An 18-year old Israeli woman has received a fourth extension of a prison sentence for refusing to enlist in the Israeli military.Or Ben-David is one of the students who signed on to the 2009-2010 high school seniors letter of refusal to serve in the military because of Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank and siege on Gaza, both of which violate international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israeli refuseniks are young people who refuse to enlist in the national draft which requires all Israelis to serve for three years in the military. Their number, while small, has been steadily growing in the last several years.
In the current round of sentencing, Or Ben-David was sentenced on Tuesday to 34 additional days in prison, after having served three month-long terms already. She is scheduled to be released from the Tzrifin women’s prison on the 14th of January, but supporters say that she is likely to be imprisoned again.
The Israeli refusenik movement challenges the Zionist saying, ‘Shooting and Crying’, which attempts to justify the violent takeover of Palestinian land by saying that the Israeli soldiers are repentant for the ‘necessary’ violence they must commit. The refusenik movement uses the slogan, “Not Shooting, Not Crying” (pictured above), which challenges the conventional Israeli notion that violence is necessary, instead arguing that if the Israeli state stopped perpetrating violence against the Palestinians, its security as a state would be much more intact.
More information can be found on the New Profile website, along with Ben-David’s address (link below).
