On Tal Mitnick’s first morning inside an Israeli military prison last month, he was ordered into a small classroom. Pinned to its walls were various famous quotes. One caught his attention: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” The name beneath it: Nelson Mandela.
“I nearly laughed to myself,” says the 18-year-old, speaking over Zoom from the bedroom of his family’s Tel Aviv home. “A military upholding apartheid putting that on their wall,” he says, “while South Africa was preparing its case against Israel for the international criminal court? I pointed out how ridiculous this quote being there was. No other prisoners engaged or agreed. I realised how alone I was.”
Before the cruel events on October 7th and the insane devastation that followed, I didn’t realize how deeply messed up the western idea of foreign policy in the Middle East really is. Before October 7th, I knew about colonialism, I knew about the war on terror and its devastating consequences for countries in that region. I knew about things like the insane death toll in the Mediterranean Sea, where innocent people in need are just getting systematically crushed by the EU’s border apparatus and the right-wing idea of “securing borders” and “not letting the bad ones in”. I knew about it and understood it as inhumane right-wing or neoliberal ideas that align with the interests of those who can really profit from it. The oil industry, weapons manufacturers, etc… and the politicians who are in their pockets or benefit from spreading fear and hate.
For me, these topics were always something that the progressive left and even many liberal or apolitical people can understand as senseless cruelty. Seeing the news coverage after October 7th and diving deeper into the details of that conflict, I was absolutely dumbfounded, that even some of the progressive news-outlets I follow are avoiding talking about Israels war crimes while repeating the propaganda of Zionist organizations or the Israeli state. My country has defended Israels actions in the international court, and there are quite a few people agreeing with that decision. Quite a few people that I would otherwise consider reasonable and knowledgeable. I have read newspapers that hold themselves to “high journalistic standards” who call peaceful student groups antisemitic and Nazi-aligned. Groups that were advocating for humanity, a ceasefire and a one-state-solution, and have now shut down any kind of public protest because of the hate that came their way.
Not far from where I live, there was a concentration camp and less than a hundred years ago my country had a fascist tyrant as its leader and plenty of accomplices who helped him with his ethnic cleansing campaign. We are not that far removed from this fascism, from treating people with other ethnic backgrounds like something you can just exploit to drown out in the Mediterranean Sea. From supporting the idea of a pure religious ethnostate having the right to slaughter “uncivilized” people that are in the way. From being ignorant enough to whitewash those who fought against apartheid while jailing those who are opposing it now.
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“A military upholding apartheid putting that on their wall,” he says, “while South Africa was preparing its case against Israel for the international criminal court?
As a result, a military court sentenced him to 30 days in custody, making him the first conscientious objector to be jailed in Israel since 7 October.
While he studied maths and computer science at school, a teacher suggested his natural aptitudes would suit a role in an elite intelligence unit.
Online, at least, some pro-Palestine voices have questioned the praise being poured on Mitnick, suggesting refusing to participate in the slaughtering of civilians is the very least to be expected.
Occasionally, a news programme would air on his in-cell TV, although domestic broadcasters have all but ignored Mitnick and the wider anti-war movement.
I hope more and more young people my age see that it’s not normal to live in constant fear of terrorist attacks, nor to enlist 18-year-olds into the army.
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I wish I was as brave and well-spoken as this young man.
When I was 17-18 I scored really well on a test and the US Air Force tried to recruit me. It was tempting because I was fascinated with aerospace and it would have kickstarted my career and possibly meant no student loans. I’d easily be $100k better off today if I went down that path.
But I couldn’t imagine myself dropping bombs on potentially innocent people at the behest of some smug politician, or even loading ordinance for someone else to do it. The thought made me sick to my stomach. So I figured out my own path. But that was easy for me, because there was no major conflict at the time, no one threatening me with jail, and no social repercussions from that decision. I have to wonder if I would have made the same decision if it was under Tal Mitnick’s conditions.
It’s so sad how alone he is. The culture in Israel is so right-wing, so extreme. They like to pretend this liberal with their protests against Netanyahu, but now they’re all calling for blood as if the last 70 years of occupation never happened, as if they haven’t been killing and starving people this whole time.
The kid is right. There’s no military solution to this conflict.
If I remember correctly, as I’m no expert in the affairs of Israel; the right wing people vote for this stuff. But they themselves have a religious exemption, so they don’t need to send their own kids to mandatory service.
Very messed up for the youth who have no say. War only affects the civilians who suffer for the goals of their overlords.
Ah, classic Abrahamic “rule for thee, but not for me”
I respect conscientious ojbectors, good for him.
This insipid and cruel war against Palestine has got to end. I admit I wasn’t particularly on anyone’s side to start with, but now Israel has turned a singular day of violence into a bloodthirsty crusade of horror.
More killing will not solve anything, and now that Gaza is a blasted wasteland, there can’t be any winners at all. The love of killing other humans has got to stop - it just has to stop and we have to undertake psychological healing and promotion of peaceful ideals and quit inculcating young impressionable and easily coerced men with the idea that murder is ever justified for any reason.
This is the only course a moral person can take if the IDF attempts to draft them.
My ex’s family were (see: probably still are) Russian Jews who fled to Israel to avoid persecution. They then fled Israel when their eldest (my ex) was 2 years out from manual conscription
Don’t get me wrong, they’re still hardcore zionists, but morality got the better of them.
