How to end this war

Dear Friend,

Shimri here. At the age of 18, I was imprisoned by the Israeli government for 21 months when I refused conscription into the Israeli army. We at RSN spent the last two weeks reaching out to groups mobilizing and supporting Israeli citizens campaigning against the war with Iran and Lebanon. We ask a simple question: how can we help you to end this war?

What we’re hearing from most groups is simple: to mobilize against the war they need resources. If you’re able, please consider making a donation to support war resistance.

Many of these groups are facing increasing repression—demonstrations broken up by police violence, activists detained, and communities intimidated for speaking out. Despite this, people are continuing to organize: holding protests, organizing online events, documenting abuses, and creating spaces where Israelis and Palestinians can work together against the violence.

Support War Resistance

As we speak with organizers, one message comes up again and again: resources are desperately needed. Many of these groups operate on almost no budget. Some need funds for support after arrests and violence, others for transportation to protests, meeting spaces, printing materials, or simply the basic organizational infrastructure that allows for ongoing anti-war organizing. Without financial support, even the most courageous organizing can stall.

If you can, please contribute here. Your support will go directly toward helping these grassroots groups continue mobilizing against the war and building the kind of future that so many people—Israelis, Iranians, Lebanese and Palestinians—are struggling to imagine and create.

This past week, hundreds have been protesting against the Israeli war on Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, calling attention to the thousands of ordinary people killed in the name of defense, at home and abroad. We are amplifying their message, updating our feeds with alternative reporting rarely covered in the press. We will also support them in any way we can, funding as much of the war resistance as we possibly can.
 

Support War Resistance

For me, it is personal. I got to RSN after I was imprisoned for refusing to serve in the Israeli military in opposition to the occupation of Palestine. RSN supported me when I was in prison, and I wanted to support others facing repression. In the same way that my parents did what they could to support my own voice when I was in prison, I feel a similar duty to the young people protesting on the streets of Haifa and Jerusalem despite police violence.

I know firsthand the price of endless war. I grew up in a low-income family, in a country  that invests its tax in warfare and military technology rather than in everyday people. The same way, most impacted by the U.S.-Israeli onslaught are working class, ordinary people trying to go about their lives. Refugees from Lebanon’s south, hundreds of whom have already been killed by Israeli strikes, have no money for shelter as they are pushed North, many forced to sleep in their cars or on the streets under the threat of bombs. Beyond the infuriating stories of thousands of deaths are the stories of tens of millions who are forced out of their destroyed homes, seeking shelter as their livelihoods and worlds are totally upended, barely able to feed their families.

I work as Global Coordinator of RSN today because of this consciousness I developed as a child: supporting war resistance is not just about opposing violence, but about the shared fate of ordinary people the world over.  Right now, we’re working to support war resistance to the onslaught on Iran and Lebanon, and to ongoing work to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Your support can help this war resistance.

In solidarity,

Shimri Zameret
Global Coordinator
Refuser Solidarity Network

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

Attack on Iran: Israeli war resisters say enough

Dear Friend,

My name is Shahaf, I’m an Israeli conscientious objector because I’ve always opposed wars. The war the US and Israeli government just started is illegitimate and unjust, and a true example of why our movement matters beyond just Israel and Palestine. As Israelis we say: This war on Iran must be resisted and stopped.

One way you can help our war resistance is to share our message with others and invite them to sign up to our updates on Israeli war resistance here.

We were inspired to see Iranian citizens show great courage as they rebelled against an oppressive regime. We were shocked with the violent repression they suffered. This is not the first time they took to the streets demanding their rights, but this time it has been massive. The regime's violent repression of their protest has been devastating, and Israeli and American attacks carried out in our names for their supposed freedom are even scarier.

We must resist the war on Iran. We know nothing good can come out of military aggression, it is only civil resistance, nonviolent struggle, that can triumph over an oppressive regime. Many times, as history shows, foreign intervention only strengthens oppressive conservative regimes. Only the Iranian people can create a prosperous future for themselves, and they are on the streets doing so. War is a violent distraction.

From our end, as Israeli war resisters, we know that another war with Iran means loss of life, insecurity and trauma for everyone living between the river and the sea, but those without proper shelter are more likely to suffer. We know that more war and foreign intervention is never the answer, and ordinary people pay the price of Netanyahu’s warmongering. The Iranian people deserve better than being pawns in yet another imperial war

A war in Iran is not going to create long lasting peace in the Middle East. No American or Israeli military action would. We must continue resisting war, must support grassroots movements in Palestine, Israel and Iran. We are more interlaced than ever. Please, help our war resistance by sharing our message with others and inviting them to sign up to our updates on Israeli war resistance here.

In solidarity,

Shahaf Weisbein

Refuser Solidarity Network

We stand with Palestinians against apartheid

Dear Friend,

Ziv here. With Refuser Solidarity Network’s support, I lead the Changing Direction movement, which promotes civil disobedience to combat the Israeli government. Throughout Israel’s assault on Gaza, we led protests and direct actions outside the Israeli military headquarters and the Ministry of Defense. We barricaded ourselves in Benjamin Netanyahu’s party headquarters. We organized direct actions calling attention to the people of Gaza. And now, we are also fighting alongside Palestinian citizens of Israel, who are rising up against years of state neglect, rampant violence in their communities, and an apartheid regime that treats their lives as expendable. They are being killed at record rates: since the start of 2026, 47 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been killed in homicides. That is one person everyday. The far-right government has completely abandoned them as part of a state policy of total neglect and disinvestment, and we refuse to stand by. Changing Direction is not only showing up in solidarity; we are actively organizing to build Jewish-Palestinian partnerships that can challenge this injustice together. If you believe in this work, please make a donation today to help us expand and sustain it.

