Israeli conscientious objectors speak at Halifax event

by Madiha Mughees

March 10, 2025

On Thursday evening, two Israeli conscientious objectors (known as refuseniks) who served time in military prisons for refusing to join the Israeli military to fight against the Palestinians, shared their experiences with a Halifax audience.

The event, titled “We Refused to Participate in a Genocide,” is part of a nationwide tour in which the duo are speaking at 13 different locations across Canada.

Primarily sponsored by Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), the tour is also supported by various groups including United Jewish People’s Order, World Beyond War, Jewish Faculty Network, the Department of Social Justice and Community Studies at Saint Mary’s University (SMU), Coalition for Peace and Freedom, and Labour for Palestine and Halifax.

Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) describes itself as “a grassroots organization grounded in the Jewish tradition that opposes all forms of racism and advocates for justice and peace for all in Israel-Palestine.”

The two conscientious objectors, Einat Gerlitz and Tal Mitnick, were introduced by an IJV media release as follows:

Einat Gerlitz, 21, is a queer Israeli activist and conscientious
objector. Going from a queer youth movement to climate activism, Einat gained political consciousness and became a human rights activist. At 19, in 2022, she refused to serve in the Israeli military and was sentenced to 87 days in military prison. After her release, she presented her story to conscientious objection at a Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council. Since then she has been involved in various avenues of the struggle against the occupation, both within the 1948 borders and the Occupied Territories.

Tal Mitnick, 19, is an Israeli activist and conscientious objector. In December 2023, Tal was the first conscientious objector to refuse after October 7th and his story resonated in media outlets worldwide. He served a prolonged sentence of 185 days in military prison. Tal started his activism in the protests against the judicial overhaul, initiating a mass youth refusal letter, signed by over 250 teenagers, naming the occupation as the source of the rising fascism. Currently he is organizing and supporting future conscientious objectors.

Gerlitz and Mitnick are at the forefront of a growing youth movement in Israel, defying the military occupation and fighting for Palestinian liberation. The movement is called Mesarvot — Hebrew feminine plural of resistor, to emphasize its feminist and liberatory orientation. IJV has partnered with Mesarvot, (the Refusers Network), on this tour.

Before the event held at Saint Mary’s University began, organizers announced to an audience composed mainly of white Canadians, that the situation in Palestine in response to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, is non-negotiably a genocide, and those who disagreed were welcome to leave respectfully.

‘I may not have lived in Palestine, it always has been a part of me‘

Gerlitz and Mitnick were joined by another speaker, Tarek Ajjour, a Palestinian activist who has lost 28 relatives to the war and had 120 relatives wounded. Ajjour was invited to speak first.

Ajjour shared with the Examiner that he faces “hate everywhere” whenever he engages in activism for Palestine.

From shouting anti-Palestinian slurs to flashing obscene gestures, people have expressed their hatred in various ways. Once, someone even shattered his car’s side mirror because he had a Palestinian flag on his window.

“I had the Palestinian flag on my window on Eid day, and I left it by mistake, I don’t usually leave it. They came in, ripped the flag apart, and broke my side mirror,” Ajjour said.

Ajjour grew up witnessing the first Intifada (Palestinian uprising) in 1987 and the second in 2000 as a displaced Palestinian in Kuwait whose relatives were still all in Palestine.

“These were not just events I read about in history books or saw on the news. They were integral parts of who I am and shaped my understanding of the world and my roots,” Ajjour said during his address Thursday night.

Born and raised in Kuwait as a stateless person, Ajjour said he had no rights as a Kuwaiti citizen and counts himself among the few ‘lucky ones’ who could immigrate to Canada after high school and start over.

“I was able to immigrate to Canada and build a new life here. Even after 30 years in Canada, Palestine has never left my heart. It’s part of who I am and it always will be,” Ajjour said.

Ajjour said that for years he has advocated for Palestinian rights while preserving his cultural ties. He said he is also attempting to instill pride in his children for their Palestinian identity.

“Over the years, I’ve worked hard to connect with my culture, practice my Palestinian accent, and stay in touch with my relatives back home through social media, even though I have never met any of them as we are thousands of miles apart,” Ajjour said.

