Israeli Refuseniks On Their Refusal To Serve In The IDF

protestApril 19, 2016 – Segment 5

We talk with two Israeli Refuseniks. Yasmin Yablonko is a 23-year-old Israeli conscientious objector from Jaffa. She is the coordinator of Mesarvot, a newly established network of Israeli organizations that help elevate the voices of young people refusing military service, offering them capacity building, assisting with media work and helping them organize. Yasmin currently studies Humanities and Arts in the Tel Aviv University. Khaled Farrag is a 34-Year-old Palestinian Druze conscientious objector from Rama village in the Upper Galilee. In 1999, after moving to Jerusalem, Khaled refused to serve in the army and was sentenced to two months in military prison. Khaled was one of the founders of Urford, a movement that calls for ending compulsory military service imposed on Druze, and reconnecting Druze with their Palestinian and Arab identity. Khaled studied law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and established a preparatory school for university admission in East Jerusalem and co-founded Grassroots Jerusalem, a Palestinian NGO working on empowering communities in East Jerusalem.