Over the last few years crime organizations have flourished in Palestinian towns while the state has failed to enforce the law or provide basic safety as part of a policy of neglect. Weapons flood communities. Families are left to fend for themselves. This is not accidental dysfunction, it is discriminatory policy. When violence devastates Palestinian society and the government does nothing, it reinforces a clear message about whose lives matter.

But communities are refusing to accept this reality. Palestinian organizers, local leaders, and families have led powerful protests demanding safety, dignity, and accountability. And we have made the decision to stand with them, not symbolically, but materially and organizationally.

That means showing up in the streets when they call for protest. It means placing ourselves between demonstrators and far-right extremists who arrive to intimidate and provoke violence. It means using our networks to bring more Jewish Israelis into this struggle to witness, to listen, and to act.

Last week, during a nationwide day of disruption led by Palestinian citizens, families blocked roads and organized nonviolent protests across the country. Changing Direction escalated alongside them. We blocked the entrance to the Ministry of National Security, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose policies have deepened discrimination and abandonment. For an hour, we disrupted business as usual and demanded an end to the two-tier system that devalues Palestinian lives.

But protest alone is not enough. We are investing in leadership development and coalition-building so this movement grows stronger, broader, and more resilient. Last week, we held a community organizing training for our activists focused on cultivating new leadership and expanding our capacity. Our goal is clear: to help build a shared movement to confront this unjust reality.

This is the long game. Building trust across communities. Expanding circles of courage. Turning solidarity into sustained power. The government is counting on division and despair. We are building partnership and action instead.

Your support makes this possible. It allows us to train organizers, mobilize quickly when communities call for action, protect demonstrators from violence, and build the coalitions necessary to challenge systemic discrimination at its roots.

If you want to see a different future here, one built on equality, safety, and shared struggle, please donate today to power this work.

In solidarity,

Ziv Roi-Cohen

Changing Direction

Building the foundations for resistance within Israel

Didi here. More than 20 years ago, as a reservist in the Israeli army serving in the West Bank, I refused to be part of the Israeli occupation. In my last message, I shared that Refuser Solidarity Network is shifting our focus toward building the infrastructure necessary to sustain resistance from within Israeli society. I want to tell you more about what that means in practice, and why this moment is so critical. Please, help us to spread the word about the Israeli resistance to your friends, family, and community by forwarding this email to 3 people.

Over the past two years, we have witnessed extraordinary courage from refusers, organizers, and activists who chose to resist genocide, occupation, and apartheid despite immense personal risk. But courage alone is not enough. For resistance to grow, it must be supported by structure: shared knowledge, relationships, and the skills necessary to organize effectively under conditions of repression. Without this foundation, resistance remains isolated. With it, resistance becomes durable.

This is why we are now investing deeply in developing workshops and trainings designed to equip activists and movement partners with the tools they need to sustain and expand opposition from within. These trainings focus on the fundamentals of movement building: how to organize under repression, effective tactics for change, how to build collective resilience, and how to transform individual acts of refusal into broader social and political force.

This work is already underway. We are building relationships with partners across civil society who understand that opposing genocide and occupation requires long-term coordination and shared capacity. We are creating spaces where activists can learn from one another, strengthen their networks, and develop strategies that allow resistance to persist and grow even in increasingly hostile conditions.

What makes this moment particularly urgent is the attempt to normalize what has taken place. As the genocide in Gaza is reframed through the language of “stability” and “post-war order,” there is enormous pressure for dissent to disappear, for people to accept these outcomes as inevitable. Our role is to ensure that resistance does not recede, but instead becomes more organized, more connected, and more capable of challenging the systems responsible for this violence.

Building this kind of infrastructure is slow, deliberate work. It does not produce headlines overnight. But it is essential. History has demonstrated this. From Extinction Rebellion to countless national uprisings, an infrastructural backbone is often what holds these movements together.  Every training strengthens the capacity of activists to continue. Every connection built between organizers makes resistance less isolating and more sustainable. Every investment in movement infrastructure helps ensure that opposition to genocide and occupation remains a material force within Israeli society.

This work is only possible because of your support. Your support helps us provide the trainings, coordination, and care that make sustained resistance possible. Thank you for standing with us. Please, help us to reach more people and make more change by forwarding this email to 3 people in your network.

I was all alone in jail: emotional psychological for refusers

Mattan here. In 2017 I spent 110 days in a military prison for refusing to join the Israeli occupation forces. Today, I support refusers as part of the team at Refuser Solidarity Network. We need a long-term movement to put a stop to the ongoing genocide and forced displacement of Palestinian in Gaza, the West Bank and within Israeli territory. To build a sustainable movement against war and occupation, we also need to support people on another front as they face fines, jail time, and social exclusion: emotionally. We are proud to be backing a psychosocial support program for refusers with support from clinical therapists.. We are counting on you to help us fund this vital program, so that every potential refuser knows they have a support system waiting for them. Consider donating today so we can continue to fund this work and build a durable movement. We are in this for the long haul. That's why we encourage those who can to open a recurring donation plan. 

We, refusers, are often quiet about the social and emotional consequences of refusing to serve the army. As a public-facing activist, I forced myself to put on a brave face and not show the impact prison had on me. I wanted the public to focus on my message: a stop to the endless occupation. I also felt guilty to admit I was struggling because I felt that I could not complain while Palestinians suffer horrendous abuses and crimes against humanity in Israeli prisons and under the occupation at large. But today, I understand that this perspective is unproductive, for myself and for the anti-war movement, as it prohibits self-care, causes burnout, and makes resistance unsustainable. Mental health is not a luxury, but an essential part of resistance and social change.