“Even though I may not have lived in Palestine, it always has been a part of me. I’ve witnessed the hardship, not just through the news, but through the experiences of my family and my own journey.”

In Ajjour’s view, the documentary “No Other Land” is a landmark achievement in portraying the Palestinian struggle globally, as well as the “courage and commitment” of Gerlitz and Mitnick. He said these things bring him hope.

Ajjour said the war that started on Oct. 7, 2023 has deeply affected him. He spends his time watching the news, constantly worrying about potential fresh attacks. When one occurs, he feels compelled to go out and wave the Palestinian flag.

“Just because I want to see people see that flag going around and I have it in front of my house since day one.”

He described during the question-and-answer session how the ongoing conflict has drastically impacted his daily life.

“Small examples would be looking at WhatsApp and see if they (his relatives) logged in or not just to see if they’re still alive, so it does impact me personally,” he said. “It’s part of my life, and it’s going to continue to be like that until we have peace.”

Everyone has to serve in the military

During her address, Gerlitz explained that serving in the military is “an obvious part of life” in Israel and that her family and society expected her to join the military right after she graduated high school.

“It’s obvious that once you finish high school, the next step is going to the military, and from there, after that, whatever path you choose,” Gerlitz said.

She reflected on how, at age 15, her life took a different turn when she came out as queer and became involved in activism for the queer community. Later, she joined climate activism, where she met and became friends with Palestinian girls who broadened her perspective on the interconnectedness of struggles such as climate justice and human rights.

These friendships, Gerlitz said “opened her eyes,” and they deepened her understanding of how these issues are intertwined. Gerlitz said through them, she learned to see connections between the different struggles.

It was very shocking to me because that was very different than the stories that I heard from my grandparents. It was the first time that I heard the word Nakba (forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948) at 17, hearing what their families are going through in the West Bank and also in the 48 borders (borders established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, often referred to as the Green Line).

Interacting with Palestinians shifted perspective

Interacting with Palestinians, Gerlitz said, shifted her perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict, leading her to decide not to be a part of the system while she was in 12th grade.

“I really came to see that we live in the same place but in completely different realities, and that’s when I decided that I’m not going to enlist. It was a very isolating feeling,” Gerlitz said.

“Being a Zionist, being a Jew, and being Israeli are seen as all tied up to one identity (in Israeli society), and you can’t be one without the other, that’s what we’re taught,” Gerlitz explained during the question-and-answer session.

“And questioning that, criticizing that, and saying that I can be an Israeli and a Jew without being a Zionist, is very groundbreaking and I think I went through a long path with that.”

‘Breaking the system and fighting it’

While for other Israeli girls in Gerlitz’s circle, feminism meant “breaking the glass ceiling in the army,” she saw it differently. To her, feminism meant dismantling the system of oppression itself.

“For me, I think that our feminism should be breaking the system and fighting it and not trying to be part of it and not trying to be complicit to this patriarchal and violent system,” Gerlitz said.

Following these realizations, Gerlitz, aided by the Mesarvot network’s legal assistance, applied to the conscientious committee for an exemption as a conscientious objector, but the committee rejected her application.

Gerlitz said in Israel, contrary to the international law that requires its members to be civilians, it is the military that runs the conscientious committee.

Experience ‘pales’ compared to hardships of Palestinians in Israeli jails

After the committee denied her conscientious objector status, Gerlitz said it ordered her to enlist in the military by Sept. 4, 2022. However, she refused to comply and was imprisoned as a result, uncertain about how long her sentence would last.

Gerlitz emphasized that although her time in prison was challenging, her experience pales when compared to the hardships faced by Palestinians in Israeli jails.

“It’s not talked about enough, not internationally enough, and not in ’48 (1948 borders), about the conditions in the military prisons where Palestinians are held, the terrible, terrible torture and the stories that are coming from there are terrible,” Gerlitz said.

“And I’m sure as time goes by, we’re going to hear more and more terrible stories, and it’s really devastating.”

After 87 days in prison, Gerlitz was finally granted an exemption upon appearing before another conscientious committee.

Reflecting on her time behind bars, she described the experience as “powerful.”

