Who is Tal Mitnick, the Israeli teen jailed for refusing to serve in military?

As Israel wages its war in Gaza, several young conscientious objectors have refused to serve in the military. One of these Jewish youths includes Tal Mitnick, an 18-year-old who was sentenced to 30 days in military jail on Tuesday (26 December).

He is facing imprisonment for his refusal to enlist in the Israeli army. Flanked by supporters, Mitnick entered the Tel Hashomer enlistment center, a base near the Gaza fence in central Israel, and rejected the country’s mandatory military service.

Who is Tal Mitnick and what are Israel’s conscription rules? Let’s take a closer look.

Who is Tal Mitnick?

Tal Mitnick, who recently graduated from high school, is a resident of Tel Aviv.

He is associated with Mesarvot, which, as per Al Jazeera, is a network supporting conscientious objectors in a campaign against the “Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories”.

Tal Mitnick, an activist in the Mesarvot network showed up today at Tel Hashomer base and was sentenced to 30 days in military prison. Listen to what he had to say before he walked in.

Support him and other refusniks: https://t.co/drRtLjk4U3 pic.twitter.com/zu1XZJqmhG

— Mesarvot מסרבות (@Mesarvot_) December 26, 2023

Speaking to Turkish news agency Anadolu in November, the teen explained why he did not want to enlist in the military, accusing the Israeli army of oppressing Palestinians in the Bat Yam area in southern Tel Aviv.

“I believe that the Israeli army is an operational arm of Jewish exclusivism in this region. (This army) relies on the oppression of the Palestinian people, and I refuse to be a part of this oppression. Instead, I continue with human rights activism”.

Describing Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel as “horrendous”, he said people turned their anger over this assault into a “sense of revenge”. The Jewish youth said he preferred to channel it into a feeling of “desiring more security for everyone” rather than revenge.

He was among more than 200 young conscientious objectors who launched an open letter in late August announcing their decision to refuse their eventual enlistment into the Israeli military.

In an interview with +972 magazine at the time, Mitnick said he and other youths “realised that the dictatorship that exists in Israel and the dictatorship that has existed for decades in the occupied territories are inseparable”.

He said that the weekly protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul were an “awakening” for him. For months, anti-government demonstrators took to the streets to protest the overhaul. However, their focus shifted towards helping Israeli soldiers and civilians following Hamas’ attack in October.

“I was not politically active before the protests. They made me understand what it means to demonstrate as a draftee, with hundreds of others before their enlistment, and to say “we will not serve,”” the magazine quoted Mitnick as saying.

Defending his decision to deny enlistment, Mitnick said in a video statement shared by Mesarvot on Tuesday, “I believe that slaughter can not solve slaughter. The criminal attack on Gaza won’t solve the atrocious slaughter that Hamas executed. Violence won’t solve violence. And that is why I refuse.”

In a written statement, the youngster said he believed Israel’s retaliation against Hamas had failed in protecting the lives of civilians in Israel or Gaza.

“We must recognise the fact that after weeks of the ground operation in Gaza, at the end of the day – negotiations, an agreement, brought back the hostages. It was actually military action that caused them to be killed,” he said, as per Independent.

“Because of the criminal lie that ‘there are no innocent civilians in Gaza,’ even hostages waving a white flag shouting in Hebrew were shot to death. I don’t want to imagine how many similar cases there were that were not investigated because the victims were born on the wrong side of the fence,” the statement added.

Mitnick will spend 30 days in a military prison and could be detained further if he continues to reject military service.

What does Israeli law say?

As per Israeli law, all citizens, aged 18 years or above, are required to serve in the military. There are some exemptions, including religious women, married individuals, and those with mental or physical disabilities.

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews studying religious scriptures in traditional yeshiva schools are also legally exempt. But those who refuse due to political ideologies are not considered valid objectors.

Conscientious objectors

Conscientious objectors are those who refuse to serve in the military due to their conscience, often for ideological and religious reasons, noted Indian Express.

Several countries around the world have conscription or compulsory military service. But there have been many instances in the past when people have turned down the call citing their beliefs.

Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) protects the right to conscientious objection to military service.

According to the United Nations Commission for Human Rights, states must “refrain from subjecting conscientious objectors to imprisonment and to repeated punishment for failure to perform military service”.

However, conscientious objection is still not a legal right in many countries with conscription. In some, like Israel, it is mostly restricted.

Israel often puts objectors in jail, while increasing their sentences multiple times, reported Al Jazeera. The West Asian nation has seen high-profile refuseniks in the past. In 2003, a group of Israeli Air Force pilots refused to carry out operations in the West Bank and Gaza, triggering national fury.

In March this year, about 700 reservist soldiers resigned protesting Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul.

The Israeli PM, who was accused by critics of curtailing Supreme Court powers to protect himself from corruption charges, said at the time, “There’s no room for refusals”, calling military service “the first and most important foundation of our existence in our land …The refusals threaten the foundation of our existence”.

Now, Israel is witnessing the rise of a small minority of youngsters who are opposing its “occupation” of Gaza and the West Bank and the bombing of civilians in the narrow enclave.

One of the young conscientious objector, Ella Keidar, told Anadolu that she believes that the only solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is political, not military. “Like Israelis, Palestinians also deserve freedom. I believe in the possibility of an equal future, which includes the right of return for Palestinians”.

With inputs from agencies