struggles to sources of empowerment. We change the culture of the movement from toxic heroism to self-care and compassion. We also plan to use the knowledge garnered from our support group to publish a self-care handbook with emotional and practical advice for future refusers. 

When I refused, our movement did not yet offer this type of crucial support. In order to become a lifelong resistance movement, we need to make sure refusers have the skills and knowledge, and access to resources to sustain their work. We also need potential refusers to know that if they refuse, we will be there for them. Our psychological support forum is only possible because of you, << Test First Name >>, and your support. We ask all our friends abroad to make a donation today to make this program possible. We need to reach our $30,000 goal.

Only with these kinds of long-term support structures can we produce life-long activists. If we want to build long-term opposition to the military-industrial complex and demilitarize the world over, we need structures of care.

A new initiative to end the genocide: help us stop the bloodshed

Mattan here. As the genocide in the Gaza Strip marches forward, Israeli soldiers return from reserve duty shaken. Families are asking questions they didn’t ask before. The justifications are wearing thin. As the untenable violence continues, and with it, a deepening disillusionment is spreading across Israeli society, leading to more and more people quietly refusing. We’re seeing a shift in the public conscience, not just isolated acts of dissent. Refusal has entered the mainstream in a way that it never has, under the recognition that serving the Israeli war machine is against ordinary Israelis’ interests. Our new initiative,”Hitnagdut” (resistance in Hebrew), was created for this movement: we are cultivating a sustained anti-war and anti-occupation movement by providing training and support to spontaneous refusal and protest initiatives. We need to provide the activists with tools and infrastructure to sustain this momentum and end the genocide in Gaza and the occupation. We need your help to make it happen: help us reach our mid-year goal of $30,000 to launch Hitnagdut.

In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, opposing the war publicly was taboo and semi-illegal, let alone refusing. We did not have the power or infrastructure to oppose the war effectively and stop the Israeli attack before it even started. We realized we have to build real movement infrastructure. The first initiative we supported was “Ani Siravti”, in Hebrew ‘I Refused’, which launched a media campaign to publicly share the stories of reserve soldiers who refused service in order to normalize the act during a time of heightened nationalism and reaction.

As the war trudged on, more and more people were beginning to realize that this war of annihilation was never about its stated goals of returning the Israeli hostages. Just one year ago, we began to work with a young group of reservists who were ready to publicly refuse on the eve of the invasion of Rafah in May 2024. With our help, they published an open letter alongside around 40 other signatories, sending shockwaves across Israeli society, and garnering a response from the Prime Minister himself and the country’s war cabinet. This was followed by several interviews in the studios of mainstream news channels, tailed by another public letter in October 2024 with an expanded list of signees. This fledgling group eventually decided to organize themselves under the banner Soldiers for Hostages.

A new initiative of Refuser Solidarity Network, Hitnagdut is a desert greenhouse for cultivating organised refusal. We exist to channel disillusionment into action, and action into strategy. Our goal: to transform individual grassroots initiatives into a coordinated anti-war movement from within. Over the past six months, we have incubated one of the most visible expressions of this shift: Soldiers for Hostages, a group of reservists who returned from Gaza and publicly declared they would not serve again until the Israeli hostages return home, which necessitates an end to the war. What began as a handful of ex-soldiers has since grown into a movement of nearly 300 public refusers and growing, organizing on the streets, in the media, and in military circles across the country.

The work of Soldiers for Hostages has cleared the path for a radically different political landscape today: refusal has gone mainstream. Stickers line the streets of Tel Aviv calling on fellow patriots to refuse, while more and more reservists join the ranks of Soldiers for Hostages. “Refuse!” is now a common refrain, not limited to the anti-war left. Newspapers are chock full of emerging reports detailing more and more soldiers and reservists threatening to refuse duty. Refusal has not only become mainstream, but even patriotic.

Help us to build long-term movement infrastructure–if you believe in refusal not just as a moral act but as a political strategy–support us in reaching our mid-year campaign goal today. We are raising $30,000 in order to expand Hitnagdut, to assist the mosaic of actors who want a different reality. The disillusionment is already here, and we are here to give it shape. 

Breaking: A soldier jailed for refusing genocide

Mattan here. I am the executive director of Refuser Solidarity Network and an Israeli refuser. Last week, for the first time in many years, a reserve soldier was jailed for refusing to serve in protest of the ongoing genocide. His name is Daniel Yahalom, and he is refusing over the barbaric genocide in Gaza and the ongoing settler-military takeover of the West Bank. From the beginning, we’ve made it clear: the military cannot afford mass refusal. They’re trying to project strength, but the longer this war drags on, the more the cracks begin to show. They hoped punishment would break our resolve, but they’re only strengthening our movement. Let's show him that he is not alone! Write a support letter to Daniel and ask 3 friends to do the same. 

Daniel had already served more than 200 days since the war began. But when he understood the destruction, he made a choice. In his words: "Since October 7, I have served over 235 days in the reserves with a heavy heart. I was haunted by a heavy feeling that the fate of the hostages was being forsaken and that the war, which is largely unbridled, is being paid for in Gazan blood... The situation in the West Bank also got worse and worse... Meanwhile, what about the hostages? Every day they were dragged to the margins of the exhausted Israeli consciousness.”

Following Daniel’s arrest, “Soldiers for the Hostages”, a group of soldiers who refuse to take part in the war on Gaza, held an emergency protest outside the military prison where Daniel is being held. They showed up wearing shirts that read: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust wars.” Our movement made itself heard, reminding Daniel he is not alone.

