How we Defeated Netanyahu, Trump and their “Annexation Plan"

Everyone is talking about Israel's "new peace", and the white house is taking credit for delaying the "annexation" of Palestinian land. On the ground in the West bank It feels almost like an illusion: the daily annexation, occupation and military violence never stopped.

My name is Eden, and in 2014 I publicly refused to join the Israeli army. I'm now a part of a new Israeli youth group, who fought on the streets in the last month against Netanyahu's and Trump's deal. If you want to know what really happened, behind the scenes and away from media summits - continue to read this newsletter. And if you want to help your friends and family learn the truth behind Netanyahu and Trump’s agenda, invite them to sign up for our future updates via this link.

It all started after Netanyahu and Trump announced their illegal Annexation Plan. We initiated “Teen against the Annexation”, a petition which collected more than 400 signatures of young activists from all over Israel. The statement was widely shared on social media, discussed by youth online and reported in the Israeli press. We swarmed social media with stories about the occupation to educate Israeli teens about the atrocities their government send soldiers to commit and to mobilize them against the annexation and in resistance to militarism.

On the 6th of June, to commemorate the 53rd year of the occupation, we joined others in Mesarvot network (which supports those who refuse to be soldiers of the occupation) and participated in a joint Jewish-Arab mass demonstration in Tel Aviv. More than 10,000 people joined, holding “Palestinians Lives Matter” signs and calling for  just peace. It was the biggest demonstration against the Israeli occupation in the last decade (!), and we are proud that Mesarvot members took an active role in organizing it and in promoting it to teens and youth.

 In the following weeks we organized a direct protest in front of the house of the Minister of Defense, and Netanyahu’s vital coalition partner, Benny Gantz. Under the radar, Gantz ordered a special enlistment of reserve army troops, as Israel was preparing for resistance in the annexed territories. The ongoing pressure led Netanyahu to back down from his promise for the settlers and revoke his policy of an immediate annexation in July. Washington and Dubai are stealing the credit of the achievement of left wing activists, as the Israeli halted all preparations for the annexation of Palestine! 

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Now, we directed our efforts toward the ongoing mass demonstrations in Jerusalem. For the past month, a permanent protest zone occupies the area around Prime Minister Netanyahu’s official residence. Thousands of Israelis are coming weekly to protest the political corruption, police violence and destruction of democratic norms by the government.

We chose to join these protests as part of a progressive block with a unique message: End the occupation and liberate the Palestinians people. We hold banners calling for democracy for all and murals of Iyad al Hallak who was murdered by Israeli police. We face police violence and many of us were unlawfully arrested in every demonstration, while others were assaulted by organized groups of pro-government hooligans. Our message is that true freedom cannot coexist with military oppression, and that each one of us has a personal obligation to depart from evil and do good.                               

We need your help!
Please share our updates – With groups and network you are part of, friends and family – and ask them to subscribe to our updates via this link:

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We want to double the number of people who receive our updates and we can’t do it without you! 

 In solidarity,

Eden Lumerman

p.s. - You can support our group by donating here, without your donations we won’t be able to continue our work.

Finally Released - After 74 Days in Israeli Prison

My name is Yasmin Ricci-Yahav, I am 18 years old teenager from Israel. In August 2019 I publicly refused to join the Israeli army, refused to serve the Israeli occupation.
I took this picture outside the Israeli military induction base, just before I was imprisoned.

Being a conscientious objector was hard - I was locked up in jail for 74 days, labelled as a traitor by mainstream media, and had friends and relatives shun me away. But it was also empowering: I had the opportunity to fight for justice and peace. I received an enormous wave of international solidarity that lifted my spirit in prison, and eventually helped lead to my release from prison.
If you want to help future solidarity campaigns for jailed refusers click here.

My imprisonment may have ended but our struggle continues. I decided to spend the next year volunteering in Hadasa hospital in Jerusalem. I have also joined “Mesarvot”, an activist group that supports young Israeli teens who refuse to serve the occupation and help them prepare for possible imprisonment. These days Mesarvot activist are taking an leading role in the struggle against Trump's and Netanyahu's annexation plan, about which you will hear in the next update.


Israel has not stopped drafting teenagers during the COVID 19 lockdown and Mesarvot has continued to educate high school students on the horrors of occupation, as we launched a series of video meetings during the lockdown. At the same time, we helped to raise more than $30,000 to support the health system in Gaza in an online donation campaign we participated in.

