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