As a result of my refusal many years ago, I was facing the brunt of social exclusion at the hands of a thoroughly militarised Israeli society. I was forced out of my youth movement and the commune I was living. I lost friends who did not understand and had heated discussions with family members. Military prison, of course, was in itself difficult to bear. In prison I was alone, forced to follow military procedures, and fellow inmates were often violent toward me. The hardest part was that I didn't know when I would be released. I remember a time when I started to feel like I could not handle it anymore. I was conflicted because while I was hurting, It was my own decision to be there by publicly refusing. Until today I carry with me scars from my time in prison.There was no support system for activists at the time. I felt so alone.

Back then I thought that I was the only refuser who struggled. Later on, I realized my struggles were not mine – they are shared by all refusers. In conversations with younger refusers, we decided to form a support circle. We offer an emotional support system through trained therapists that build a support group for past, present and future refusers, where bravery and heroism can be put aside. Our support circle equips refusers with a necessary infrastructure of support and care: they receive emotional and social support, learn coping strategies and hear about each other's experiences. We help refusers to transform their experience from emotional struggles to sources of empowerment. We change the culture of the movement from toxic heroism to self and community-care, and compassion. We also plan to use the knowledge garnered from our support group to publish a self-care handbook with emotional and practical advice for future refusers.

When I refused, our movement did not yet offer this type of crucial support. We need potential refusers to know that if they refuse, we will be there for them. Our psychosocial support forum is only possible because of you, and your support.

We ask all our friends abroad to make a donation today to make this program possible for the long-haul. Only with these kinds of long-term support structures can we give our movement longevity If we want to build long-term opposition to the military-industrial complex and demilitarize the world over, we need structures of care.

We are forcing Israeli society to make a choice

As we close out or end-of-year campaign, we want to begin where it matters most: thank you. Because of your support, we not only reached our end-of-year goal, we surpassed it. That achievement is not abstract. It translates directly into people on the ground, infrastructure that lasts, and the ability to act at moments when silence would otherwise prevail. While a “ceasefire” is in place, Israel and the international community continue to maim and starve Gaza while settler-military violence continues unabated in the West Bank. This year, we are getting organized. Just like we brought opposition to the genocide in Gaza into the Israeli mainstream, we hope to drive a wedge through the heart of Israeli society by forcing a new consensus against the occupation of the West Bank. We need your support: let your friends know about our work and forward them this email so that they can sign-up for our updates from the ground.

Your support over the past year made it possible for Refuser Solidarity Network to help shift the political landscape inside Israel. By investing in field organizers, legal defense, and long-term coordination, you helped turn refusal from a marginal act into a public issue that Israeli society was forced to confront. Conscience was made visible. Taking a side became unavoidable. That work is not finished. But the terrain is changing.

In the West Bank, violence has become bolder, more public, and more normalized. Settler attacks now take place in broad daylight as part of everyday life. Homes are burned, roads are blocked, farmers are assaulted while tending their land, often in full view of soldiers who enable or participate. Just recently, a video circulated of a settler running over a Palestinian praying on the side of the road in the middle of the day. These are not isolated incidents. They are signals of a system that is testing how much it can do openly, and how little the public will be made to reckon with it.

What we have learned from our work over the past two years is that systems like this do not crack under pressure alone. They crack when people refuse to accept the unacceptable, and when people are forced to choose whether they will look away or take responsibility. This is the strategy going forward.

In the same way that we invested in infrastructure and capacity to bring refusal and anti-war organizing into the mainstream, we are now committing to do the same around settler military violence in the West Bank. That means supporting organizers, activists, and groups already doing the work on the ground with the resources they need to grow, coordinate, and remain visible. It means treating this not as a humanitarian crisis to be managed, but as a pressing ethical issue that Israeli society must be forced to face.

Moments like this matter. Violence that becomes routine depends on indifference to survive. Breaking that indifference requires sustained organizing, not one off responses. Because of you, we are able to make that investment. And we need you to continue supporting us, so that we can continue to do this work, and force Israeli society to make choices. Not perfect choices, but the kinds that make a material differences in Palestinians’ lives. Please help us by letting your communities know about our work, and forward them this email so that they might receive our updates too.

Your support now can shape the future of Israel-Palestine

As this year comes to an end, I want to begin with something simple and true: thank you. With your support, we’ve achieved so much this year, and are also so close to reaching our end-of-year campaign goal of $50,000, which will help us fund new field organizers in order to keep the refusal wave alive, despite the so-called “ceasefire”. For those who have the means, we ask that you help us close the gap. We’ve raised $47,000, and our work relies on these funds; without your support, we cannot continue the momentum. Help us close the gap.

Your support over the past year made it possible for Refuser Solidarity Network to show up when it mattered most, standing with those inside Israel who chose resistance over obedience, conscience over compliance, even as the cost of refusal continued to rise.

Now we are entering a narrow and decisive window, Moments of pause after large-scale violence are not moments of rest. They are moments of direction. What happens in times like this determines whether societies move toward accountability and change, or slide back into escalation and denial.

History shows that organized resistance either consolidates in these moments or collapses. That is why this final week of our end-of-year campaign matters so much.

We set a goal of $50,000 to sustain and expand our work supporting refusers and anti-war organizers: legal defense, coordination, political education, and long-term infrastructure for those working to prevent the next war, not react to it after it begins.

We still need $3,000 to reach our goal before the year ends. Every dollar raised in these final days strengthens the ability of refusers to stay organized, visible, and protected at a time when international attention is fading, but risks on the ground remain very real. This is not emergency charity. It is strategic investment in real infrastructure. If you can give today, you will help ensure that the momentum built over the past year does not dissipate, but instead becomes a bridge towards real historical breakthroughs.

Thank you for walking this path with us, and for refusing to look away when it matters most.

21 months in prison taught me this

I am a war refuser, I spent 21 months in an Israeli prison at the age of 18, and today I serve on the board of Refuser Solidarity Network, supporting others who resist war. As the crisis in Gaza and the West Bank continues, groups resisting Israeli oppression are stepping up to continue our struggle. 

