This coming Sunday, August 17, at 10:00 a.m., at the Haifa enlistment camp, Yona Roseman, a 19-year-old from Haifa, will refuse to enlist in protest against the genocide in Gaza, and will probably be tried and sent to prison. Activists from the Mesarvot network will accompany her outside the draft office in a demonstration.
Roseman is a trans woman, and there is concern that the military will decide to imprison her in isolation, as recently happened to trans draft refuser Ella Kedar-Greenberg.
In her refusal statement, Roseman wrote: “Real recognition of the dimension of destruction our State sews, in the total suffering that it inculcates in its subjects, demands appropriate action. If you see the scale of the atrocities, and see yourselves as moral people, you cannot continue business as usual, despite the cost, social or legal. The State of Israel is committing genocide. Its moral authority is nullified with every child it buries underground; after tens of thousands, it disappears as if it never existed. Its institutions need not see a dime, but be stained with the rivers of blood they spill. It commits no act that does not deserve condemnation, employs no agent which deserves respect, gives no order which deserves obedience, and makes no law that does not deserve violating. The State of Israel is committing genocide, and we must resist.”
Roseman will be joining draft refusers Ayana Gerstmann and Yuval Pelleg, who were sentenced to 30 and 20 days in prison, respectively, at the end of July, and refuser “R,” an 18-year-old from Holon, who refused to enlist earlier this week and was sentenced to 30 days in prison. These refusers are accompanied by Mesarvot, a political refusers network. In addition, there are several other anonymous refusers, whether regular soldiers or reservists, currently held in the Neve Tzedek military prison. Alongside the many who refuse to report without being imprisoned, this constitutes a clear wave of refusal.
Noa Levy, legal advisor for Mesarvot, said: “The government’s plans for a renewed invasion of Gaza City and the indefinite prolongation of the war have led to a significant wave of refusal. More and more soldiers, reservists, and youth approaching enlistment are turning to us for help in avoiding participation in the campaign. This wave of refusal shows that there is broad popular opposition to the ongoing war of destruction in Gaza, and a collapse of trust in the army and its missions.”
The protest will be held on Sunday, August 17, at 10:00 a.m., at the Haifa enlistment camp (https://maps.app.goo.gl/nLHvX).
