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