You can help - please support resistance to the Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank here.

I have been a peace activist for nearly 30 years, since I was just 13 years old. Throughout my life as an organizer against the occupation, I have experienced periods of intense political hardship, but nothing comes close to the unbelievable loss and pain of the last two years of genocide and horror.

Like you, in the last two years, I witnessed the massacre of 70,000 Palestinians against the will of the global majority. I also witnessed the collapse of the Israeli peace camp after the atrocities of October 7th. During these difficult two years, Refuser Solidarity Network supported, amplified and in some cases incubated the central groups within Israel who resisted and refused heinous war crimes. In confronting the worst crime in Israel’s history, a genocide, we also worked to grow the biggest wave of refusal by soldiers in Israel’s history, a wave that you helped create with your donations and support. Now we need to make sure that this wave does not stop.

I truly believe that we now have an opportunity to end the occupation. Internationally, more than ever, the demand of justice for Palestinians became a majority demand, one that now defines a generation of young activists, so popular that it is likely bigger than international resistance to Apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s.

And Israeli citizens, possibly for the first time, understand their vulnerability. They understand that the status quo in the West Bank and Gaza are not sustainable. Israelis learned the hard way that the siege of Gaza and the occupation in the West Bank are a ticking bomb. And even though this vulnerability is currently exploited mainly by ultranationalist and right-wing politicians, in the long term it offers a real opportunity: to end the occupation.

As someone who just spent six years researching and teaching strategy of social change at the University of Michigan, I know that theory and research on social change say this type of crisis is also a huge opportunity. During the genocide, a significant momentum was created. But now is the crucial time: as the world shifts its gaze from Gaza, we need you to help us.

Today we are asking you to join us by contributing to our campaign: we need to raise $50,000 to support the next wave of refusers. Our call is urgent: support our work by giving to our end-of-year campaign, we are trying to raise $50,000, and are currently only at $35,000.

In 2002, I was imprisoned by the Israeli government at the age of 18 for refusing to serve in the Israeli army. Amnesty International declared me a prisoner of consciousness as I moved through dozens of cells over the years I spent behind bars. For two years, I was forced to internalize that I was a second-class human as prison guards, politicians and military courts made an example out of me and my fellow refusers.

Yet, prison was a period of intense invigoration and pride for me. I refused to bend, and my peers’ and my imprisonment stirred the hearts of many who would go on to join the refuser movement. Upon my release, I helped lead Refuser Solidarity Network, becoming its global coordinator. From a very dark moment in my life, the seeds of something larger than myself were planted.

In my 30 years as an activist for peace and justice, the last two years of a livestreamed genocide were the hardest two years I’ve ever had to bear, more so than my 21 months  in jail as a teen. To see the process that Israel is going through, that my family is going through, that my friends are going through, the normalized support for war crimes and genocide, has left me devastated. As a father to two children, I can only shudder at the impossible thought of losing a child. Over 20,000 children were killed in Gaza.

These were two years from hell, and yet I am proud of the work we have done thanks to you: we supported, amplified and trained war resistance groups in Israel, including the two main groups of soldiers and veterans that started to organize war resistance during the genocide. The period after the war is critical: this is when new groups collapse or thrive. Because we organize for the long term, and towards an end to the occupation and Aperthaid, now is when we have a real opportunity to prevent the next war, the next genocide. And it’s something you can help us with.

We cannot react to wars when they knock, we need to build a resistance front that stops them before its too late, and we need your help to do this crucial war.

My two years in prison were very dark, at times hopeless and scary. At other times empowering and full of hope.

The support I got from Refuser Solidarity Network, from people like you, was extremely helpful and important.

On behalf of war resisters, past and future: Thank you!

A critical moment for the refuser movement

Didi here. More than 20 years ago, as a reservist in the Israeli army serving in the West Bank, I refused to be part of the Israeli occupation. When I joined Refuser Solidarity Network two years ago, one of the main things I wanted to do was to work and develop the reservist side of the movement – I refused as a reservist myself, shrouded with doubt and confusion, and I wanted to give people in my position the tools to refuse as well. Since the beginning of Israel's genocide in Gaza, I knew I had to grow the refuser movement among reservists, who make up most of the recruits serving inside the Strip. In only two years, our work–training organizers, bringing new people into this work, caused to the largest wave of refusers in Israeli history. Now, following the ceasefire, we've entered a crucial new phase. The momentum is undeniable, and we have a unique window of opportunity to grow this movement significantly and make it permanent. The critical need: hire a dedicated reservist organizer. We cannot let this opportunity pass. To ensure we can continue to support the hundreds of new refusers and seize this moment for radical growth, we need $50,000. Your donation will directly help us hire a reservist organizer and build the infrastructure they need.

Reservist refusers were historically the center of Israeli resistance to war and occupation, from the first Lebanon war to the second intifada. They’ve always been there: an internal wave to be reckoned with, a threat to all war efforts. However, over the last decade, few reservists refused publicly as the movement lost steam and coherence. After October 7thwe realized that we would not be able to end the genocide and the occupation without a strong reservist refuser movement. Many of my friends, in the midst of the nationalist uproar, were quick to join the reserves. But they also had doubts, fears, and questions about their service, especially as the genocide continued. From that we started to prepare and build the support infrastructure needed for reviving this movement, and to give resources to the sea of reservists who needed someone to give them a way out.

We started by working to establish “Ani Siravti”, a group of reservists who refused in 2003, and campaign about why they would refuse again. The goal was to seed the possibility that soldiers refuse. After a couple of months, it led to the first reservist's refusal letter and then the establishment of “Soldiers for the Hostages”, a group of soldiers who refused to take part in the war in Gaza. Before the ceasefire, they had over 365 public refusers, the highest number in decades. This resistance was one of the forces that brought the ceasefire. All that was possible due to the funding, strategising and emotional support they received from us, from you.

