Meet Tal Mitnick, First Israeli Jailed for Refusing Military Service in "Revenge War" on Gaza

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman it Israel is continuing its attacks across the Gaza Strip from the north to the South as the number of Palestinian casualties continues to soar over the last 24 hours at least 142 Palestinians were killed in Gaza according to the Palestinian Health Ministry nearly four 25,000 Palestinians have been killed over the past 3 months 10 10,000 of them children thousands of others missing under the rubble presumed dead making Israel's assault one the deadliest most destructive military campaigns in recent history meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected calls to scale back Israel's military assault on Gaza or take steps to towards the establishment of a Palestinian state in a nationally broadcast news conference Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the offensive until what he called a decisive victory over Hamas as Netanyahu vows to continue Israel's assault on Gaza we turn now to the first Israeli to refuse mandatory military service since Israel's offensive began over 3 months ago tal mitnik is an 18-year-old conscientious objector in Israel last month he announced he would refuse military service saying quote I refuse to take part in a war of Revenge he was sentenced to 30 days in a military prison was just released yesterday morning to mnik is joining us now from a studio in Tel Aviv to welcome to democracy Now can you talk about why you are refusing thank you for having me on um I am refusing because like I said I refuse to take part in this Revenge War I'm refusing because I want to make a statement about how we need to uh conduct ourselves in this land I feel like there's too much violence here there's too much revenge and talk about this side or that side and we need to talk about how we need to go forward in a future of coexistence where both Israelis and Palestinians can live together and live with security and peace so talk about what exactly this means how did you make this known talk about where you serve time in prison and is this just a brief period of days before you're sent back to prison yes I got sentenced for 30 days for my first sentencing and I got another draft order for Monday morning which means I have to get drafted on Monday morning where I will go and refuse service once again and probably get sentence again and this will happen over and over until someone gives up until the Army gives gives me an exemption so talk about the response of your friends your family and I was also just wondering you're an Israeli but you have an American accent are you American as well my parents immigrated from from the US um and we spoke English at home but I'm Israeli and American yes so um my the friends and family response yeah yes go ahead my friends and family response was um thankfully mostly um very understanding because people that know me and people that talk to me know that I come from a a good place of nonviolence um and and most and and coexistence I feel like um the people that got to talk to me also inside military prison a lot of them um benir supporters um they support killing all Arabs they when they got to know me before they knew my political opinions they understood they got they understood that there are people that don't support this um sorry I can hear myself twice I'm if you can uh if you can possibly blank that out uh because we're not sure how to fix that right now but um just continue to talk because we don't hear you twice but we do hear you very clearly can you talk about your time yeah so the in prison and where are you being held yeah so I'm being held in a military prison where um other soldiers that have committed crimes inside the military and got sentenced um to military prison are also being held um it's um not a fan experience but it's also not the worst experience imaginable it's not like the experience that Palestinian prisoners are being um held under um in the West Bank or inside Israel um yeah it's it's very strict timing very strict about what you're allowed to do and when um but this is something that I'm willing to do um to make an impact I'm wondering if you feel the climate is changing among Israelis and also what Israelis see about what's happening in Gaza I mean we just reported we're talking about now close to 25,000 Palestinians killed over 10,000 children over 7,000 women many uh believ to be dead in the rubble we don't even know that count um if you watch something like Al jazer or you watch other media since there are only uh Palestinian journalists there on the ground you see endless pictures of Carnage of horror of babies being pulled out of the rubble Dead or Alive um what do you see on Israeli TV we're talking about people who are just 15 minutes away from Gaza so actually inside prison the only source of uh news that we got was one newspaper called is um and every day on the newspaper there will be pictures of uh the soldiers that died and I remember feeling like I there it's I feel sad very sad for the soldiers and the families that have to um take this great burden of um of losing someone close to them but I know that while seeing soldiers dying I know that this means that there are much more um Palestinian civilians dying which we don't see in the newspaper who else are you serving time with in that prison who else is there sadly a lot of the other people there uh don't um they they are deserters which means that they serve time in the military and then at some point for some reason um they went back home and did not did not come back most of these people desert because of socioeconomic reasons if it's having to take care of their siblings or um or go work uh for their family and when they come back and turn themselves in we're now seeing a very heavy sentencing of those deserters as a part of the fascist persecution um and the fog of War people that are that went to work for 3 months to feed their family are now being sentenced to half a year in military prison can you talk about the overall anti-war movement if there is one in Israel I mean there were massive protests up to a million people on the streets which is massive for Israel around the uh Netanyahu wanting to gut the power of the Judiciary of course he is uh under um charges himself and that would help him remain out of prison um but at that point many reservists said they would not serve in the military everything changed after October 7th Hamas attack on Southern Israel um if you can talk about why that did not change you and how large is the anti-war movement and do you feel it's growing I feel like after the horrendous attack of October 7th against Israeli civilians there's a very important conception that was broken in Israeli Society um the the conception that we can live with the siege and with the occupation and not feel it now with when that conception is broken we have a vacuum um and there are two ideas that are trying to pull people one idea that the right is offering which is uh we can't live with occupation we can't live with Siege this means we need to wipe all of them out and the other idea the moderate one the one that makes sense is that we can't live with occupation we can't live with Siege we need to step forward for peace inside military prison I got asked a lot what do you think we should just stop the war and put our hands up and not do anything and I would answer no we need to keep fighting we need to keep fighting for a just future we need to stop the physical fighting between us and we need to very very aggressively push for a better future wondering your response to prime minister Netanyahu once again saying from The River To The Sea when Palestinian advoc Ates and their allies talk about from The River To The Sea the response of the Israeli government um has been that means they for the genocide of Jews because they don't want Jews to be there the government says now you have Netanyahu saying not that this hasn't been said before um by lud but from the river to the Sea Israel must control your response to that to and if you can talk about the Word occupation because in the US media also there is rarely that word used that Israel occupies the West Bank in Gaza the term from The River To The Sea um is very controversial inside of Israel and I feel like some people that use it there are people that use it that mean the genocide of Jews inside Israel but the just the term itself I feel like does not mean a genocide of Jews it means freedom for all Palestinians from The River To The Sea when Benjamin Netanyahu uses this term it does not mean freedom for all from the river to the Sea it means oppression of Palestinians and it means Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea finally to I'm wondering your response uh to uh Jews around the world particularly here in the United States like Jewish voice for peace these massive protests that have been held from Grand Central Station uh to shutting down the bridges and the tunnels from New York to um highways in California saying we want a ceasefire now what how do you respond to that and your final message to other 18-year-old Israelis these protests are amazing um the these organizations like Jewish voices for peace and if not now um do incredible work um and I I support the continuation of these protests um all around the world um and a message to other people my age other kids I feel like it's important to know that we we have a voice I used to think that um that that talking to people is all we could do but we can change um and people want to hear what we have to say cuz we're the future and and this is yeah we're the future and and we can change and finally might you spend months more than a year in jail if you keep saying no to military service since Netanyahu says this will go on for more than a year because there's no policy set for uh jailing uh conscientious objectors I don't really know how much time I'll spend in prison but it could be months Tom mnik 18-year-old Israeli activist known as a refusenik he's refused mandatory military service in the Israeli Army the first conscientious subor in Israel since the Israeli assault on Gaza began over a hundred days ago he's just sentenced to 30 days in prison which he served for refusing to enlist was released a few days ago then will be called up again and says he will refuse again

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 458,933

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News

Id: nnc05oe7KxI

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2024