Tal Mitnick, first Israeli to He refused to do mandatory military service in Israel for being against the war in the Gaza Strip, was sentenced today again to 30 days in prison after refusing to be recruitedafter being imprisoned for a month.

Mitnick, an “18-year-old who refused recruitment into the Israeli Army in protest of the Gaza war and the occupation of Palestine, has just been sentenced by a military court to an additional 30 days in a military prison,” he confirmed to EFE. a spokesperson for Mesarvot, an entity supporting the so-called ‘refusenik’, Israelis who reject military service.

Since it began Israeli offensive in Gaza on October 7after the Hamas attack that left some 1,200 dead in Israel, the country mobilized more than 360,000 reservists in a war effort little questioned by public opinion, largely in favor of the war to eradicate Hamas from the Strip.

However, in a scene of growing nationalism where those opposed to the military route are criticized or accused of being traitors, an Israeli minority protests against the war and puts political reasons on the table, such as the siege on Gaza or its opposition to the long Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Mitnick, born in Tel Aviv, actively participated in anti-war protestsand after turning 18 and being called to military service – mandatory in Israel and almost three years for men – he refused to join the ranks at the end of December and was sentenced to a month in prison.

He rebellious young man was released from prison on January 18 and after this Tuesday’s sentence he will have to serve another month, in a process that could be repeated in the coming months as many times as he is called up by the Army and refuses to go, Nimrod Flaschenberg, Mesarvot spokesperson, tells EFE.

This group supported other ‘refusnik’ in previous years and, since the war broke out in Gaza, Mitnick is the first to openly refuse to perform mandatory military service for political reasons, although “four or five other young men plan to do so these days.” coming months,” says Flaschenberg.

Mitnick cited as the reason for his decision the harsh Israeli offensive in Gaza – where Palestinians killed are almost 25,500-, and “the oppression that the Palestinian people suffer daily,” he assured EFE months ago, in one of the first protests in Tel Aviv against the war, in the first weeks of the conflict.

Their case transcended internationally, but has little impact on Israeli society, where their position is a minority and frowned upon among young people, many convinced of the obligation to do mandatory military service, a perception that was even more affirmed with the militarization derived from the conflict in the Strip, which has now lasted three and a half months.

“Not going to the Army is not common and the population sees military service as something common”Mitnick then told EFE, who regretted that Israeli society is “very militarized.”

For this young man, the only way out of the war in Gaza is a truce that stops the attacks and destruction and that includes the release of the Israeli hostages who remain captive in the hands of Hamas.

“Some call me a traitor, but at the end of the day this is my home and the only one I have ever known. I am working for my safety, that of my neighbors, and that of the people of the West Bank and Gaza. I just want security for all of us,” Mitnick concluded.

Insubordinates are not common in the Israeli ranks, although the Army does have a committee of conscientious objectors that usually only grants exemptions for religious reasons, mainly for ultra-Orthodox Jews who are allowed to refuse to serve in order to devote themselves to Torah study. .

In early 2023, Amnesty International reported the case of Yuval Dag, another 20-year-old ‘refusenik’ that he declared himself a conscientious objector and that he was accused of disobedience by the Army and sentenced to 20 days in a military prison.

In 2003, a group of Israeli Air Force pilots provoked national fury when they refused to participate in operations in the West Bank and Gaza, considering attacks on these occupied territories as “illegal and immoral” in the midst of the Second Intifada.