Now, we enter a new phase, using the momentum to sustain the movement and build it so there will always be a mass of reservist refusers to oppose wars, and to end the occupation. This phase is exciting and challenging, and we need to act fast; that is why we need your support. We need to build upon the existing infrastructure, keep refusers in the movement and continue to expand our circles. We plan to hire an organizer who will do exactly that, a refuser who will make sure the reservist refuser movement will always keep moving forward. We are asking for your support at this time because internal dissent is more important than ever. Help us seize this opportunity to challenge the Israeli war machine from within. Donate to our campaign today. 

Now is the time to grow the anti-occupation movement

Mattan here. I refused in 2017 to serve the Israeli army and was imprisoned for 110 days. Today, I work for Refuser Solidarity Network. With your help, in the last two years, we were able to support the biggest wave of soldiers' refusal since 1948 — a refusal wave that helped end the massacre in Gaza, at least for now. We must leverage this turning point to end the occupation of the Palestinian people. Now is the time: We now need your help to build the anti-occupation movement.  Any gift can help, and as little as $10 can provide crucial training for one activist.

I would like to tell you about our work to create a support infrastructure for anti-occupation and war resistance. We were able to grow and develop effective Israeli resistance initiatives that helped to push for a ceasefire. We are now in a critical moment where we can use the ceasefire to bring the occupation closer to an end.  We need your help to do it by providing training for activists.

Immediately after October 7th, we tried to encourage the Israeli anti-occupation movement to resist the predictable invasion of Gaza, but we did not succeed. The movement was in shock and mourning members who were murdered that day. It caught us all unprepared and unready. This experience sent us on a mission to understand how we can support the movement to respond faster, be more adaptable and have the power not to stop war after it happens but prevent it. We discovered that many successful movements around the world were supported by organisations that provide infrastructure to support, mentor and train activists and new initiatives. We started to develop this infrastructure.

What we do is like a desert greenhouse for cultivating organized anti-occupation resistance, especially focusing on refusal. Its goal: to transform individual grassroots initiatives into a coordinated anti-war movement from within. It provides the support system that new initiatives need to emerge, mentorship to advise and guidance and training to provide knowledge and skills to activists.

We are one of the leading forces of the growing Israeli resistance against the genocide and one of the forces that helped to force a ceasefire. We supported and provided mentorships to initiatives and activists who protest and execute direct action that interfere with the genocidal machine. The most successful, and it is our speciality, was the reservist’s refusal wave which started and was supported by us. I will discuss it further in the next newsletter.

Until today, we have mostly focused on developing and supporting new resistance initiatives. Now we are starting to provide training for activists. Activism is not random actions and hoping for good, but calculated strategic action plans to undermine the power of the regime. We provide activists the knowledge and tools that they need to take action to break the foundation of the Israeli occupation. Training also helps to bring new people and power into movements; this is why training is so urgent to the movement now. With the ceasefire agreement, the movement entered a new phase. The movement has here the opportunity to use the momentum to keep the ceasefire and push for the end of the occupation. We need to create new initiatives that fit the phase and bring new activists from the hostage protests to the anti-occupation movement. That is what training can do, bring new people and create new initiatives.

In order to do that, we need your help. With our $50,000 goal, we will be able to strengthen the anti-occupation movement by training activists. Your gift, even the smallest amount, can make a difference. We do not have millionaires who support us, but normal people, like you, who want peace and justice from the river to the sea. Support the Israeli resistance today to bring the occupation one step closer to an end.

Refusers brought us a ceasefire, now we are in new critical phase

Didi here. As a refuser and the head of Refuser Solidarity Network, I’m writing to you at a fragile moment. News shifts by the hour: one headline declares a “ceasefire,” the next warns of the “reoccupation” of Gaza. Amid the confusion, one truth remains clear: the only force that has ever stopped Israel’s wars of annihilation is the people who refuse to fight them. This ceasefire was not granted by the government or diplomacy. It was forced into being by resistance: by global outrage, by organizing, and by soldiers who said no. Refusers slowed mobilization, broke ranks, and disrupted the machinery of war. Now those same refusers face a new challenge as Israel prepares to reoccupy Gaza under the guise of peace. That is why we are turning to you today. RSN is launching its end-of-year campaign to grow this movement with the momentum of the ceasefire. Netanyahu is betting on silence, on the world’s attention fading so he can deepen control. But we are still here. The struggle did not end but changed phase. That is why we need you today. We plan to continue training organizers, support refusers, and build the movement that can stop this. Help us today to reach our end-of-year goal of $50,000 so that we can continue to support refuser groups, build up their infrastructure, and expand our movement.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have begun sketching plans for a long-term reoccupation of Gaza. New military zones have been mapped across the Strip, separating the west from the east. Armed checkpoints and “buffer areas” are expanding even though they are supposed to be temporary, effectively carving Gaza into controlled enclaves. Displaced Palestinians remain barred from returning home. The Israeli government doesn’t even pretend this is temporary while it entrenches itself in the Gaza Strip. This is a new phase of domination that is poised to expand. We need a strong resistance movement to stop it.

At RSN, we know refusal works. It worked during the Intifada, it worked during this war, and it will work now. Our mission is to make refusal widespread, organized, and impossible to ignore. We support the networks that make it happen: from reservist groups to grassroots activists. Together, we are building the most powerful resistance Israel has ever known, a movement that grows stronger each time someone says enough. But refusal demands resources. It needs us. Because the truth is, the ceasefire is fragile, the fire has not ceased, and the occupation is not over. Yet we have an opportunity to end the Israeli occupation, but it can happen only with real resistance.