This isn’t just about one soldier, it never was. His arrest is a test. The government is betting that fear will silence us, that one prison cell will be enough to keep the rest in line. But his arrest has had the opposite effect, and it has only given our movement momentum. As opposition to the government and calls for the end of the war grow, the arrest of refusers continues to bring our movement into the mainstream. Hundreds have signed our refusal letter, more are joining every day, and we’re not going anywhere till the end of the genocide and the occupation.

This moment marks an escalation on the part of the government, but also an opening. The media is watching while the public asks questions. People who once believed refusal was unthinkable are beginning to reconsider. That’s where we come in. We’re opening another way forward, a way of hope and resistance.

We fight to end the genocide, and to the systems of occupation that make wars like this inevitable. Until then, we will support all those wrongfully jailed for refusing service and the current state of affairs. We will continue to show up. At jails. At protests. In the streets. In the press. Now is the time for civil resistance. For those supporting us from afar,  let's show Daniel that he is not alone! Write him a support letter and ask 3 friends to do the same.

Israel’s War Is Spreading. Our Movement Must Too.

Mattan here. I’m writing to you with urgency–and with hope. The Israeli war machine is escalating. What began as a genocidal campaign in Gaza spiraled into a full-blown regional assault. As Israel expanded its assault into Iran, it became clear to us all: this government has no intention of stopping its endless wars, not just on the Palestinian people but throughout the Middle East. It’s not about hostages. It’s not about defense. It’s about annihilation–and political survival. But there is another force at work. A growing refusal movement from within Israeli society is threatening the very foundation of this war effort. And with your support, we’ve been helping lead it. Following the ceasefire with Iran, the mainstream Israeli media is covering the “return to normalcy”. But there is nothing normal, not just about the regional assault on Iran, but about the continuation of the genocide in Gaza as well. And as Israel continues to try to normalize a life of endless warfare and instability, we continue to escalate our tactics and efforts. We need to be ready to support new movements, spontaneous refusers, and civil resistance across the country’s streets that are already emerging as the public grows evermore tired from endless warfare. That is why we are building a new ecosystem of refusal, but we cannot do it without your help. We’ve raised 60% of our $30,000 goal so far, and we urgently need our supporters across the world to help us close the gap so that we can effectively resist the Israeli war machine.

Over the past month, we’ve brought you inside the growing infrastructure of resistance we’ve built, together, in the heart of a militarized state.

We told you how our new initiative, Hitnagdut, is transforming spontaneous dissent into organized refusal, equipping activists with the training, support, and resources they need to grow into a sustained anti-war force. 

We told you how Soldiers for Hostages, the movement of reservists publicly refusing to serve, was incubated through RSN support, and how it’s now grown into the most visible and politically disruptive refuser initiative in Israel today. Over 325 soldiers have already signed on. And that number is only rising. 

And we told you about the emotional toll of refusal, how RSN is building the support structures that keep activists from burning out, breaking down, or giving up.

This isn’t just about ending this war. It’s about stopping the next one, ending the occupation and bringing freedom, equality and justice to everyone from the river to the sea. Right now, RSN is one of the only international organizations in the world positioned to stop the war machine from within. And we are being stretched to our limits. We’ve raised 60% of our $30,000 goal. But we are facing exponential growth in need. More reservists. More youth. More calls for help. And more groups asking us to support their refusal. We have the experience. We have the infrastructure. We just need the resources.

The Israeli government is afraid. They are arresting, fining, and jailing public refusers at a level we haven’t seen in decades. But the cracks are already there, and they’re widening. Refusal is not just spreading. It’s becoming contagious.

Let’s keep pushing. Let’s reach our $30,000 goal. Let’s turn this moment into a movement that can’t be stopped.

They are going to jail to end this genocide. We must support them!

Mattan here. I am a refuser, I spent several months in an Israeli prison at the age of 20 for refusing to serve the Israeli occupation, and today I serve as the Executive Director of Refuser Solidarity Network. We are in the midst of an unprecedented refuser wave, with hundreds of soldiers refusing to carry out war crimes in Gaza. The stakes are only rising: the Israeli regime has resorted to expanding its regional war of annihilation to Iran. Refusers are our best chance to end the assaults on Gaza and Iran – refusal waves have ended Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people at least twice in the past: the end of the first Lebanon war and the withdrawal in 2000, and the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. Refuser Solidarity Network is the only international group dedicated to supporting Israeli refuser movements, and has been for 20 years. We are financing legal aid, press and social media campaigns that amplify their refusal, training and mentorship, and urgently need your support to keep up with the momentum. We achieved 54% of our mid-year goal. Help us reach our goal of $30,000 so we can continue to expand the essential support we provide to refusers to end the genocide today.

In a militarized society like Israel, built on mandatory service, refusal has always been a powerful way to force the government to back down. There can be no occupation with no soldiers. Today, we at Refusal Solidarity Network are aggressively supporting those leading the latest wave of refusal and fighting to bring the genocide to an end. Our ability to support emerging groups of refusers is expanding. We successfully backed several reservists in forming the group Soldiers for Hostages over the last year. However the need to support crucial anti-war initiatives grows even faster, especially as Israel expands its regional assault to include Iran, we need more support from our friends around the world.

Beyond funding for lawyers, for press and social media campaigns, we are helping them to build the necessary infrastructure to organize and build a community of resistance to the genocide in Gaza and imperialist war in Iran. Refusers numbers are currently growing exponentially, and if they continue to grow, they will end this war. Refuser movements have already done so in the past, and can do it again today, but they urgently need your support.

