What are the costs of opposing joining the Israeli army?

Tal Matnick is an 18-year-old boy-faced teenager who was tried and sent to an army prison in December after refusing to join the army. “A criminal attack on Gaza is not the solution to the carnage committed by Hamas,” Matnik said in an interview at the time. Violence cannot be eradicated by violence, and that is why I did not join the army.”

Matnik is a member of a group called Mesarvot. This group is a network for connecting people who defy the military order to join military service. Mesarvot is also against the occupation of Palestinian lands by Israel.

In Israel, almost everyone is sent to military service after the age of 18 Exemption from service is granted to a person based on religious grounds, for example ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews are exempt from service, but refusing to serve for political reasons is considered illegal.

Matnik was sent to prison for 30 days last month for disobeying this law and was released a few days ago; But he will be sent to prison again this Tuesday to endure another period of imprisonment. In an interview with Al Jazeera news channel, he said that he has been threatened many times by Israeli authorities and officials whom he has not met. but this sentence for Matnik was probably increased due to the fact that it took place in the midst of the Gaza war. In Israel’s heavily militarized society, desertion from military service is considered “treason”. “Refusal to do military service, especially during the war in Israel, means treason.” But he decided to continue the path of Matnik and said: “The process of disobedience based on conscience is not an easy task. This makes you very isolated and pushed out.”

A few months ago, Amnesty International revealed in a report that Israel sent several people to prison for refusing to join the army. And the prison sentence for them has been repeated several times.

Of course, not all rebellions are due to political opposition. The Israeli army is going through hard times in Gaza these days, and this issue has also affected the objections to joining the ranks of the military.

Yesterday Israeli media reported that 21 Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza; An issue that shows how healthy Hamas’ capabilities are after more than 100 days of war.

Of course, this issue is only part of the disputes in the body of the Israeli army, which has a long history. For example, in 2003, a group of Israeli army pilots refused to participate in military operations in the West Bank and Gaza, describing the attack on these areas as “illegal and immoral”.

The protest was significant because it was carried out by a group of elites of the Israeli army. For example, “Yeftah Spector”, one of the generals of the Israeli army, who was known as a legendary figure in Israel due to his role in the attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1982, was also among this group of protesters.

Since October 7, repressions in Israel against the opposition have intensified. In October, Israeli Communications Minister Shalom Karhi called for the arrest of all those who, according to him, are a threat to the “national spirit”. He later tried to restrict Haaretz newspaper for criticizing the war in Gaza.

Kobe Shabtai, Israel’s police chief, said in mid-October that no anti-war demonstrations would be tolerated. . He said that he would send those arrested to Gaza.

This threat of the Israeli police chief came true. The Intercept reported that Israeli officers arrested many protesters, including the families of the October 7 prisoners. In early November, it was reported that Israeli forces had arrested Mahmoud Baraka, a former member of the Israeli parliament, while going to an anti-war demonstration. It is military. I want to tell the world that peace activists and opponents of apartheid and occupation do not feel safe here. Many of them have been attacked, threatened and detained.”

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