“I think it was also very powerful to know that I’m sitting there for a bigger cause, and sitting there in order to make a change in our land, in our reality.”

‘A separated reality‘

Gerlitz said that Israeli citizens are not exposed to Palestinian experiences.

“It’s the separated reality that we live in. Not knowing the Palestinian narrative, not knowing the Palestinian stories, it’s not something that we’re exposed to right now,” Gerlitz said during the event’s question-and-answer session.

“It’s always translated to us as if we’re attacked, whether it’s correct and whether it’s not correct. And I think that the combination of those things creates a society in which people are very brainwashed.”

Following Oct. 7, Gerlitz said, a new wave of violence against Palestinians was unleashed.

“The settlers took the law to their hands,” Gerlitz said.

After October 7, things changed, we got to a new rock bottom, we’re still there, and we were hearing from our Palestinian partners that settlers are using live ammunition inside of the villages, people were being killed, kids were terrified at night. People escaped from their houses. Settlers started demolishing houses by themselves without waiting for the occupation forces. And it was a very shaky time. I think it shows the complexity of our lives.

Gerlitz still expressed hope for peace in the Middle East, reflecting on other “apartheid regimes” that eventually lost their grip on power. She believes that change is possible for Palestinians as well.

“I think that things can change, and I think that Israeli society should change,” she said.

“I don’t think that we can change all of it, but I think that there are parts of it that can change, and I think that we need the pressure from inside and from outside. I want to hope that history can surprise us, and that’s what holds me…to continue to act and continue to do things.”

‘Militarist patriarchy’

After Gerlitz spoke, Mitnick addressed the crowd. He explained that despite his liberal and progressive upbringing, his childhood involved exposure to militarism.

“No matter how liberally or progressively raised a child is, the system and the militarism, and the fascism, gets to everyone,” Mitnick said.

He recalled several experiences as a child where he was made to dress up as a soldier and taught to “yell and stomp” in school.

It plays on the militarist patriarchy that we have in our society, that manliness is to fight in the war, and manliness is to protect your country. And I remember romanticizing crawling in the dirt, romanticizing holding a weapon, and it was very childish but it really emphasizes how early you start to think about these things and how early you start to think about protecting your society.

Later I grew to recognise that holding a weapon, going to war, is not protecting, (it) is not only killing and trying to wipe out Palestinians, but it is also harming Israeli society and Jews.

Military as a trampoline into civilian life

Mitnick also shared how children from lower economic classes serve as soldiers, while youth from more affluent backgrounds, including himself, use the “military as a trampoline into civilian life.”

“We’re very privileged, we don’t necessarily get marketed to go die in a war story,” he said.

“So if you study math or if you’re good at science, then you can go be in intelligence or be a military scientist and develop weapons or surveil people and work for the military. Then after a couple of years you go out into high-paying jobs in tech or high-paying (industries).”

Mitnick recalled how, upon reaching middle school (which was the time when the COVID-19 pandemic started), he realized he did not want to serve in the military, but he kept it to himself. The events that followed strengthened his resolve.

‘I cannot be a part of this system’

During this time, Mitnick explained, his father received an advanced-stage cancer diagnosis. Even with the best treatment in Israel and New York, he died.

A couple of months later, while still mourning, Mitnick learned about a baby diagnosed with a disease. Authorities denied the baby a permit to see a doctor in East Jerusalem, resulting in the baby’s death.

This, Mitnick said, made him realize his privilege and what Palestinians were enduring.

“Reading her (the child who died) story, with myself being in mourning (for my father), thinking how much privilege I have or my family has that we don’t have to live with the question of what if,” Mitnick said.

“While Fatima’s (the deceased child’s) parents and all the surrounding people have to until the end of their lives live with the question of what if we were born on the other side of this imaginary line, what if we were born in Canada or the United States. I think this is when I really knew I can not be a part of this system that is complicit or literally kills these people that didn’t do anything.”

He said joining the anti-occupation bloc greatly helped him understand what he described as the system of oppression and the fascism of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“Obviously all of the governments that we had in our country have been very, very fascist, very, very sadist,” Mitnicik said. “(But) this government is somehow even worse than all the others.”