Israeli refusal movements were at the center of putting a stop to Israeli atrocities. This has happened at least twice: in 1982, helping to end the Israel-Lebanon war and in 2002-2005, helping to force Israel’s pullout from Gaza in response to the Second Intifada. Reservists are the backbone of the Israeli military, from ensuring the army’s day-to-day functioning to flying Israel’s warplanes to bomb Gaza. The army cannot carry on with its daily operations without them, which is why refusal is such an effective form of resistance that we must support at all costs.

The most powerful kind of support that our global supporters can offer them right now is long-term, for the years and decades to come. Even small donations are what helps the Israeli refuser movement work towards the long-term, not just to end this genocide but to put a stop to all future wars and the occupation itself. This is our goal and we will achieve it. Support our campaign to raise the money needed to continue our work. If you already donated, let your communities know about our campaign. We truly believe that this unprecedented stage in the struggle against the genocide has the power not only to end the assault on Gaza but open up a new political horizon here. It is a marathon, not a sprint, and Refuser Solidarity Network is increasing our support at unprecedented levels to meet the needs of the anti-war movement, we truly need your help to bring freedom, equality and justice to all.

Breaking: refusing the war with Iran

Mattan here. I am the executive director of RSN, and in 2017, I refused to oppress Palestinians and subsequently spent 110 days in jail. I write to you in the middle of our mid-year campaign in order to address Israel's assault on Iran. In the last couple of weeks, new signs appeared that signals Israel’s inability to carry on the genocide on Gaza for long. More and more people started to refuse and resist the war. The Israeli army did not have enough soldiers to stay in Gaza for long, the majority of Israelis wanted a hostage deal and withdrawal from Gaza, and in politics, the coalition was at a breaking point and started to prepare for an election.

Then Israel attacked Iran… I want to be clear: The new war with Iran has nothing to do with the security and safety of the Israeli people. It is about remobilising Israelis to the army and helping the prime minister to stay in power by avoiding elections. It is about continuing the genocide without resistance from Israelis and the world. All eyes are on the war with Iran while people forget about Gaza.

Our partners on the ground know that. “The goal of the war is to help the government to continue eliminating our hostages and continue with war crimes in Gaza. I am calling to everyone who can to refuse,” said Asaf Yakir, a reserve soldier who refuses to fight in Gaza or Iran and is part of Soldiers for the Hostages. Soldiers for the Hostages publicly declared that their position has not changed: “We refuse to take part in this war.”  Joining them are another 41 soldiers from intelligence and cyber units who recently published a refusal statement. 

The goal of the war is to halt the resistance against the genocide in Gaza.  We will not let the government stop us. We will not take part in this war, we refuse! We will resist until we end the genocide and the occupation, and all regional wars of aggression. The Israeli government has found a base of support among the general public for this new front, even among those that began to oppose the genocide in Gaza. But the reality is more complicated: many people, especially those who oppose the prime minister, see the war as inevitable. This is an oppentunity, fo the long time this new war can make Israeli resiste even more. Right now, we are working hard to shift the general public to resiste the war. This war is not inevitable, it will not make anyone safer, and it is only an extension of the criminal genocide in Gaza. We need to stop the war, both in Gaza and in Iran, for the sake of the Palestinian people and our own futures.

We need you with us more than ever. Help us put a stop to this endless war and genocide, help us to support the Israeli resistance to end the atrocities, the genocide and the occupation! We were already close to putting it to a stop, and we still can. Together we can end it!

I served in this war. What I saw caused me to refuse.

Yuval here. I’m a Gaza War refuser and one of the leaders of Soldiers for the Hostages, a group of Israelis who served in the war and have since refused. Since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18 and renewed its deadly assault on Gaza, our numbers have grown significantly and we now have more than 230 signatories on our refusal letter. We couldn’t have done it without your support.

Last week's edition of Haaretz Magazine published an op-ed I authored. It’s about what I saw in Gaza, why I refused, and why I think this war is illegitimate and needs to end now. I wrote: “Beyond the consequences of the war for us, Israelis, I watched in pain what was happening in Gaza. Already in the early days of the war, there were thousands of casualties, thousands of destroyed homes, displaced persons, suffering, and pain.” 

I’ve translated the full article and appended it below. I hope you choose to read it. If you do, remember that it was written to influence an Israeli audience.

In solidarity, 

Yuval Green
Soldiers for the Hostages

We will not be silenced

It’s Max from Soldiers for the Hostages. We are a group of hundreds of Israeli soldiers who served in the war on Gaza and have since publicly refused service in it. Our movement has grown and its public profile has increased significantly. Netanyahu’s regime is not happy: One of our members has been jailed for refusing. Another has been summoned to a court martial. A third has been threatened with legal action for an op-ed he wrote, and others have received stiff fines reaching several thousand Israeli Shekels ($1,000+). We will not be silenced and are fighting back, and we need your support.

In recent weeks, as Netanyahu has moved to expand and deepen the assault on Gaza, the army has summoned tens of thousands of reservists. We’ve reacted by ramping up our public outreach activities. More and more soldiers are joining our ranks, refusing to take part in this abomination. Just last week we reached our 300th refuser. Multiple soldiers from our community have appeared on live Israeli television, courageously sharing their personal stories and declaring their refusal to take part in this war.  We now have regular columns in major news outlets, reaching a huge audience with a message of moral clarity and resistance. 

Our voices are shaking the foundations of a brutal system. In one of these columns, our signatory, Eran Tamir, wrote: "It is legitimate to refuse a war that represents our moral low point as a nation, with levels of killing and destruction that just two years ago we couldn’t even have imagined." In response, members of the governing coalition began a campaign to pressure the Attorney General to initiate criminal proceedings against him.

