Israel is today a country immersed in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
The attacks carried out by the Palestinian armed group in Israeli territory on October 7 caused anger and indignation in Israel and led its government to launch a large-scale military operation in the Strip with the declared objective of destroying it.
Despite all the blood shed and calls from the international community to reach a ceasefire and a pause in the suffering of Gazans, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the operation will continue for “many more months.”
In Israel, where military service is mandatory and has a great role in the lives of citizens, the murders and kidnappings perpetrated by Hamas provoked a wave of heightened patriotism and support for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as it is known. the army.
In that context, 18-year-old Tal Mitnick did not hesitate to go against the current and recently became the first Israeli imprisoned for refusing to participate in the war.
When he was called up, he appeared at the assigned recruiting center and there he announced his refusal to take up arms.
“I made the decision when I realized that my conscience did not allow me to take part in actions and ideas against the Palestinians,” he told BBC journalist Rebecca Kesby.
“I could not participate in the occupation or in a body that believes that violence is the way to solve problems.”
He was sentenced to spend 30 days in a military prison, where he had to live like a soldier, just what he does not want to be.
He was confined, subject to military discipline and had to spend long periods standing at attention.
But the punishment has not changed his mind.
Next week he must appear again and will once again refuse to fight, because he is convinced that war is absurd and only causes unnecessary pain.
He maintains that the history of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians proves him right.
“All the violence we have seen in the last 70 years has not solved anything. We need to change and the only change we see is towards more violence. “More violence and more blood are not going to fix anything.”
The Hamas attacks brought to light the feeling among many Israelis that their country lives under an “existential threat.”
We are very aware of the attempt to exterminate the Jewish people that was the Holocaust and the successive wars that the Israeli State has waged throughout history against its neighbors, where there are still actors, such as Hamas or Iran, that do not recognize their right to exist.
Mitnick clarifies that, despite his critical stance towards the war, he frontally rejects the violence of Hamas.
“The attacks were horrible and totally unjustified; everyone in Israel has lost someone more or less close to them, but we cannot allow that pain to result in a feeling of revenge, we cannot allow the army to do what Hamas did to us, We cannot leave more families in pain,” he defends.
But among his compatriots there are those who do not understand his decision.
“It has been hard because I have been presented as a traitor, but my opinions are legitimate,” he maintains.
“What's the point of this?”
For him, the Gaza war is not only a tragic display of violence that has already cost thousands of lives, including those of more than half a thousand Israeli soldiers, but it is also counterproductive for his country.
“When we begin to seek peace, When the country really begins to see Palestinians as human beings, that will be when we will achieve security“.
A few days before having to appear again, he is determined not to give in and does not want to resort to any of the administrative tricks that could save him from a more than probable second sentence, such as alleging mental problems, because he refuses to assume that your convictions can be considered a mental problem.
He believes that time will prove him right: “Over time people will see that my decision is the right one and I am not going to change it. No one should put their life at risk.”
“The government sending all those people to die for nothing is not going to bring us any security and we are seeing it with more soldiers and civilians dying every day. Hamas is not weakening. What is the point of this war other than revenge?” .
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/crg7rynrgd1o, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-01-23 04:37:03
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