Mitnick, along with many other young people, drafted a refusal letter with over 250 signatures. The refusal letter got them huge condemnation and just after a couple of months, the Oct. 7 attacks happened, which according to Mitnick felt like “the whole world got flipped on its head.”

‘Felt like no one was supporting me’

Those expressing dissent faced unprecedented political persecution, Mitnick said.

“We were feeling what it means to be hunted down,” Mitnick said. “The same people that we were protesting with against the Netanyahu government and against the judicial reforms were now the same people flying the planes over Gaza and bombing the civilians, the children.”

The escalating situation, Mitnick said, compelled him to go public with his refusal, resulting in death threats and public harassment.

“I got death threats through my phone, my address leaked, my mom got threats on her phone, and one day I was walking down the street and someone did the Kahane Salute which is kind of the Israeli version of the Nazi salute,” Mitnick said.

“It really felt like no one was supporting me except for the Mesarvot community.”

Mitnick shared he felt it was his duty to go public with his refusal, as he at least had a supportive family, whereas many others who refused had no support and were terrified to speak out.

“Because it’s not only to speak up for myself but also (about speaking up) for other Israelis who refused to go to the military and can’t be public about it (because of unsupportive families).”

He was eventually imprisoned for 185 days.

Needs to be resistance from the inside and from the outside

Mitnick said that change requires both internal and external efforts.

“We believe that working inside from the Israeli society is a vital part of resistance to Zionism and Jewish supremacy,” Mitnick said. “And there needs to be resistance from the inside and resistance from outside, and the more that Israeli society will feel the consequences for what it is committing, that’s the way that we will move forward in this (resistance).”

Matnick believes engaging with the BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement could also make Israeli society feel the effects of the genocide.

“The way the Israeli society is going to feel the consequences is by boycotting and by sanctioning Israeli-made goods,” Matnick said, because “Israelis are used to a pretty high standard of life.”

Mitnick told the Examiner that engaging in activism against the oppression of Palestinians has given “meaning” to his life.

“Finding something that we care about and finding something we fight about gives us meaning in what we need to do in life,” Mitnick said.

He said that although violence against civilians absolutely cannot be justified, the Oct. 7 attacks were another form of resistance from Palestinians.

When people are occupied it’s natural to resist that occupation, and that resistance can come in many different ways and venues. In the history of the Palestinian people, (there were) first Intifada, the second Intifada, there was civil resistance and there were also acts of violent resistance, and my opinion is that is something that is a consequence of the occupation.

But that does not justify acts of violence against civilians, which in no way and in no reality is justified. But also we need to see it in the scope of the larger colonial history of the state of Israel and of the occupation.

‘Open-air prison’

Some Israeli-Canadians also attended the event — which ran longer than expected due to audience engagement — expressing their frustration with what is happening to the Palestinians.

One such attendee was Tamar Eylon, who recently spent four years in Israel. Eylon said people should see for themselves all that is wrong.

“You could see something is wrong in that society (Israeli) if you were willing to look as soon as you step into it,” Eylon said. “And you know, anyone who defends Israel should just go there and see for themselves.”

She added that it is a highly segregated society that makes Gaza “an open-air prison.”

“But there are also sections in the West Bank you can’t go. It’s not free movement and the relationships are controlled by the state,” Eylon added.

Eylon said “the entire society has terrible practices,” looking at how Israel deals with the refugees.

“Israel that was part of creating refugee law, that based the occupation on refugee concepts, doesn’t allow refugees into the country,” Eylon said.

‘Felt very constricted‘

Maya Cohen was another Israeli citizen present at the event. She disclosed how she feared for her life when she decided to oppose the occupation during her stay in Israel.

“I definitely felt unable to speak. I felt very constricted from using my voice. I was worried for physical violence. I was worried for not being able to find work and support myself.”

She said then she met people who work for Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli veterans that oppose the occupation, which gave her strength.

‘Combination of fear and mythology that makes people kill‘

Also among the attendees was Philon Aloni, a former Israeli citizen who now refuses to be called an Israeli. He said he was born in Palestine when Israel did not exist.