The army has also increased its attacks on us. For the first time, one of our signatories, Daniel Yahalom, has been sent to military prison. On the day of his sentencing he said: "Choosing an unrestrained military option means strengthening Hamas and bringing death to the hostages. I refuse to serve such a cause. Moreover — I have a moral duty to do so." Another signatory has received a summons to a court martial, and there are signs that more are on their way.

Let’s be clear: They want to send us to jail. They want to silence us. But we will not be silenced. We will stand by every soldier who bravely speaks out against Netanyahu’s regime of death.

And for that, we need your support. Your donation will help us provide quality legal aid for refusers, as well helping to fund paid advertising for our public campaign.

The tides are turning. The world is watching. The ICC has issued long ago an arrest warrant for Netanyahu — and the public, in Israel and abroad, understands: this catastrophe must end.

We are building something powerful. A movement of conscience. A future rooted not in destruction, but in dignity and justice — for the good of Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Join us. Support us. Stand with us.

Together, we will stop Netanyahu’s war of destruction against the Palestinian people.

The Israeli regime is afraid of us

Atalya here. It is now effectively semi-illegal in Israel to hold signs bearing the images of Palestinian children and babies in Gaza. Just last week, left-wing Israeli organizers revealed that police only approved an anti-war protest on the condition that demonstrators refrain from displaying photos of Palestinian children or Israeli hostages, and that signs using the word “genocide” would be banned. We are witnessing a serious escalation, from managing dissent to actively suppressing even the most basic forms of public expression. The Israeli regime understands its established order is threatened, and is resorting to its usual tactics: police violence, riot control tactics, ambiguous legal restrictions, and threats of arrest. As RSN’s media coordinator, I spend my days attending actions, protests and documenting both incidents of police violence as well as brave resistance. Through our page Voices Against War, I not only report the news from the ground but paint a picture of the state of the struggle against the genocide. From my work on the ground, it is clear that the Israeli state is escalating all of its tactics in order to stifle dissent. And while these moments stoke fear, they also signal that the government is panicking, resorting to desperate measures. That is why it is imperative that you, << Test First Name >>, support us in any way you can from afar. Right now, we need supporters to ramp up pressure on Israel as it tries to quash any real opposition: we are asking each and everyone of you to put pressure on your governments, wherever you are, to implement an arms embargo on Israel. Sign our global call for an arms embargo now, and send it to your communities.

Showing the most basic forms of care for Palestinian lives has become increasingly outlawed by the Israeli state. It’s not just pictures of Palestinian children, but the very ability to publicly express opposition. Police violence at protests is not new, but is escalating. Just last week, over 20 protestors demonstrating against the genocide were violently arrested in Haifa in a clear message: dissent will not be tolerated.

These latest events closely follow other clear signs that lay bare the political-military establishment’s anxieties over their ability to continue the genocide. Fines for refusers, direct threats from Prime Minister Netanyahu himself against war resisters, and police violence at protests that beg the question: are these riot police, or is this a police riot?

The Israeli political class is hard-pressed as reports pile up of more military reservists refusing to report for duty, and Israelis themselves are starting to ask themselves when this forever war will end. I’ve covered protests and direct actions since the war on Gaza broke out, including protests led by Israelis calling for an arms embargo in their own words. This call has been made here on the ground, and is gaining traction. This is a rare opportunity for action, and why we need you to ramp up external pressure to meet the urgency of this moment. Sign our call for an arms embargo today. 

Soldiers are refusing, and dissent is spreading

Max here. I am a reservist who served in Israel’s assault on Gaza before refusing to continue my service  – to bring the violence to a stop, bring the hostages home, and end the occupation. Ever since my refusal, I have been organizing with Soldiers for Hostages, a group of reservists organizing against the war and publicly refusing service to bring it to a stop. Over the past few weeks, our group has grown faster than we could have imagined, fueled by the criminal return to the assault on Gaza. With the reality of corruption, political motivations of the war, and devastating death and destruction, more and more reservists and ex-soldiers are joining our movement. We are no longer operating at the margins. We’re not just refusing—we're organizing. We are now over 240 soldiers who have publicly declared they refuse to take part in the assaults on Gaza. We are growing and so is the state’s repression against us. Our movement is counting on urgent global support: your donations enable us to continue organizing in the field, bring in new refusers and put a stop to the bloodshed.

We’re breaking into the mainstream. Israel’s public broadcaster aired a piece on us, while its legacy newspaper has published our calls for an end to the war. Refusal has long been kept outside the boundaries of legitimate debate in Israeli society. But we are shifting this line. We feel it every time we show up at a protest in our “Soldiers for Hostages” shirts. The back reads: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust wars.” It’s a provocation—and it opens conversations. When people see a soldier in uniform, a reservist, standing behind that message, it creates a dissonance: this is what resistance looks like! At these protests, we hand out flyers with a barcode linking to our letter. People scan it. They read. They sign. They join. That’s how the movement grows.

Many have already joined our call over the last few weeks. A new refusal letter of medical personnel was published, followed by 1000 air force personnel calling for the end of the war. Many unorganised people are declaring their refusal on social media. We are experiencing momentum across all sectors of society.

For the first time, Soldiers for Hostages is building a team dedicated solely to integrating new reservists who have never refused in such a manner. But it’s not just about adding names to our public letter: it’s about weaving a support network strong enough to hold the weight of conscience, grief, and resistance. Our goal is not just to gather reservists who will publicly threaten refusal, but to help them become activists in their own right, helping us organize more people and become a force that can actually stop this war. Some volunteers help onboard new members, others help with campaigning. A few of our signatories—mental health professionals—are organizing support circles for those of us struggling with the isolation that comes from refusing. You lose the community you once had in the military, you’re seen as a traitor by the people you once stood beside. But in this movement, we are building a new community to be a part of.

