Just last month, 18-year-olds Ayana Gertsmann and Yuval Peleg publicly refused mandatory military service in the Israeli occupation forces. By refusing service, they are refusing the genocide, occupation and extermination of the Palestinian people. At such a young age, they are now part of a much longer lineage of resistance to colonial wars by refusing to sacrifice herself on the altar of ethnic supremacy. We stand in solidarity with Ayana and Yuval who are setting an example for us all on how to stubbornly refuse in the darkest of times, and call on our supporters all over the world to let your communities know about Ayana and Yuval. As they sit in a military prison for their brave decision, we need all of our friends abroad to forward Ayana's public letter below to everyone you know, and more importantly, send Ayana and Yuval a letter of support at this link. Below are Ayana’s words to the world:
My name is Ayana Gerstmann, I’m 18 years old, and Israeli law dictates that I must enlist. I have decided to refuse to enlist, as my morals have obligated me to do so, and I choose to act accordingly.
I was raised in a family that often mentioned the moral failure that is in the military service. And yet, at a young age, I did not fully understand what that moral failure of the military service, that my mom would often talk about, actually was. I had no idea what was happening around me: what were the territories and what was the occupation. I remember that in 4th grade I participated in my school’s Jerusalem Day ceremony. I danced, sang and recited nationalistic texts without even imagining that there is a problem with the joyful celebration of what was displayed to us as the “Unification of Jerusalem - The Eternal Capital”.
A year later, in 5th grade, my political ignorance had been shattered. In the days before Jerusalem Day, we were given a research assignment about important places in Jerusalem. It is clear to me today that the goal of that assignment was to strengthen my nationalistic tendencies, but its outcome was the opposite. I read about East Jerusalem, and for the first time was exposed to it as it was depicted in the B'Tselem website. Suddenly my eyes were opened to what hid behind the national pride celebrations I had participated in a year earlier - occupation and oppression. Suddenly, and at once, I had been made aware of the deep suffering of millions of people, that prior I hadn’t even known existed, whose freedom is crushed day by day, hour by hour, by the occupation regime.
From that moment, the realization that I absolutely cannot be a bolt in the military system that is enforcing the occupation regime, and making the lives of the Palestinians miserable as a policy, had been growing. I will not be part of a system that is routinely expelling communities, killing innocents, and allowing settlers to take over their lands. Since October 7th this realization had come to its peak due to the army’s actions in Gaza. Since the start of the war tens of thousands of women and children had been killed, and hundreds of thousands had been displaced from their homes, living today in refugee camps, deprived of their dignity and starving. This humanitarian catastrophe is a result of the army’s actions, the result of the war that has been going on for nearly two years, and has lost its goals long ago. For two years I see bloodshed as a result of a hopeless war of revenge. I see tens of thousands of Gazan children that are born and raised with endless despair, into death and destruction that make up a neverending circle of hate, revenge and murder. I see hundreds of youths my age getting killed as they are sent by the state to eternalize this circle. I see a war that is only endangering the lives of the hostages. And I cannot be silent in the face of these things.
I cannot be silent in a society silence took over. I do not have the privilege to be silent, when I know that everyone around me has long been silent. Israeli society has been seeing the occupation for six decades and is closing its eyes. Israeli society has been seeing Gazan children killed in bombins and is closing its eyes. Israeli society sees the army committing the worst of moral atrocities, and decides to be silent. Israeli society is not ready to acknowledge the atrocities its army is committing against innocents, because people know that once they do, they will be unable to deal with the guilt. And instead of invoking its morality and opposing the atrocities, Israeli society silences every hint of its immorality, justifies whatever cannot be silenced, and labels any opposition of the war as evil, out of a fear that it will label itself as such, if it will dare to look at the truth. Throughout the war I hear the phrase “there are no innocents in Gaza” countless times, and am outraged. I hear this phrase normalized more and more. I see people that wholeheartedly believe that even the youngest of Gaza’s children isn’t innocent, and therefore will be given no mercy. On this I want to say: a child is always innocent! For it is obvious to me that I too as a child was innocent, when I took part in the Jerusalem Day ceremonies. I couldn’t choose otherwise when I read out the nationalistic texts I was told to read, while completely ignoring the Palestinian suffering of which I was unaware. An unknowing child cannot make his own choices, and therefore is innocent.
But now, having matured, my innocence is not unconditional. That is why I know that if I decide to stay silent now that I’m aware of the suffering inflicted upon millions by the army, I will be complicit in the crime. Today I know that I cannot be silent in the face of suffering. I cannot be silent in the face of killing and destruction. And today I know that enlisting in the army is worse than silence: it is cooperation with a system that is hurting millions. That is why I refuse, and do so loudly. I will not cooperate, and I will not be part of the silence that enables the worst of atrocities to be committed in my name. As a citizen of the country I say clearly: the destruction of Gaza - not in my name! The occupation - not in my name! I refuse to be silent, in hope that my voice will open the eyes of others in society, and make them aware of what’s being done in their name, until they stay silent no more.
Please forward Ayana's public letter below to everyone you know, and more importantly, send Ayana and Yuval a letter of support at this link. You are their voice.