But resistance will continue to grow, despite the ceasefire, and in spite of Israel’s plans. Support the movement that makes it possible and contribute to our campaign today. Your donations will provide crucial support in this critical phase. It will allow us to expand our work by building refuser groups’ organizational capacity, mentoring, media consultation and mental health support.

The genocide isn’t over, the terror has just mutated forms

Atalya here. I’m a refuser who objected to military service in 2017 and  spent 110 days in jail. This olive harvest season, Palestinians have faced the deadliest harvest in recent memory at the hands of Israeli settlers and the military, working in unison to maim and kill Palestinians while displacing them from their lands and livelihoods. Earlier this fall, I was in Beita, a town well-known in the West Bank and in the world for their struggle against settlement expansion as part of Zaytoun 2025, which connects Palestinian farmers to activists. As I picked olives, a massive group of masked men appeared. These were settlers, and they often cover their faces despite the army’s willing participation in their terror. The sight of them is an image Palestinians and activists are very familiar with, the sign of a possible pogrom. Before we knew it, 8 cars had been burned, more than 20 people were hospitalized and one was shot. The next day, a 13-year-old child from Beita, Aysam Mualla, fell into a coma after he inhaled tear gas fired by the Israeli military. Two weeks ago, he died. The genocide may be declared over in Gaza by some, but we know that the violence has only expanded, albeit in a different form. The call is clear: we have no choice but to bring more people into protective presence work in the West Bank, just as we did with war refusal by bringing it into the mainstream over the last two years. We need your support, and are asking you, << Test First Name >>: tell your communities to follow our updates from the ground by signing up at this link. We need to expand our global circle of supporters, now is the time for solidarity.

I was in Beita as part of a Palestinian campaign called Zaytoun 2025, which helped connect activists to Palestinian farmers tending to their land. I was regularly faced with the reality that I was also in danger. While Palestinians are the main targets, solidarity activists doing protective presence work are also the targets of settler-military violence at unprecedented levels. Risk has always been part of this work, but we knew that our presence helped to deescalate. But as photos of bloodied activists circulated the internet in recent months, their skulls fractured by armed settlers’ rocks in the presence of soldiers, it became clear to me that we need to expand current efforts. We need more people, local and international, showing up, in the olive grove and in villages, where most people’s only line of defense are their cameras.

If we are to launch a real challenge to the settler-military enterprise, we need to widen our ranks and grow our camp. That is why right now, RSN is focused on shifting our work beyond just war refusal: we are starting to work with the very same people to invite them into other realms, notably solidarity work in the West Bank. We cannot allow more Palestinians to be killed while picking olives, let alone stand idly by as they are pushed off of the lands they’ve lived on and tended to for generations. We hope you can support us: help us begin to expand our work into the West Bank. Tell your community to sign-up for our updates at this link or by forwarding this newsletter.

Israel hopes the ceasefire will stamp out dissent

My name is Didi Remez, and I am writing to you for the first time as the new Executive Director of Refuser Solidarity Network. More than twenty years ago, while serving as a commander in the Israeli army reserves during the Second Intifada, I reached a breaking point. I refused to serve in the occupied territories. It became clear to me that the missions we were carrying out had nothing to do with protecting anyone. They were about dispossessing Palestinians and enabling settlement expansion. Once I understood that, I could not continue. Since then, I have devoted my life to opposing the occupation and exposing the machinery that sustains it. As I enter my new role, I hope to get to know our global community of supporters better: who you are, and what fuels your support of the war refusers movement here in Israel-Palestine. I need you to fill out this form so that we can begin to build international connections of solidarity.

For the past two years, I have led RSN’s work supporting reservists who refused service. In that time, we witnessed something historic. Refusal became visible, tangible, and contagious. People who never imagined refusing began to see it as a real option. Hundreds joined.

I step into this role at a complicated moment. Israel has agreed to a ceasefire, and many are eager to declare that the worst is over. The government presents the ceasefire as closure, as proof that its assault has ended. But anyone paying attention knows the truth. The fire has not ceased. Gaza is still in ruins. People are still dying from the collapse of basic infrastructure, from hunger, from the impossibility of rebuilding. Lebanon is under constant attack. Violence continues every day. A ceasefire on paper does not stop a war machine that has spent decades perfecting the logic of domination.

This moment presents a new challenge. The government hopes that the ceasefire will cool the public outrage that refusal helped ignite. It hopes to demobilize people, to return refusal to the margins. We cannot allow that to happen.

Refusal is not a reaction to one war. It is a strategy to dismantle the system that makes war inevitable. The long emergency continues. The occupation continues. The logic of annihilation continues. RSN will continue to grow a culture of refusal that undermines that system at its core. Thank you for walking with us into what comes next. Please introduce yourself by filling out our form so that we can continue to grow as an international movement.

Fund direct action trainings to stop Israel's extremist government

Ziv here. Over the past two years, alongside hundreds of activists, I’ve taken part in dozens of direct actions from blocking roads to occupying government offices. The peak came last March, when we blocked an Israeli parliament vote during a budget vote in order to send a clear message: no more funding for the endless expansion of settlements! Ministers and Members of Parliament had to leave their cars and walk through a crowd of determined activists. We acted against the extreme right-wing Israeli government that dragged us through two years of bloody war. Again and again, our actions succeeded in drawing public attention and reigniting debate about the legitimacy of the war and the government itself. Many of these actions were led by Changing Direction, the movement I co-founded. In just two years, it has become one of Israel’s most influential protest movements: not only leading nonviolent resistance, but also expanding it. We recruit new activists, and we train them in the practice and spirit of nonviolent struggle. The ceasefire deal and returning of the hostages have ushered in a new phase. Now we need to utilize the momentum to grow our numbers, organize  and strategize around bolder direct actions aimed at justice from the river to the sea. Please support us:  your donation will help subsidize nonviolent direct action trainings. Even a small donation will help fund training for a potential activist.