We are not ‘traditional’ refusers. We are soldiers. We served. We all returned from reserve duty more disillusioned than ever, having been forced to take part in a war with no real goal other than political survival of the Netanyahu regime, continuation of the occupation and destruction of the Palestinians. This comes at the expense of our brothers and sisters still being held hostage by Hamas for over 1.5 years.

But this work doesn’t stop if the war ends tomorrow. We are not just resisting the war. We are building something larger: We are building a movement to fight for accountability, for responsible and just policy, an end to the occupation and to endless wars, and a commitment to the sanctity of the lives of everyone

The response to our activism has been swift. Police violence. Intimidation. I myself was beaten at a protest by the police because of our work. They escalated immediately—out for revenge, not order. Their aggression tells us something important: they see this movement as a threat. Reservists who've refused also began to receive fines from the army, trying to scare us and demoralise. But we are showing new and potential refusers everywhere that we are here for them, and we are ready to organize with them. We will cover the fines and provide them with legal support. The government should be scared of us. Something is changing. People are listening. The cracks are widening, and we are not backing down.

We need your help. We need your help to continue growing and organizing and to show any refuser that they should not be scared to resist, we have their backs. Please consider donating if you can. Together we can end this war.

Israel jails 18-year-old refuser

Mattan here. I am the executive director of Refuser Solidarity Network and a refuser who spent 110 days in prison. Today I would like to update you about a new refuser who is currently in prison. Last month, Israel imprisoned 18-year-old activist Ella Keidar for refusing to join the Israeli military in opposition to its genocide. We are standing in solidarity with Ella’s decision, with all of its bravery and of course hardship. Ella wrote a moving public letter addressed to the world about her journey towards refusal as a journey home: a journey towards oneself, one’s humanity and one’s right to demand another world. We are attaching her letter to the world and call on our supporters to send her support letters and to share it widely. 

I know from my own time in prison how meaningful were these letters of support from people around the world.

My name is Ella Keidar Greenberg. I was raised to be a man and a soldier. At the age of 14, I came out as a trans woman and rejected society’s dictation of gender. Now, at the age of 18, I am refusing to enlist, and rejecting society’s militaristic dictation. 

Shortly after coming out, I found the communist manifesto in my grandmother’s library. I spent the next two years reading books about political philosophy and Marxist theory. Through reading, I developed a deeper understanding of the bloody history and present of the place I live in. With the protest movement against the judicial coup, a path manifested for me to convert the frustration I felt into hope and political action.

I quickly joined the struggle against the occupation as an activist and organizer. First in the anti-occupation bloc and the weekly protests in Kaplan Street, and later in the Mesarvot Network, in the Communist Youth Union, in Hadash (DFPE) and in the Communist Party. Since then, activism has turned into the center of my life. 

I organized a mass protest against transphobic propaganda, protested with Palestinian activists against land theft as soldiers shot stun grenades and rubber bullets at us, blocked roads, got injured by cops and from violent evictions by border police, organized a mass refusal campaign under Youth Against Dictatorship, did protective presence and joined co-resistance in Masafer Yatta, and now – I am refusing.

The main reason for this act, is that my country is committing a genocide n Gaza. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in bombings, intentional destruction of infrastructure, starvation, and indiscriminate fire. Millions were torn from their homes, and continue to exist in a state of displacement since. This has been the daily reality in Gaza for the past 18 months. All for a war that was supposedly meant to bring the hostages back home, but in practice, abandons them. The war of annihilation has not passed over the West Bank, with escalating settler violence, supported more than ever by the army.

Dozens of villages, ethnically cleansed as if they never even existed, and entire neighborhoods destroyed and depopulated as part of the destructive operation in Jenin and Tulkarm. Now that the government has returned to its campaign of destruction in Gaza, this situation is expected to continue to worsen.

Inside Israel we are witnessing police political persecution of left-wing activists and Palestinians on scales not seen since the period of military rule between 1948-1966, arrests over statements on social media, protests and civil organizing. There is an intentional systematic neglect of Arab society to murderous organized crime, 24 living hostages still waiting to return to their families, a horrific economic crisis that is affecting working people first and foremost, a 65% increase in domestic violence that is tied to the 40% rise in civilian firearms. Additionally, we have seen a surge in violence against the queer community and a simultaneous cut of its governmental budgets, and that same judicial coup we blocked roads against just moments ago, is now being rapidly legislated under our noses. 

These are not processes happening separately from the genocide in Gaza. These systems are not just the soldier standing at the checkpoint, the boss that pays too little, or the people outlawing our gender and medical autonomy, but also the education into these institutions, the sum of all social mechanisms that prime us into obedient subjects of the system. This logic is what trans people, like refuseniks, undermine. That’s why we’re so scary, because the existing system and its reproduction is insured by us – the people, staying disciplined and obedient.

But obedience brings us nothing but oblivion. The decision makers of the military and government clarify again and again that they have no interest in the stability of the ceasefire agreement, in our rights, or in the return of the hostages. Their interest in us is limited to our function as canon fodder for the extermination and expansion industry.

Dark regimes and the horrors they enforce don’t collapse by the citizens obeying the law and doing what we’re told, hoping someone upstairs will come to their senses and understand this has to stop. Faced with the reality of mass extermination, of systematic neglect, of trampling on rights, of war – the imperative is refusal. Don’t stay complacent: gather, organize, resist. In 40 years, when our grandchildren ask us what we did during the Gaza genocide, during the collapse of the old order, if we gave up or if we put up a fight, how will you rather answer?

I know what I’ll answer: that I chose to resist, this is why I am refusing.

