IDF sentences conscientious objector to five days in prison

By +972 Magazine July 13, 2017 | Edit

Noa Gur Golan will spend five days in military prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli army.

By +972 Magazine Staff

Conscientious objector Noa Gur Golan outside the Tel Hashomer induction base, July 12, 2017. (Ido Rimon/Mesarvot)

The Israeli army sentenced conscientious objector Noa Gur Golan to five days in military prison Wednesday, after she announced her refusal to serve due to the violence of the IDF.

Gur Golan arrived at the IDF induction center in Tel Hashomer on Wednesday morning accompanied by family members and activists. Following her sentence, she will once again be asked to show up at the center, where she is expected to continue to refuse induction, and will likely be sentenced again. She is being supported by Mesarvot — Refusing to Serve the Occupation, a grassroots network that brings together individuals and groups who refuse to enlist in the IDF in protest at the occupation.

Gur Golan, 19, from Netanya, refuses to serve in the IDF due to her pacifist beliefs in nonviolence, and because she believes that she must actively work to reduce violence and bring about peace. She has previously stood before a conscientious objectors committee, which rejected her request for exemption. Gur Golan demands to be recognized as a conscientious objector, rather than a pacifist (whom are more easily granted exemption from the committee), and is willing to pay the price.

In her declaration of refusal, she wrote the following:

When I was young, I always dreamed of being a pilot in the IDF. Today I am 19, and I am pained by the thought of taking part in a belligerent organization. The values upon which I was raised — obeying the law and giving back to society — must exist alongside other values, in which I believe with my entire heart: the sanctity of every life and opposition to violence. I view my refusal as an active step, an alternative to the violent reality we have gotten used to living in. For the sake of real security, I believe there must be another way.

Last month, the army released conscientious objector Atalya Ben-Abba from military service after spending a total of 110 days in military prison for refusing to be drafted. Ben-Abba was released on grounds of unsuitability, after her request to be recognized as a conscientious objector was rejected a day earlier.

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TEST TEST GAL Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence. We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies. This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza. We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives. Can we count on your support? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.

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