“Once they said, ‘this is temporary’ that ‘the occupation will end’ that soon we will have two states or a different democratic solution. Today it’s clear to everyone that it is not going to end in the near future. The Israeli army has an important role in preserving this condition, and my conscience does not allow me to take part in that,” said Natan Blanc, an Israeli conscientious objector before his hearing Tuesday.
Natan Blanc, 19, is preparing to serve his 8th stint in jail after spending more than 100 days in prison for refusing to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on ideological grounds.
The Israeli youth received a mandatory draft notice in November 2012 but refused to serve, resulting in an immediate sentence for “disobedience.” Israel has a mandatory conscription law requiring that men and women serve a term of duty in the IDF after high school. Exemptions are generally only granted to people with physical disabilities and members of religious or ethnic minority groups, like Arabs living in Israel.
“They are two people in the same land, but only Israelis can vote in the elections,” said Blanc, who also opposes the occupation of the West Bank.
After capturing the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 war, Israel began a military occupation of Palestinian land, considered illegal under international law. More than 500,000 Jewish settlers now populate the West Bank, supported by the IDF.
In addition to the ongoing occupation, IDF incursions, sometimes killing thousands of Palestinian civilians, proved to be a prevailing motivation for Blanc’s refusal of service.
Israel conducted a three-week assault on the Gaza strip, known as “Operation Cast Lead,” at the end of 2008 designed to cripple Hamas’ infrastructure and end rocket fire into Israel.
The IDF incursion eliminated hundreds of Hamas militants, a fraction of the more than 1,400 Palestinians killed in the attack. According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Operation Cast Lead resulted in the deaths of 926 civilians and 255 Palestinian police officers.
“The wave of aggressive militarism that swept the country then, the expressions of mutual hatred, and the vacuous talk about stamping out terror and creating a deterrent effect were the primary trigger for my refusal,” Blanc said.
The IDF has cracked down against the daily protests against the occupation in the West Bank, sometimes using lethal force to subdue nonviolent protests. According to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, 10 Palestinians have been killed by rubber bullets, tear gas cannisters and other allegedly “nonlethal” weapons since 2005. Additionally, B’Tselem records 43 Palestinians killed by live fire over the same period, figures that are contested by the Israeli government.
Military officers offered Blanc treatment with mental health professionals as a means to declare him ineligible for service. He claims to be of sound mind and has refused to take the offer.
“I don’t want to go to the mental health officer, as others have done [to get an exemption],” Blanc said. “I’m not going to put on an act.” The IDF has preferred to give those who refuse short sentences and an eventual exemption from service rather than a public trial in a military or civilian court.
Few outside Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community have received draft exemptions on ideological grounds although dozens have refused service, like Blanc, expressing opposition to the IDF role in the conflict.
The biggest collective refusal occurred January 2002, when 51 reserve soldiers and officers signed a “Combat Troops’ Letter” or “Combatants’ Letter” declaring their refusal “to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.” Since then, 633 combatants representing all units of the IDF and from all sectors of the Israeli society signed the letter.
Blanc has told the IDF that he plans to work for a charitable organization as an alternative to service in the IDF once his legal ordeal is finished. The native of Haifa said that he plans to volunteer with Magen David Adom, an emergency medical service.