Dear friends,
A friend just wrote to me that two of his teenage cousins are among those Israeli civilians who were taken into the Gaza Strip and announced hostage by Hamas. The same friend spent 21 months in prison with me when we were 18-year-old and both refused to join the Israeli army as occupation resisters. These are horrific days – hundreds of Israelis and hundreds of Palestinians have already died. Many of our families and friends are directly impacted, and this is just the beginning as a war was already declared by the Israeli government. But this crisis is also a huge opportunity:, the next few weeks Israeli war resisters can make this unprecedented war into a turning point. You can help us.
Shimri Zameret, RSN
In times like this, it is our role as Israeli war resisters to do all we can to prevent deadly escalation, an all-out war and the re-occupation of the Gaza strip. It is also our role to say loud and clear, in the Middle East and internationally, that there is no military solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict – this Gaza crisis is proving us right. The only stable solution to the conflict is a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
That is what we in Refuser Solidarity Network, and the Israeli groups of war refusers and war resisters we are working with, will work on in the coming days and weeks. Our Israeli partners are already publishing clear messages in social media and the press against violent escalation and for using this crisis as a turning point. They are supporting reserve refusers to the war. They are planning and leading protests in the streets. They are taking part in creating civilian de-escalation direct intervention teams, to patrol mixed Arab-Jewish cities, where in similar situations in the past violence erupted between gangs of nationalists.
It’s clear that immediate funds are critically needed to help groups on the ground. Your donations can help in amplifying the voices, messages, and actions of war resisters, in preventing escalation of violence, and in using this moment to build the movement for a just peace.
You can support the war resisters here. This is a critical time. Please help us make this crisis into a turning point.
In solidarity
Shimri Zameret
President of the Board
Refuser Solidarity Network