Israeli Draft Resister Faces Arrest

‘Refuseniks’ in Israeli History

But Matar and his mates' moral objections to serving in the Israeli military are nothing new.

Under Israeli law, young men are required to do three years of national service between the ages of 18 and 21. Females between 18 and 21 typically put in approximately a year of national service. Males can also be called for a reserve duty of generally 30 days a year until they are between 40 and 50.

While professional soldiers and conscripts between 18 to 21 years make up a regular force of approximately 200,000, the reservists make up an approximately 400,000-strong army that supports the regular force during special call-ups.

Through Israel's troubled 54-year history, groups of reservists have periodically refused to participate in a number of Israeli military operations, notably during the occupation of southern Lebanon and during the first Palestinian intifada, between 1987 and 1993.

Popularly called "refuseniks" or "seruvniks" (from the Hebrew word for refusal, seruv) the movement caught the media spotlight in recent times, when a group of about 50 Israeli combat officers signed what was called an Officers Letter declaring their refusal to "fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people."

Today, their numbers have swollen to more than 400, and as Israel expands its military operations in the Palestinian territories, some worry that in a country like Israel, where the population is small and the military operations frequent, the security of the nation could be at stake.

The Israeli government has, however, dismissed such worries, saying the "seruvniks" represent an insignificant minority that will not have an effect on the military or the nation's security.

Rank, Young Outsiders

But even among this small group of moral detractors, Matar and his band of draft resisters are criticized for the means, if not the ends, they have adopted.

Unlike the reservists movement, which draws its weight from its criticism from within the Israeli military, Matar and his group are rank, young outsiders.

And while the signatories of the reservists' petition have voiced their objections to working only in the West Bank and Gaza — territories Israel gained in the 1967 war — Matar's agenda is much broader: a refusal to have anything whatsoever to do with the Israeli military.