Ziv getting arrestd at the action in March outside the Israeli parliament building.

During the action in March, my friends and I were repeatedly and violently dragged by police officers. Many were arrested, and some were injured. And yet, we all remained calm, prepared, and committed to nonviolence. The action drew wide political attention. Parliament  Speaker Amir Ohana publicly called to “prosecute the offenders to the fullest extent of the law, and not to settle for arrests and vehicle towing, but to bring them to trial.” But despite this political backlash, all the arrested activists were released the same day, and all charges were dropped,  simply because we had remained radically nonviolent.

That experience taught me two things: first, that widespread nonviolent direct action is one of the most powerful ways to influence public discourse. We changed public discourse and ignited debate in forums across the country. And second, that preparation is everything. Without the discipline to stay calm, determined, and nonviolent under pressure, it would have been easy for the authorities to portray us as violent and illegitimate. That’s why I’ve made it my mission to prepare others for nonviolent direct action. Over the past two years, I’ve personally led dozens of trainings for hundreds of people, many of whom never imagined themselves as “activists.” After these trainings, they joined acts of civil disobedience and faced arrests with courage and dignity while standing up to Israel’s far-right government.

Yet we know this is just the beginning. To truly shift the balance in this land, we must grow the movement of people willing to take part in nonviolent civil resistance, from bystanders to independent anti-war organizers who dream of a more just future. That’s why we’re launching a new partnership with Refuser Solidarity Network,  to create an institute that will spread the tools, knowledge, and spirit of nonviolent resistance to new circles of activists, who will fight to maintain the current ceasefire and oppose endless wars at all costs. Through trainings, skills building and partnerships, we can bring everyday people into our movement. Your support makes this possible. Donate now to help us provide mass training and carry out more direct actions. With your help, we can seize this momentum for a more effective movement for peace and justice.

Protesters march through Tel Aviv in support of 18-year-old refuser

Mattan here. I am a refuser and spent several months in an Israeli prison at the age of 20 for refusing to serve the Israeli occupation. On Thursday night in Tel Aviv, dozens gathered to stand with Daniel Schultz, an 18-year-old who will refuse mandatory military service this Sunday. Together, they filled the street with drumming and chants that carried far beyond the square: “Daniel is refusing and we love her!” and “On the home front and in the field, every soldier is a partner to murder.” 

Daniel’s decision is not abstract. She came of age during the war on Gaza, studying alongside Palestinian classmates whose families were being killed. She saw how their grief, fear, and displacement were treated as background noise to “national unity.” Refusing, for her, was the only way to remain human. We support Daniel’s courage and principled stance at such a young age, and are asking all of our supporters to send Daniel a letter of support. 

Each new generation of refusers expands the space of the possible. When Daniel stands before the military induction center and says no, she will be speaking not only for herself, but for thousands who cannot yet imagine that “no” as an option. She will face isolation, threats, and imprisonment because she has chosen to make visible what the state demands we forget: that participation in genocide is not inevitable.

Refusal has always been the beating heart of this movement. It is the moment when conscience interrupts the machine, when obedience gives way to solidarity. The courage of Daniel and others like her reminds us that even in a time of deep fear, resistance grows.

We stand with Daniel, with her generation, and with all who choose conscience over complicity. Please join us in sending her a letter of support and letting Daniel know that we all oppose the present state of affairs.

The global solidarity movement forced a ceasefire, not world leaders

Atalya here. I’m a refuser who objected to military service in 2017 and  spent 110 days in jail.. We should all be overjoyed by the news of an imperfect ceasefire, first and foremost because Palestinians in Gaza can breathe once again. Even more so, we should celebrate the global eruption of the Palestine solidarity movement that forced this ceasefire by escalating resistance to the Israeli-American genocidal assault on Gaza in recent weeks. There was the Sumud flotilla, the riots in Italy, and here on the ground earlier this month, a group of Israeli activists–friends, comrades, people I’ve stood beside countless times–went to the Gaza border to break the siege in solidarity with the Sumud flotilla approaching the besieged strip. We were met by armed soldiers, and nonetheless fifteen of them breached the fence. Three were arrested. For an hour, they blocked the entry of the very soldiers carrying out the genocide in Gaza. With your support, we were able to bring the news to the world through our alternative media channel: Resistance Solidarity Network. Now more than ever, we are working to bring movement news from the ground to the world in order to inspire our supporters around the world to act. Please donate to support our work through Resistance Solidarity Network, our independent media platform reporting stories like this, the ones Israeli and international media treat as an afterthought.

That hour at the border mattered. It wasn’t symbolic, it was an interruption in the chain of annihilation. It was people putting their bodies in the way of genocide. The activists who crossed the fence acted with the same courage as those aboard the flotilla now imprisoned and tortured in Israeli jails. They include refusers who you’ve supported in the past, like Itamar Greenberg, who spent 197 days in prison, Roman Levin, who spent 82 days in jail in 2019, and others. 

The Gaza border action came amid global escalation as people rose up against the genocide in full force. And while we celebrate the news of the ceasefire and release of all hostages, we must not let the ceasefire aim to quiet our resistance to Israeli colonialism. We need the global movement in solidarity with Palestine to see this ceasefire through, and to insist on ending the occupation. Recent action in support of Palestine suggests that we have the necessary international front to do so. As Israeli activists crossed the Gaza border, the Sumud flotilla attempted to break the siege on Gaza, and Italians marched and rioted on the streets of major cities across Italy as part of a nationwide general strike against the genocide. They blocked trains, highways, ports and more in order to shut down the country. We are seeing a convergence of energies across the world. While the ceasefire seemingly came from above, it was in direct response to global resistance, an attempt at quelling solidarity.