We are on the brink of mass refusal

The Israeli government has broken the ceasefire and resumed its brutal bombing campaign in Gaza. Bombs are falling again, more lives are being lost, and the forever war is marching on. But this genocide is not inevitable. The government’s decision to dive back into its cruel campaign comes in direct opposition to wishes of the hostage families, who are furious. The streets are flooding with protesters calling for a stop to the war and a return to the ceasefire. The police are violently attacking anyone opposing the war. “Refuse!” – generally a taboo call in Israeli society – is quickly making its way into everyday speech. Reservists being called up right now are facing a contradictory moment: the choice is between the lives of the Israeli hostages and the Palestinians of Gaza on one hand, and endless war with no end on the other. Stories of reservists refusing to resume their service – including those serving in the air force and intelligence – are being widely reported in the Israeli media. Now more than ever, the time is ripe for more people to join the refuser movement, and we need your support to organize every reservist sitting on the fence into a coherent front: stop the genocide now!

We are on the brink of mass refusal. Our organizers on the ground are working to bring in more potential refusers to our movement, and we are counting on our supporters across the world to continue funding this work and even expand it. We need to seize the moment now, and fast, in order to put a stop to the killing of hundreds of Palestinians daily. More soldiers are questioning, resisting, and refusing to take part in war crimes. But they cannot do this alone.
 

Your donations make our work possible. Your support will help us to maximise the potential of this turning point and end the genocide. We cannot stress this enough. Our field organizing is a direct result of your backing. Right now, we need our organizers in the streets and on the phone, talking to protesters and reservists who are disillusioned with the government’s decision to break the ceasefire and sacrifice the hostages while murdering dozens of children in their sleep everyday. Join our efforts by donating today. Encourage your friends to match your support if possible.

 The Israeli government has made its choice. Now we must make ours. Stand with those resisting from within. Stand against genocide. Stand for a real future, not more war. 

Refuse the war – join RSN at our upcoming webinar

Atalya here. I am an activist, and I spent 110 days in jail after refusing to serve in the Israeli military in 2017. In just one week, we at Refuser Solidarity Network are hosting a crucial webinar alongside our friends at Veterans for Peace and World Beyond War. Together, we’ll discuss the Israeli refuser movement, the role of U.S. militarism, and how we can build a truly international coalition against the war economy fueling Israel’s assault on Gaza

Join us on Sunday, March 16th at 12:00PM ET by signing up here and let your communities know about this important event.

If we want to put a stop to the Israeli military-industrial complex, we need a global movement that is not just in solidarity with Palestinians, but internationalist in strategy. Western tax dollars fund Israel’s genocide, just as Israeli and Western arms dealers make record profits. The war economy knows no borders—neither can our resistance. Join us on Sunday, March 16th at 12:00 PM ET by signing up here, and help spread the word. Now is the time to build cross-border resistance to war and occupation. Only together will we triumph.

In solidarity,

Atalya Ben-Abba

Media Coordinator

Refuser Solidarity Network

As the olive harvest ends in the West Bank, Gaza does not feel so distant

The Palestinian olive harvest season has come to a close, a turbulent time when families and generations come together to harvest the fruits of their land against the lingering if not present threat of settler and military violence. Often accompanied by Israelis and internationals offering their presence in solidarity, the crowds of youth and veteran activists pick olives alongside Palestinian landowners in order deter militarized settlers from unleashing their most brutal violence. What unites the old and young solidarity activists: many of them are military refusers, and not by coincidence. The connection between solidarity with Palestinians and the refuser movement is what fuels the overwhelming presence of draft dodgers in villages dotting the West Bank during the olive harvest and year-round. The work involves documenting settler and military violence, deescalating and mediating, and even putting our bodies in between the assailants and Palestinians.

Our goal is to allow Palestinians unfettered access to their own so that they can rightfully reap its fruits, against the wishes of West Bank settlers backed by the Israeli military. For those opposed to Israel’s forever wars in Gaza and Lebanon – and every other war – access to land, freedom of movement and autonomy for all Palestinians are why we refuse to serve in the military, why we make our way to the olive groves. Refuser Solidarity Network is diligently documenting the olive harvest and news from the anti-war movement fighting for justice on the ground: follow our page Voices Against the War on Instagram and Twitter to inform your own solidarity work with Palestine.

On my most recent visit to the West Bank, me and my friends headed to Masafer Yatta, just south of Hebron, to join the last days of the harvest. We operated like itinerants: we started picking alongside the family we originally came to see before moving onto other groves, meeting new families we spotted from across the road and helping them wrap up their harvest. I had met a set of brothers, their wives and their children on one of these excursions. All of them hailed from a large nearby city where the brothers all worked as teachers, while they tended to their small parcel of land outside the city to make extra income from the annual olive harvest. Their extra source of side income has become a dangerous business: the settlers and the army regularly trespass on their land and physically threaten them. When they are not present on their land, their olive trees are threatened by arsonists from nearby settlements, a now ubiquitous phenomenon. The settlers are as keen to defile the land itself as they are to attack the Palestinians who tend to it.

The images of olive trees aflame that have made the rounds online are not so distant from the footage of American-made weapons enshrouding entire buildings in fire and smoke in the Gaza Strip before the ceasefire. Refusing the war also means refusing ecocide in all its forms: across Israel-Palestine, the military is determined to push people off of their land by destroying the land itself. RSN and local activists have documented some of these cases in the West Bank on our platform Voices Against the War at the same time as researchers are framing Israel’s assault on Gaza as ecocide. The soil in today’s Gaza is contaminated, while half of the Strip’s farmland and tree cover has been decimated by some estimates. With greenhouses also destroyed throughout the Strip, Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure is almost entirely decimated, a process advancing in the West Bank although at different rhythms and in different forms, which refusers and activists have witnessed during the olive harvest season and beyond.

