Israeli youths jailed for refusing to serve in army

Maureen Clare Murphy Activism and BDS Beat 2 October 2014

The anti-militarization group New Profile announced this week that two Israeli youths who refuse to serve in the army are once again being sent back to military prison.

Udi Segal, 18, has been handed down a fourth prison term and Uriel Ferera, 19, has been sent to jail for the eighth time; both were issued ten-day sentences on 29 September.

Segal and Ferera are among fifty youths who signed an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year stating their refusal to serve in Israel’s army because of its violations of Palestinians’ rights.

Israeli youths are drafted into the military once they turn 18.

Against the occupation

“We’re using refusal as a tool in the struggle against the occupation, to end the occupation,” Segal says in the above video by Moriel Rothman-Zecher and Yuval Orr.

In the video Segal explains that up until the eighth grade, he was enrolled in one of Israel’s few desegregated schools where Palestinian and Jewish children are educated together.

He was then transferred to a public school “that consistently boasts one of the highest rates of [Israeli military] enlistment, mostly in combat units.”

“It was a jarring transition,” the youth states.

In the video he explains in Arabic that he would tell Palestinians that “there are people who stand with you and that there are young Israelis who are against the occupation.”

Segal, who has two brothers serving in the army, including one who participated in the massive assault on Gaza this summer, told CNN that he has received threats because of his refusal of compulsory military service.

“The basic freedom that people don’t get in Gaza, also in the West Bank, also here in Israel, is because of the occupation. Because of the occupation, I live in a military society, in a violent society, a chauvinistic society,” he said.

“Imagine what they do to Palestinians”

Uriel Ferera as he enters an Israeli military base on 27 April 2014.

Oren Ziv ActiveStills

Before his eighth sentence was handed down on Monday, Uriel Ferera had already spent 127 days in jail.

When Ferera was first jailed in late April, he wore a T-shirt bearing a message of solidarity with fellow refuser Omar Saad. A musician and tennis instructor, Saad is a member of the Druze religious minority which, unlike the majority of Palestinian citizens of Israel, are required to serve in the military.

When he refused to put on an Israeli military uniform, Ferera told Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy, a guard screamed at him.

Ferera, an Orthodox Jew who was born in Buenos Aires and whose family settled in present-day Israel when he was six, told Levy: “I shouted to God in Spanish: Get me out of here. They laughed at me. They said God would not listen to me, and would not get me out of there.”

He added, “I thought: If this is how they belittle me and use force on me, imagine what they do to Palestinian youths.”

Growing movement

There have been several recent high-profile cases of conscientious objectors being jailed.

Natan Blanc was jailed for 175 days before he was discharged in June 2013, according to Haaretz, and Omar Saad was imprisoned for 190 days beginning late last year.

Saad became a well-known face in the growing movement of Druze youths who refuse to serve in the military.

Anan Shaheen, another Druze youth, expected to be imprisoned when he reported for his compulsory military registration appointment in August. But he was given an exemption on the spot.

Anti-militarization campaigner Maisan Hamdan told The Electronic Intifada at the time: “I believe that the Israeli occupation is frightened by conscientious objectors who refuse in a very public way.”

Hamdan is active with the Refuse — Your People Will Protect You group, which endeavors to give legal and financial support to Druze conscientious objectors so they have alternatives to the many state and private benefits conditioned on army service.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Israel are organizing to push back against the state’s new efforts to recruit Christians into the army.

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Comments

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Nestor Makhno replied on

The Electronic Intifada should suply the readers with the Email adresses of these couregeous people in order that the readers can send a message of support to them. It wil strenghten the will of these obstructors of injustice when they notice there is a lot of solidarity in the world for their struggle

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AR replied on

The problem being that from your message, it is impossible to ascertain whether your thought is genuine, or simply a way to get access to people who would then be sent death threats.

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Joan replied on

These guys need to know that we're behind them. Can the EI please seek permission to publish the CO's email addresses or commit to sending them
our comments?

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Yisrael replied on

When the USA had the Draft, those who would not serve could do " community work" - they could work in hospital, do work that those drafted had left open and various other types of necessary work. If they refused that then they faced jail time. Only those who were "4F" were left alone. If this youth does not want to wear a uniform - let him sweep streets or something to contribute to society!

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Lez Howard replied on

You are the real fighters of the world Injustice will never prevail ,your jailers are the misguided We are with you in Spirit God bless you

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Aly replied on

The world needs more of these courageous individuals to stand up and say enough is enough. My heart and my soul salute you my friend.

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Ricardo replied on

I respect your courage, I imagine it may not be easy to do that in your environment, which makes it all the more praiseworthy. Know that a lot of people worldwide look on and support you. Onwards!

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sue pankhurst replied on

Just because you are a citizen of a country does not mean you have to mindlessly follow a government who appear to have no conscience.

Maureen Clare Murphy

Maureen Clare Murphy's picture

Maureen Clare Murphy is senior editor of The Electronic Intifada.