Israeli Refusers in 2014: The Open Letter Against Serving

Over 50 Israeli Soldiers Refuse to Fight and Call on Other Conscripts to Resist Military Order

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In July 2014, as Israel fought a war in Gaza, a group of about 50 Israelis published an open letter saying they would refuse to serve in the army. The signatories included reservists, former soldiers and young people about to be drafted. An English version ran in The Washington Post on 23 July 2014 under the headline "We are Israeli reservists. We refuse to serve." Around the same time, Israeli anti-militarist groups reported that dozens of soldiers and reservists had refused to take part in the fighting, and that some had been sent to military prison.

This was a small minority in a country where military service is compulsory and widely seen as a civic duty. Still, the letter drew attention because it was published in the middle of a war, and because its authors challenged not just one operation but the central place of the army in Israeli life. Here is what the letter said, the background to conscientious objection in Israel, and what came next.

The war that prompted the letter

Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July 2014, after weeks of rising tension and rocket fire from Gaza. A ground invasion followed on 17 July and ended on 5 August. An open-ended ceasefire took effect on 26 August.

The human cost was heavy. Main estimates put the Palestinian death toll in Gaza at between roughly 2,125 and 2,310, with more than 10,000 wounded; most estimates found that a majority of those killed were civilians, though Israeli officials gave a lower civilian share. On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed. Public support for the operation inside Israel was high, which made open refusal especially controversial.

What the open letter said

The letter was not mainly about tactics in Gaza. Its authors argued that the army's influence runs through Israeli society: shaping how people see the world, who is valued, and which voices count in national debates. They wrote that the military's categories decide who is "good" and who is "evil", and that its dominance helps explain why non-military solutions to the conflict are rarely discussed seriously.

Several signatories had served in support and administrative roles rather than combat units. Their point was that even these jobs keep the system running, and that refusing at any level was a way to question it. They called on others, especially those facing emergency call-up notices, to refuse as well.

The letter was first circulated in Hebrew and gathered more names as the war continued. Reports at the time described the signers as "past, present and future soldiers", a phrase that captured the mix of veterans and teenagers awaiting conscription.

Refusers named in 2014

Alongside the letter, activist groups published accounts of individual refusals. Yesh Gvul, an organisation founded by reservists in 1982, posted on Facebook that dozens of conscientious objectors had refused to take part in the operation. According to that post, at least one reservist received a 20-day prison sentence, another refuser was sent home, and two military doctors left their base. The group said the details of other cases were unclear, so these figures should be read as reported claims rather than official statistics.

The same post mentioned Uriel Ferera, an 18-year-old who had refused his draft order and was then serving his fourth consecutive term in military prison. Repeated short sentences for the same refusal are a familiar pattern for Israeli objectors whose claims are not accepted. Another young man, Udi Segal, was reported to be planning to declare his refusal at a public protest.

New Profile, a feminist anti-militarist group, said around 30 reservists had contacted its counselling network for help avoiding emergency call-ups. The petition itself was hosted on the website of the Lo-Meshartot ("We don't serve") campaign.

Conscription and conscientious objection in Israel

Military service in Israel is compulsory for most Jewish citizens, as well as Druze and Circassian men. In 2014 men served about three years and women about two. Afterwards, many remain liable for reserve duty until around age 40, which is why reservists, not only teenage conscripts, can face the choice to refuse.

Exemptions exist on religious, medical, psychological and other grounds. In 2013 around a quarter of potential conscripts were exempted, most of them for religious reasons. Pacifists can apply to a special committee that assesses whether their objection is sincere, but only a few people a year are granted exemption this way. Others refuse openly and accept prison, are released on mental-health grounds, or quietly avoid call-ups.

Refusal has a long history. Yesh Gvul ("There is a limit") grew out of the 1982 Lebanon War and promotes "selective refusal": serving in some roles but not in occupied territories. New Profile was founded in 1998 by mainly female activists and runs a network offering free counselling and legal help to around 1,000 people a year. Groups of high-school students, known as "shministim", have also published refusal letters at intervals since the 1970s.

How Israelis reacted

Most Israelis rejected the refusers' position. The army and politicians across the spectrum tend to describe refusal as a fringe phenomenon that undermines a citizen army. Supporters of the refusers see it as an act of conscience and a test of whether Israeli democracy allows dissent on its most sensitive issue.

A few weeks after the war, in September 2014, a different and more widely discussed letter appeared. Forty-three veterans of Unit 8200, the army's elite signals-intelligence unit, said they would no longer take part in actions that harmed Palestinians in the occupied territories. They had delayed publication until the fighting ended so it would not be seen as an attack on the army during wartime. That letter drew sharp criticism from the defence minister, opposition leaders and around 200 fellow reservists who published a counter-letter.

Taken together, these episodes show a recurring pattern: refusers are few, the backlash is strong, and the debate they start is about much more than any single military operation.

A wider argument about the draft

The original version of this story ended with a video presenting the economist Murray Rothbard's case against conscription. Rothbard (1926–1995) was a leading libertarian thinker who argued that compulsory military service is incompatible with individual freedom. His view represents one strand of the debate; others defend conscription as a fair way to share the burden of national defence.

Whatever one thinks of Israeli policy, the 2014 refusers raised a question every country with a draft eventually faces: what should happen to citizens whose conscience will not let them obey a call-up? Israel's answer, a narrow exemption process and repeated short prison terms for those who fall outside it, has been criticised by human rights groups and defended by those who see universal service as essential to national security.

Sources: The Washington Post: "We are Israeli reservists. We refuse to serve." (23 July 2014); Yesh Gvul Movement, Facebook post (July 2014); Wikipedia: 2014 Gaza War; Wikipedia: Refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces; Wikipedia: Conscription in Israel; Wikipedia: Yesh Gvul; Wikipedia: New Profile; Lo-Meshartot petition. First reported by True Activist. Photo credit: facebook/yuyume.

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