“In 1948, that’s when it turned to Israel. Before it, it was Palestine. Israel was a British mandate,” Aloni said.

He said it is “a combination of fear and mythology” that compels people to take lives.

“Mass killings depend on mythologies combined with fear as a justification,” Aloni said.

He said with the use of mythologies, populations are turned against each other:

Mythologies are used to brainwash little kids. And you can see little kids, before they have much of a rational thinking (and) emotional (development) they get sucked right in by mythology.

If we’re going to have hope, you know, for global, universal harmony, we need to eliminate all those mythologies. It’s mythologies that galvanize people, that unify people under flags that make them dangerous. And when you combine it with fear, you reinforce it. But without the mythology, the extreme revisionist fascist movements are not dangerous. It is the mythology that makes them dangerous.

Palestine Soil

During the event, poet, journalist, professor, and activist El Jones recited a poem she composed after her solidarity visit to Palestine:

If I had a key and I couldn’t return 

I would turn from the world and let it all burn 

But that’s not what I saw in Aida refugee camp

Where despite cramped conditions on the walls art was stamped

Every person a lamp with a kindness that shines 

With resolve only found behind enemy lines 

To the cultural centre the IDF came 

Waging psychological games invaded the office where children would play 

Paraded in hostages to interrogate thought they could turn what was safety to fear through their hate 

But the heart is a gate, that again and again 

Palestinians left open in the face of a state 

That deems them as waste, yet they always refuse

We make every day more beautiful they said for our youth 

And political prisoners tortured and abused 

Said we felt only resolve and we know we can’t lose

For all that they have is the sole of a boot

And a land that they loot but they cannot belong 

For you cannot beat right on the side of the wrong 

On the streets of Hebron 

In a downtown like ghosts

400 settlers defended by 4000 armed folks

I walk behind Omar while Omar cracks jokes

He stands strong like an oak, so their efforts are smoke

For he cannot be broken and nor will he run 

While soldiers and militias taunt us with guns 

And they send us from checkpoint to checkpoint for fun 

And soldiers say what they will and it will be done 

But up in the hills they still have not won 

For the signs say free Palestine beside Olive trees

And surrounded by sandbags the women cook meals 

And as an aside, everyone has a tragedy 

This one’s son taken this morning, that one’s arm broken twice 

Everyone arrested at least one or more times 

And a 17 year old neighbour who looks through a scope 

But like on the wall I read the word hope 

Amid concrete they smuggled to build up their homes

In the place where the earth holds their ancestors bones 

They cannot be thrown, and they do not have doubts

For they know there’s no choice but to wait armies out

And they know there’s no choice but resist and to stand 

For you cannot be bowed when you belong to the land 

And though they uproot the trees and they salt all the soil 

They can’t bend a spirit that will never be spoiled 

Palestinian girls and boys raised with courage and grace 

Ahed Tamimi who slapped a soldier in his face and they threatened with rape

And responded with rage 

And they can lock the bars and take years and days

They can say human animals bomb kill and cage  

And there’s bones they can break and horrors much worse 

Genocide live streamed to transmit to the world 

But make no mistake, Palestinians won’t fold 

And it’s us who has lost what humanity we hold 

They forbid buildings on the land, people live in the caves

And they say that close to the soil only makes them more brave 

Settlers burn down the trees, set dogs off the leashes 

They destroy human life, and all kinds of species 

Bring salt to the earth, and rubble and ash 

Yet they still can’t possess not one blade of the grass 

And the trees will replant and there’ll be keys in the latch 

Because when a state rules by violence they’re already outmatched

To a victim of torture we ask how’d you endure

And he says when you know you are right then it burns at your core 

And though they use violence it’s just a dull sword 

And so they cannot win and we will be restored

And I know that it’s true because the message was clear 

In everyone who was working through terror and despair 

And the things that they live through it pains you to hear 

Yet every checkpoint every prison it will disappear 

Not from us, with our rights, or our international law 

All we’ve contributed is bloodshed and war 

And our hypocrisy will stand in history books ever more.

Not from us, but from those who refuse to be torn 

From the just and the right though they face the worlds scorn 

From the land, from their families they will not be drawn 

Who live and die for free Palestine still to be born