As an anti-war and refuser movement, RSN is invested in identifying the connections between the West Bank, Gaza and Israel-Palestine as a whole. What seem like distant realities are deeply linked, notably the ecocide in Gaza and the settler and military violence destroying generations-old ecosystems in the West Bank, right before our eyes. When we refuse, we refuse the state of affairs from the river to the sea in its entirety: the genocide, the removal of people from their lands, the destruction of local ecosystems, and the sacrificing of Israeli children to advance these processes of Palestinian dispossesion. That is why our platform Voices Against the War documents resistance on a diverse range of fronts, where you will see current and former refusers on the front lines of dissent. Keep your communities informed: tell them about Voices Against the War to stay updated on internal resistance to Israel’s crimes. Follow and share our Instagram and Facebook pages.

In memory of the Holocaust, we refuse genocide

Mattan here. I am the Executive Director of Refuser Solidarity Network,was imprisoned in 2018 for refusing to serve in the Israeli military. Last week we marked Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would like to share with you a piece that I wrote for +972 Magazine during my imprisonment seven years ago. 

“When I was in grade 11, I traveled to Poland with Hashomer Hatzair [a socialist-Zionist youth movement]. Before the orientation before the trip, my mother told me her family’s story during World War II for the first time. On the fourth day of the trip to Poland, I read my family’s story at a ceremony commemorating the Righteous Among the Nations [non-Jews who saved Jews during the war].

My father’s family is Jewish, from Eastern Europe. My mother is Dutch. When the Germans invaded the Netherlands in 1940, my great-grandfather Richte Taklenbroch was 28, married with three children. The Germans conquered the Netherlands in three days and quickly forced all Dutch young men to enlist in work camps to serve the German army.

Richte, my great-grandfather, refused to enlist, and joined the underground resistance. He hid in the family’s house in their village. At the same time, he attempted to join the resistance, to look for other ways to fight back against the Germans. Through the resistance, he met an old, Jewish couple and a Jewish woman. The three spent the last two years of the war hiding in Richte’s house. They would hide in a large closet, along with my great-grandfather. They could only leave the house at night to get fresh air. The resistance provided food rations for Richte’s guests. His wife would purchase food at different places in the area to avoid arousing any suspicion.

During the war, Richte’s family hid other Jews who would come to the house for one or two nights. Richte’s daughter, who was 10 at the time, was angry at her parents because she feared the punishment that awaited them if they were discovered hiding Jews. My grandmother was young then and didn’t understand the danger.

When the German occupation ended in May 1945, the old Jewish couple returned to the city of Groningen. They stayed in touch with the family until they died a few years after the war’s end. To this day, my family in the Netherlands still has a landscape drawn by the old Jewish man who hid in their house; he gave it to the family as a token of gratitude.

After I decided to refuse to enlist in the IDF, I still had occasional doubts about my decision. I asked myself what my great-grandfather would have done in my place. What would he have done were he required to serve in an army that occupies and oppresses another nation?

He wouldn’t enlist, his consciousness wouldn’t allow it. Richte would resist, he would refuse to enlist and he would face the consequences — time in prison.

I am not here to compare the horrors of the Israeli occupation and the Holocaust. However, oppression is oppression is oppression. Saving Jews and resisting Nazism and refusing to serve and resisting the Israeli occupation are different ways, in different times, of fighting the same struggle: the struggle against occupation and terror, against slavery, oppression and bondage. The struggle for a world of peace, justice, and equality for everyone.

My family’s story made a strong impression on me. It inspires me. Richte taught me a lot. He taught me that the majority is not necessarily right, that morality and conscience are greater than the law. Most of all, he taught me that the answer to injustice is resistance. My great-grandfather is an exemplar, and I feel proud to follow his example. In the face of injustice, conscientious objection is a moral obligation.”

One week after the world marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we continue to fight for an end to Israel’s wars of aggression in the shadow of its ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. With the news of Trump’s plans to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip – and the completion of a riviera on the ashes of those killed in Israel’s murderous war – we continue forward with our struggle. Our refusal to serve genocide is not new, part of a much longer story. Never again is now, for everyone. In the face of the genocide in Gaza and Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan, conscientious objection is a moral obligation and resistance is our duty.

In solidarity,

Mattan Helman

Executive Director

Refuser Solidarity Network

Only we can keep the ceasefire intact – and end the occupation

The struggle for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people is not over, but for a moment it is possible to breathe. As a ceasefire agreement finally entered its first phase on Sunday, the world is experiencing a sigh of relief, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are slowly returning to their towns and cities across the Strip, where most homes are uninhabitable and the ceasefire agreement lays out a temporary “caravan city” for the displaced. In the West Bank, Palestinians are rejoicing with fireworks and flowers as prisoners return home to their families as part of the hostage exchange deal, while Israel holds thousands of other Palestinians hostage in administrative detention without trial. Israelis, meanwhile, are watching hostages return home in publicly-televised events in squares across major cities, with none of Israel’s major war objectives having been reached despite a year-long genocide.

We are celebrating this moment alongside the world, but are already looking towards the future that only the global movement in support of Palestinian freedom can usher in. A ceasefire in Gaza does not mean we cease our work, particularly given the uncertain future of the ceasefire deal. The ceasefire is only the beginning. At Refuser Solidarity Network, we will not stop until we see an end to the occupation, apartheid and Jewish supremacy. Right now, we need to make sure the ceasefire deal is seen through and to ensure we do not return to an occupation of the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Netanyahu has sent Israeli forces to invade the West Bank in large numbers hoping to derail the deal, meaning we need to act now. Our growing refuser movement is well-equipped to do just that, and we need global support to do so. Join the refuser movement to demand a real ceasefire deal with a clear way out of this war by helping us grow our movement: send this newsletter to your friends and communities.

