Yuval Moav from Kfar Neter was sentenced on Monday, Oryan Mueller from Tel Aviv was sentenced on Tuesday and Itamar Greenberg from Bnei Brak was sentenced on Wednesday. All three are being sent to Neve Ztedek military prison. They are expected to be tried repeatedly for several months.
From Yuval Moav’s refusal statement: “To my Palestinian brothers an sisters, in my simple act, I want to stand in solidarity with you. I know that every child in Gaza is forced to be a bigger hero than I will ever be. I know that there are kids – younger than me – in Israeli prisons for no fault of their own, whose pain I could never know. I also acknowledge that I do not represent the majority opinion in my society. But in my action, I hope to raise the voice of those of us who are waiting for the day we can build a joint future, build a society based on peace and equality, and not occupation and apartheid.”
In his refusal statement, Itamar Greenberg wrote: “I grew up in a Haredi household in Bnei Brak. When I was 12, I decided that I would enlist to the IDF to become a real part of Israeli society. I didn’t want to be a soldier, but I wanted to be an Israeli. Now that I’m 18, I know that the fact that the door into Israeli society goes through the oppression and killing of another people is a grave injustice in our society. A just society cannot be built on gun barrels.”
From Oryan Mueller’s refusal statement: “Vengeance is the primary mechanism behind the cycle of blood, and the war in Gaza is the most extreme way the state of Israel takes advantage of the urge for revenge to advance oppression and death in Israel/Palestine. The struggle against the war is not enough. We must fight the structural mechanisms enabling it: systemic racism within Israel, the apartheid military regime managed right by in the West Bank, the rise of violent and militaristic extremism among the Jewish population of Israel, the settlement industry, and many other factors.”
Since the beginning of the war, Mesarvot Network has been supporting refusers such as Tal Mitnik (185 days in prison), Sofia Orr (85 days) and Ben Arad (95 days). The three refusers imprisoned this week have received guidance and support from the previous refusers.