From Iran to Gaza: How I refused as a teen, and why another world is possible

Dear Friend,

Roni here. In 2018, I stood in front of the Israeli army‘s so-called “conscience committee” and pleaded my case as a pacifist. Today, I work at Refuser Solidarity Network to oppose war everywhere, whether in Gaza or Iran. Back when I refused, I was eighteen and was only beginning to learn about the extent of Israel’s occupation and decades of dispossession, but I still knew that I had to refuse to participate in ethnic cleansing and revoke my consent. After a long battle, I was finally recognized as a conscientious objector and released from military service. Today, I work with Refuser Solidarity Network to push refusal and dissent from the fringes into the mainstream, passing the support I received as a teen forward to others who need it. RSN works to support war resistance: during the genocidal campaign on Gaza, we supported a movement of soldiers who refused to participate in Israel’s war. We are building the infrastructure necessary to oppose the unjust wars Israel is waging, like the deadly war our government is waging against Iran. Our work relies on global support, people like you passing it forward. Support our work today.

Five years ago, I moved to New York City. Even though I am oceans away from Israel/Palestine, I am part of the resistance movement against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people. In October 2023, as Israel began its genocidal campaign in Gaza, I got arrested with Jewish Voice for Peace at Grand Central station while holding a sign saying, “Israeli against the occupation”. A few months later, I joined a group of Israeli activists to disrupt a gala celebration of Friends of the IDF, an American organization fundraising for the Israeli military. In both the US and Israel/Palestine, I will continue to fight for liberation for all because I know that there is no such thing as military solutions. Ordinary people, primarily Palestinians, Iranians but also Israelis, pay the price of endless war and militarization.

When I refused, I hoped to move my peers towards refusal by showing them another way is possible. My organizing work today, bridging New York City and Israel/Palestine, is an outgrowth of my initial decision to refuse at the age of 18: I want to show the world that another way is possible. That is what brought me to RSN, where I recently started coordinating our social media work, amplifying the voices of Israeli war resistance.

I know that only mass dissent and refusal can produce the openings we need to end the occupation of Palestine and stop imperial wars — and that’s the context of my work in RSN.

I hope you will support us in expanding our work: amplifying civil dissent, providing infrastructure for war resisters, and building bridges between global solidarity movements and people here on the ground, from Iran to Gaza to Jerusalem to New York.

In solidarity,

Roni Zahavi-Brunner

Refuser Solidarity Network