Over the last 25 months, a small number of young people have refused their enlistment papers in protest against the Israeli Defence Forces.
For these young people, “serving in the army is complicity in genocide,” said Jess Flom, a freelance photographer based in Jerusalem, who isn’t part of the group but is close to those who have refused to serve in the Israeli military.
Flom said the group is “a real minority” among Israeli citizens, with little to no influence on their government’s policies, but that the outside-in approach is a key strategy to apply pressure to the Israeli government.
Flom said they’re hoping their actions encourage foreign educational institutions like Carleton University to take a stance by adopting boycott, divestment and sanction movements.
“The genocide has probably led more young people to decide to refuse if they have had any doubts in the past, but the various refusing movements have been around for several decades,” Flom said.
In September, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces “have committed and are continuing to commit” genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Their conclusion now joins the likes of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Advocates are demanding an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s prescence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Yona Roseman is one of around twenty young people who have been imprisoned for openly refusing to enlist in the IDF since October 2023.
“No action, protest, or article [is able to] relieve the pain caused,” Roseman wrote in a statement, adding she feels refusal is her only option.
As a transgender woman, Roseman said she has faced additional hardship during her time in prison, spending the majority of her sentence in solitary confinement.
Flom said that a secondary goal of protest and refusal is to draw attention from the outside world, including to the BDS movement, which advocates for the targeted boycott and divestment from businesses found violating the human rights of Palestinians.
Flom estimates around 75 percent of their Instagram following comes from outside of the region. Because of this, they have asked their followers to call on their own governments and institutions to refuse to do business with the State of Israel.
One of these ways is by committing to implement Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS). Inspired by the South-African anti-apartheid movement, BDS is a Palestinian led initiative that seeks to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” It advocates for the targeted boycott and divestment from businesses found violating the human rights of Palestinians.
At Carleton, students and staff have demanded that the Board of Governors divest from Israel.
In late 2024, the Carleton University Academic Staff Association passed a motion calling on the university to divest “from corporations directly enabling Israeli war crimes, breaches of international law and human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
They also called for the disclosure of investment recipients through both endowed and non-endowed funds. The Charlatan has not been able to independently verify Carleton’s investments, and the university has not directly responded to questions about its ties to specific companies named in divestment motions.
In an April statement to the Charlatan, Carleton said the university was committed to responsible investment practices as established by its responsible investing policy.
“Carleton is also a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment and Environmental,” media relations officer Steven Reid told the Charlatan in a statement.
“When new investments are considered, social and governance factors are utilized to judge financial returns as well as overall impact.”
Even before the beginning of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip in 2023, Flom said youth “would have refused [service] because of the apartheid and occupation that has existed in Palestine for 77 years.”
“Political imprisonment is but a tiny price to pay for resisting the terrible crime of our time,” Roseman said.
Featured photo provided by Jess Flom