At Resistance Solidarity Network, we are committed to making sure these acts of resistance reach the world. We tell the stories the state tries to bury. Please donate today to keep this work alive. Your support helps us document and amplify the people risking everything for freedom.

Ayana Has Been Released from Israeli Military Prison!

My name is Mattan Helman. I am a refuser who spent 110 days in prison in 2017. I am thrilled to share that the Israeli refusnik, Ayana Gertsmann, has been released from Israeli military prison after one month behind bars! I would like to thank all of you who sent her a letter of support to strengthen her resistance against the genocide. Refusers are asking you to support them in one simple way: share their message. Send this newsletter and invite three of your friends to join our community and resist the genocide. 

Upon release, Ayana stated: "I had the privilege of regaining my freedom and control over my life after one month in military prison. Millions of people do not know a reality in which their freedom is in their own hands. Freedom should not be a privilege! People must immediately get back the freedom that belongs to them – the freedom that the State of Israel never had the right to take away from them."

As someone who was in her place, I can imagine how happy she and her loved ones are now that she has been released after having her freedom taken away from her just for refusing to take part in a genocide. We must remember why refusers are going to prison:They go to prison because they want people to hear about what is happening in Gaza, they want people to know they dont have to comply with the genocide, and to show that another way is possible through refusal, resisting. 

The movement does not end with Ayana’s release. We must support those like Ayana, anyone contemplating refusal, in order to put a stop to the genocide in Gaza and to build a lasting movement against war and occupation. Help Ayana and the refuser movement by inviting three people to join our community to resist the genocide.

Gaza city is under attack: standing with soldiers who say no

Mattan here. I spent 110 days in military prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli occupation army. As Israel escalates its assault on Gaza City, the images are unbearable. Entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, children buried under debris, destruction on a scale words can hardly capture. At the very same time, a new wave of draft orders has gone out, summoning more people into this machinery of annihilation. It is a reminder of what is at stake. Every soldier who refuses has the power to stop this. That is why RSN has devoted most of our resources to supporting reservists in refusal. Thanks to your support, together we have built the most effective resistance against the genocide in Gaza. Many reservists are saying no, slowing the destruction, and saving lives. Please continue to stand with them.

This week I spoke with our partner Max Kresch from Soldiers for Hostages, an organization we finance, support, and help grow in order to end this war. Over the last two weeks, they have run a bold campaign across the country. Billboards featuring Max and other refusers in uniform went up with a single word: “Stop!” The backlash was immediate. The Shadow, a far-right influencer, posted their photos online, calling them “traitors.” Soon enough, the hate and harassment poured in.

And yet, something else happened too. Amid the threats came a wave of support. People saw the absurdity of being branded a “traitor” for wanting to save lives. Messages began arriving from those ready to sign, to refuse, to join. Soldiers for Hostages is growing, even as fear tries to silence them. They now number over 350. Over the past year, we have normalized refusal as a legitimate act of resistance, from just a handful in the beginning to hundreds now. Resist with us. Support refusers.

Together with movement partners, Soldiers for Hostages has also launched a new hotline and resource basket for potential refusers. Many still do not know refusal is even possible within such a militarized society. But now, every day, messages arrive from soldiers and reservists who feel trapped, desperate for another path. Through this hotline, we are showing them they are not alone, that refusal is possible, and that when done together it can be powerful.

The government wants to make refusal unthinkable. We are making it mainstream. Every act of refusal chips away at the system that makes bombings like those in Gaza City, and the draft orders that sustain them, possible. And we will keep building until the cracks become irreversible.

All this is possible because of you and our 21,000 supporters. Your support has created the most powerful resistance to genocide. With your continued commitment, we can bring it closer to an end.

"Resistance Solidarity Network" is making a difference for activists on the ground

Atalya here. I spent 110 days in jail after refusing to serve in the Israeli military in 2017. Now, I’m the media manager at Refuser Solidarity Network. Last week, settlers attacked Palestinians and protective presence activists in the South Hebron Hills. Among them were some of my closest friends, people I have worked alongside for years. Their car, a lifeline for their protective presence work, was smashed beyond use. For days, they were stranded, unable to reach the families who rely on them for safety against constant settler harassment. When I saw their photos and heard their voices, I felt both fear and fury. But within hours, we shared their story on our social media channels, and something powerful happened. People from around the world rushed to help. Donations poured in. Thanks to that fundraiser, my friends now have a repaired car, and they are already back on the road, standing with the communities who need them most.

This is what our Instagram page, until now called Voices Against the War, was created to do. And this is why we are renaming it as Resistance Solidarity Network. Follow Resistance Solidarity Network on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok for the latest news from the ground and calls to action.

For months, we’ve used this platform to report what the Israeli media refuses to show: stories of refusers breaking ranks, settlers attacking villages, activists risking their freedom, Palestinians resisting occupation and genocide, and moments of solidarity that connect these struggles across the world. International coverage often misses or distorts these realities. The Israeli media buries them entirely. That’s why this platform matters.

It is more than news. It is an alternative media channel, a bridge between our movement and its support network. When we post, people in New York, Berlin, São Paulo, and Johannesburg hear what is happening here and act, whether that means donating to a protective presence car, joining a protest, or sharing the testimony of an Israeli refuser.

Renaming the channels as Resistance Solidarity Network reflects what it has already become: a place not only for voices, but for connection, solidarity, and action. It is about building a global network of resistance against genocide, occupation, and militarism.

I invite you to follow Resistance Solidarity Network on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Tiktok. Share our posts, amplify the voices we lift up, and help us grow this bridge between movements.

Together, we will keep telling the truth from the ground, resist, and we will keep building the solidarity needed to win.