I am happy to announce the launch of a new monthly English newsletter - written by us, Israeli refusers and activists fighting against the occupation. It’s a new joint project by Mesarvot and Refuser Solidarity Network, supported by a new international solidarity team. The newsletter you are reading is the first, and we will be sending regular updates about the Israeli refusal movement from now on. To recieve these updates regulary just fill your email in this link.

If you wish to support our movement, and our future campaigns for Gaza and against the annexation, you can pitch in a few dollars a month here. Such recurring donations, even $3, $10 or $15 a month, really help us to develop our movement against the occupation.

Your solidarity, wherever you are at the world, is vital and with it we will one day end the occupation and create the safe and peaceful society for both Palestinians and Israelis.

In solidarity,

Yasmin Ricci-Yahav

Yasmin Ricci-Yahav

Conscientious objector Yasmin Ricci-Yahav arrived last Monday at Israeli Army’s Tel Hashomer induction center and announced for the third time her refusal to enlist. Upon her imprisonment, she said:

"I am 18 years old, and today I will declare my refusal to enlist in the Israeli army for the third time. To date I have spent 30 days in military prison, and I expect to be sentenced for a third prison term. I continue to refuse to enlist in protest of the Israeli army role in the occupation and with the hope that my choice will contribute to a more open and honest conversation surrounding alternatives regarding Israel’s future."

Hilel Garmi

My name is Hilel Garmi. I am 19 years old and since August I am in and out of the Israeli army prison, as a refuser to military draft.

Recently, in the context of the wave of unarmed Palestinian demonstrations at the Gaza border fence, I took the time to read statements by Ahmed Abu Ratima, one of the organizers, and I was deeply impressed to discover people who endorse unarmed alternatives for dealing with the situation between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan. Like them, I believe in civil disobedience- the use of unarmed resistance in order to emphasize the immorality of the regime.

I have an older brother and two older sisters who served in the military. When I was a young child, the army, for me, was not only an inevitable obligation, but also the pinnacle of my aspirations. I wanted to enlist in the most selective commando unit possible.

But when I grew older and I came to understand the present reality between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, I realized enlisting would be impossible for me.

I cannot enlist, because from a very young age I was educated to believe that all humans are equal. I do not believe in some common denominator which all Jews share and which sets them apart from Arabs. I do not believe that I should be treated differently from a child born in Gaza or in Jenin, and I do not believe that the sorrows or the happiness of any of us are more important than those of anyone else. Guided by these beliefs, I had to ask myself what is best for all those living between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. The three million residents of the West Bank and East Jerusalem live under a military occupation or an imposed annexation that have now lasted more than half a century. The two million residents of Gaza were ‘liberated’ from the occupation only to find themselves under a military siege that has now lasted more than a decade and is imposed by Israeli forces on land, on air and by sea. From the perspective of an ideology that regards all humans as equal, such policies cannot be justified.

Such policies are further unjustified because the Israeli regime is elected by eight million citizens, but in actuality, controls thirteen million lives. The most critical decisions concerning the lives of the residents of the West Bank and Gaza are made by the State of Israel’s government. That government decides which residents of Gaza could enter or depart, it decides what they could import or export, when they have electricity, where they could fish, and where they may move freely within the Gaza Strip area. The government of the State of Israel decides where the residents of the West Bank could travel, which lands they could cultivate, and it can opt to arrest anybody at any time. I am not willing to serve such an undemocratic regime, and therefore am refusing to enlist is my only moral option.

These are not just theoretical matters. Beyond violating the principles of democracy which, I believe, should lay the foundation for any just society, the policies of this regime affect the daily lives of five million Palestinians. The siege of Gaza paralyzed its economy and has caused a humanitarian crisis, with people deprived of a functioning electrical system, and of sufficient potable water. The occupation brought about the concentration of West Bank residents into isolated cantons, and has impaired their daily freedom of movement. It oppresses one population – the Palestinians - in order to enable another population – Israeli Jews - to take control of its territory. I am not willing to be part of an army that enforces such policies on five million people.

I know that most countries need to maintain an army for self-protection, but this cannot serve as a justification for any use of such an army. Regarding any regime, one must have red lines which one should refuse to cross, and after fifty years of occupation, my red lines have definitely been crossed.

