Hello, my name is Tair Kaminer. In 2016 I refused to join the Israeli Military and was subsequently imprisoned in Military Jail for over 150 days. Last Saturday I was unlawfully detained in Jerusalem with my friend Atalya Ben-Abba, also a refuser from 2017 who was jailed for 110 days, after police illegally disbanded the Anti-War demonstration we held in Jerusalem’s main square.
Just a couple of minutes after we gathered a police officer approached us and claimed he had “secret intelligence info” that our demonstration will be targeted or attacked by Jewish Nationalists. Even if this info was correct, the police’s role is to protect our Freedom of Speech and make sure the demonstration goes unharmed. Instead, they forced us to disband in seconds and arrested Atalya and I for allegedly not complying. We had to spend the entire night arrested in police custody. We were released around 7 am and had to sign a bail bond preventing us from gathering in Jerusalem’s square for 30 days.
The sole purpose of the restrictions that were put on us is to silence our voice and we refuse to be silenced. We will appeal the bail bond in courts in the following days. As military refusers, we have already been detained by Israel for fighting for peace, but in many ways, we are not the main victims of this incident. The main victims are the millions of Palestinians who suffer through this war, bombardements, siege, and occupation.
We gathered on Saturday on the streets of Jerusalem to show our opposition to the war and hostilities conducted by Israel, to call for an end of the siege on Gaza and Occupation of Palestine, and to show our solidarity with Palestinians who are being targeted and attacked by groups of right wing extremists all over the country. In the past week, organized groups of settlers and right wing extremists gathered in different Arab neighborhoods in cities in Israel, attacking the locals and trying to incite a “racial civil war”. In Sheikh Jarrah and East Jerusalem, settlers with guns patrol the blocks, and in Bat-Yam, miles away from Tel Aviv, an Arab passerby was lynched and beaten to near death by a Jewish mob, Live on National TV. The Israeli authorities are unable, or unwilling, to put a clear stop to these attacks and the government is trying to silence other nations and international organizations from commenting on them.
The surge of racist attacks amid the ongoing war in Gaza frightens us. While we were arrested for trying to express our desire for peace, those who seek to violently incite war still roam the streets freely. Almost no criminal charges were submitted against Jewish nationalists, and many, both Jews and Arabs, fear becoming the next targets of their attacks.
Sincerely yours,
Tair and Atalya