A real ceasefire deal delineates a clear way out, but the deal laid out last week is hazy and uncertain. Several questions immediately come to mind, unanswered by the deal itself, mainly: who will control the Gaza Strip? This and many other questions remain to be worked out, and could lead to the derailing of the deal at any moment. On the ground, we are working to organize existing and potential refusers to resist the war effort and demand the ceasefire come to long-term fruition. For this ceasefire to hold, we need a wave of refusers who will object to any continuation of the tragic war and genocide. Our refuser movement is also preparing to resist any sort of post-war plan that sees a return to the occupation of the Gaza Strip in any shape or form. 

We will continue to support groups like Soldiers for Hostages and other refusers, diverse in their politics, united by the immediate goal of putting a stop to this war in its totality and bringing a real end to the genocide. From there, a long road lies ahead. Join us and let your communities know about our work.

Israeli government threatens to arrest, prosecute growing refuser wave

Last month, we were excited to bring the news of over 130 army reservists publishing an open letter threatening to refuse military service unless the Israeli government concedes to an immediate hostage deal and ceasefire to end the war. War-time refusal in Israel at this scale is rare, unseen in decades. Now, the threat of a growing refuser movement is felt more than ever. The Israeli government feels the heat, and is threatening to arrest and prosecute the reservists. We are ready to back these refusers against retribution so that our movement continues to grow, and are ready to provide legal aid and assistance as we have done countless times in the past. Help us provide legal aid and assistance to protect this refuser wave against this impending backlash.

"[The letter published by the 130 reservists] needs to be suppressed with all the force and with what the law allows.” These are the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported widely across the Israeli press just last week. Yet another Israeli government minister is calling for the letter’s signatories to be jailed immediately. As our collective movement grows, the Israeli state knows that it holds the potential to grow and cripple the military by force, and it is now responding. Since the letter’s release, nearly 35 more Israeli soldiers have come forth and joined the valiant call to refuse service.

The Israeli military’s daily operations depend on reservists. They are the fighter pilots that drop American bombs on the Gaza Strip, the intelligence and logistics that make it all possible behind the scenes. The Israeli military cannot carry out its wars without them. That is why our movement is so potent: war refusal can bring the country to a standstill, no less. Historically, this is how wars are stopped in Israel.

Real opposition to the war is becoming de facto illegal in Israel right now. Palestinian citizens of Israel are regularly imprisoned for sharing posts to social media daring to even sympathize with Palestinians in Gaza. Protesters are met with police violence. We need to protect refusal as the most formidable avenue to end this war now.

If we let the government succeed, our movement is at risk. We are at a critical juncture: if we stave off the threats against the refusers, more will be encouraged to join and refuse service as well. We need our global network to stand behind us in this utterly decisive moment. Please consider donating to allow us to support refusers with legal aid.

One year into Israel’s genocide, we honor the dead through resistance

My name is Atalya, I am an activist, and I spent 110 days in jail after  refusing to serve in the Israeli military in 2017.I also manage Refuser Solidarity Network’s social media platforms “Voices Against the War”. I never thought that years later, I would be marking one year of an ongoing genocide, alongside 76 years for the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. Since the war’s outbreak,  I have taken part in and documented countless demonstrations and actions calling for an end to the genocide and the occupation of Palestine, alongside activists and refusers who continue to call for an immediate ceasefire, a just hostage deal (the release of both Israeli and Palestinian hostages) and freedom for all. But Israel has not stopped committing its crimes. Some days, I find myself consumed by hopelessness as the genocide in Gaza is livestreamed to a world that marches on. But I also know that it is my duty as a person living here and as a civil resister to continue fighting against the occupation and against the genocide. It is my duty as a refuser myself to continue supporting the Israeli refusers who have the power to stop the genocide. Join me and support the Israeli refuser movement by signing our solidarity statement, and send it to your communities.

While Israel debases those who were murdered on October 7 – and those still alive and in captivity –  by continuing its genocide in Gaza, we insist in honoring them through our resistance. As words fail us, as we try to grasp for the ability to describe unseen levels of immiseration and displacement, little room remains for symbolism. All we have is our resistance against the occupation, apartheid and genocide, our only remaining tool to honor the memory of those lost and save those waiting to come home to their families, Palestinians and Israelis alike. 

Our struggle is one that is in total solidarity with Palestinians themselves fighting for a different future, one of justice for everyone from the river to the sea. We fight so that the oppression before October 7, the atrocities of October 7, and the genocide that followed it will never happen again. Our vision of honoring the dead is to fight for the lives that they could have lived, insisting on the conditions that could have allowed them to keep on living. As Israelis, we recognize that the victims of the October 7 attacks lost their lives on the altar of Jewish supremacy, a system maintained on the backs of the Palestinian people. That is why we continue to see refusal as the way forward. This is the only path that allows for Israelis to refuse the state of affairs, to refuse to kill and be killed, to refuse to oppress in the name of ethnic supremacy, revenge and an illusionary sense of safety.

Join us and support the Israeli resistance, not the genocide. Your support allows us to bring more war refusers into our movement, and to offer an alternative for the growing number of Israelis who recognize that we need a different path forward. Please sign and share our solidarity statement with your community, and let the world know you back war refusers in Israel and the world over.

In solidarity,

Atalya Ben-Abba

Social Media Coordinator

Refuser Solidarity Network