My initial determination to avoid collaborating with the army and to refuse to enlist was personal. However, during the past year I reached the decision to make my refusal to enlist public. That is because I believe that civil disobedience could affect a societal change by appealing to the sense of justice of those more privileged, who reside between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. Civil disobedience is an appropriate mode of resistance when a regime has lost its legitimacy, and I think that after fifty years without democracy, the regime between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River has lost its legitimacy. The wave of Palestinian demonstrations by the Gaza border fence and the army's reaction to them have rendered that mode of resistance particularly relevant nowadays, and therefore, like those demonstrators, I decided to adopt civil disobedience.

As a person who was born into the more powerful side of the hierarchy between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, I was given the power as well as the obligation to try to fight that hierarchy.

Noam Yaron

I, Noam Yaron, an Israeli social worker, 31, served as a combat soldier and commander in the field intelligence corps in the occupied territories (Gaza and West Bank). 
My message to Israeli soldiers is: Before being soldiers, you are human beings, first and foremost. Each one of you is responsible for his actions, and the responsibility for your conscience is not at the hands of your commanders or the government. One day your compulsory army service will end, and you'll see that there are so many ways of doing good. Don't stain your future now by shooting unarmed protesters. Refuse a blatantly illegal order. 
As part of my service in the occupied territories, we used to position ourselves in clandestine lookout spots. And one time, during operational action, we were exposed by the Palestinian Police. They did not receive instructions to arrest us but we received instructions to threaten them. We were reprimanded in the following debriefing - for not having shot to kill these police officers! 
This terrible order, stipulating: An armed Palestinian = terrorist, and that a police officer, hunter or boy - should be killed, was with me throughout my service, along with other incidents - spreading urine on roofs of Palestinian families, seizing an innocent family's home, forcing all of them into their living room for a whole day - I realized clearly that if I serve in the occupied territories, and unfortunately in the Israeli army in general - I do not maintain our security, but rather - I'm a part of an occupying force which denies basic human rights under cynical politicians. The army doesn't care about my security of the quality of my life.
Today I still believe it's important to make this land better and make the lives of people here better, but I've chosen a new path. I studied social work, I worked for several years as an LGBT youth coordinator and as a social worker I worked with a supportive community for young mentally challenged people. I am now starting a rehabilitation-in-nature project for people with mental disabilities, and I'm active in the Yesh Gvul refusal group. 
I decided my true way of serving this place would be to refuse in accordance with my conscience. Thus, when I received an army call-up, I reported to my unit but refused to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories. I was threatened with a court-martial and imprisonment but was eventually discharged. 

Tair Kaminer

RSN is proud to support Tair Kaminer, age 19, who is now serving her fourth term in military prison for refusing service in the Israeli army. This is the statement Tair wrote before entering prison in January of 2016. Please send letters of support for her to rachel@refusersolidarity.net.

My name is Tair Kaminer, I am 19 and a graduate of the scouts after volunteering for a year in Sderot. On January 10th, 2016 I will report to the induction base and declare my refusal to serve in the military and state my willingness to do alternative civil service. To this reality, I say enough!

There I decided to refuse military service.

Because for years there’s no aspiration to a political peace process, no attempt to bring peace to Gaza and Sderot. As long as the violent military way continues, we continue to create generations of hate on both sides that will only escalate the situation. We must stop this.

My refusal come from my will to contribute to my society and make this a better place. I am willing to pay a personal price and go to jail, as a clear moral position that I will not take an active part in occupying the Palestinian territories and the injustice towards the Palestinian people under occupation, so not to take part in the cycle of hate in Gaza and Sderot.

In conversation with loved ones I’ve been accused of harming democracy by not obeying state laws. But the Palestinians live under military law. Does this seem democratic to you? I have been told that I am avoiding my responsibility to our security. But I cannot accept the security argument as long as it only really applies to Jews. As the latest wave or terror continues, it is clear that the military does not even protect Jews, because one cannot create selective security. True security will be created only when the Palestinian people live in freedom and dignity in an independent state alongside Israel.

As long as we continue to control millions of civilians under military law, Israel will continue to distance itself from democracy. So my refusal is part of the struggle for democracy and security, not of harming democracy and security.

We are told that there is no other way other than the violent military way. But I believe that this is the most destructive way, and that there are others. I wish to remind us all that there is an alternative: negotiation, peace, optimism, a true will to live in equality, safety and freedom. We are told that the military is not political, but serving in the military is a political decision with great significance, exactly like refusal. We, the young people, must understand the meaning of this decision in depth. We need to understand its consequences on our society. After I did so, my decision is to refuse. Military prison scares me much less than our society losing its humanity. I do not want to do things I don’t support and then “break the silence” in hindsight. I refuse, and you should also think about it.