The apartheid régime hopes that the purported ‘ceasefire’ will stamp out dissent
My name is Didi Remez, and I am writing to you for the first time as the new Executive Director of Refuser Solidarity Network. More than twenty years ago, while serving as a commander in the Israeli army reserves during the Second Intifada, I reached a breaking point. I refused to serve in the occupied territories. It became clear to me that the missions we were carrying out had nothing to do with protecting anyone. They were about dispossessing Palestinians and enabling settlement expansion. Once I understood that, I could not continue. Since then, I have devoted my life to opposing the occupation and exposing the machinery that sustains it. As I enter my new role, I hope to get to know our global community of supporters better: who you are, and what fuels your support of the war refusers movement here in Israel-Palestine. I need you to fill out this form so that we can begin to build international connections of solidarity[.]
For the past two years, I have led RSN's work supporting reservists who refused service. In that time, we witnessed something historic. Refusal became visible, tangible, and contagious. People who never imagined refusing began to see it as a real option. Hundreds joined.
I step into this role at a complicated moment. Israel has agreed to a ceasefire, and many are eager to declare that the worst is over. The government presents the ceasefire as closure, as proof that its assault has ended. But anyone paying attention knows the truth. The fire has not ceased. Gaza is still in ruins. People are still dying from the collapse of basic infrastructure, from hunger, from the impossibility of rebuilding. Lebanon is under constant attack. Violence continues every day. A ceasefire on paper does not stop a war machine that has spent decades perfecting the logic of domination.
This moment presents a new challenge. The government hopes that the ceasefire will cool the public outrage that refusal helped ignite. It hopes to demobilize people, to return refusal to the margins. We cannot allow that to happen.
Refusal is not a reaction to one war. It is a strategy to dismantle the system that makes war inevitable. The long emergency continues. The occupation continues. The logic of annihilation continues. RSN will continue to grow a culture of refusal that undermines that system at its core. Thank you for walking with us into what comes next. Please introduce yourself by filling out our form so that we can continue to grow as an international movement.
AnarchoBolshevik in palestine
The apartheid régime hopes that the purported ‘ceasefire’ will stamp out dissent
(Taken from an email sent to me by the Refuser Soldiarity Network. Emphasis original.)