Hallel Rabin, teenager jailed four times for refusing to do military service in Israel

At the door of a military prison in northern Israel, the young Israeli Hallel Rabin, imprisoned four times for refusing to do her military service, is declared the “person The happiest in the world“to be free again.

At 19, she could have been sent for 80 more days to the “number 6” military prison in Atlit, where she spent 56 days “the longest in the world”.

But, after questioning her in four hearings, the military considered that his pacifism was sincere and not swayed by opposition to Israeli policies, which could have cost him another arrest.

In Israel, the military plays a central role in society and all young men and women must complete at least two years of military service, with the exception of some ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs.

“The army is one of the most obvious things in Israel: you grow up telling yourself that one day he will be a soldier, who will shut up and do his job, ”says Hallel after melting into an embrace with his mother as soon as he left the detention center.

To avoid military service, some choose to attend a yeshiva -a school where the Talmud is studied-, which is a reason for exemption, and others choose to declare themselves mad, directly.

Instead, Hallel Rabin decided to plead his pacifist convictions and he refused to participate in a “system of violence”, believing that there are “many other ways of engaging in society”.

“I couldn’t take the easy way out and say I was crazy,” says the light-eyed young woman, who wears her hair in a ponytail. “I’m not crazy, the situation is crazy here,” he said.

Despite the insults for “treason” or threats received on social networks, Hallel did not bow. “I decided that I wouldn’t let his hatred affect me,” he said.

And what about Israel’s enemies, who threaten to wipe the country off the map? The young woman assures us that she is not “naive” and that she knows the challenges facing her country.

In 2019, five conscientious objectors – the “reflux”– were detained militarily, according to the peace association Yesh Gvul.

Asked by AFP, the army refused to comment on the case of Hallel Rabin but indicated that the opponents could “put forward their reasons (for not serving in the army) before a committee” which, for its part , will issue a “recommendation”. for the recruiting center.

But when the members of the military committee responsible for deciding his exemption, they asked him: “Do you know that Iran is going to equip itself with an atomic bomb? Do you think it should be allowed to do so? ” At this, Rabin couldn’t help but laugh and replied that it was not for her to solve this problem, she said.

What if you were born in another country, would you have said “no” too?

“I wouldn’t serve in any army in the world, but the situation in the territories The Palestinians strengthen my conviction, ”he explains.

Now that you are officially exempt from military service, perform community service and wants to help, for example, children in difficulty.

In 2002, the Supreme Court indicated that it was possible to grant exemptions for pacifism, but made a distinction between pacifism and “selective conscientious objection”, which could “weaken the ties that bind us together. as a nation ”.

In other words: a person can refuse to perform military service in opposition to war in general, but not only because he is opposed, for example, to Israeli policy in the Palestinian Territories.

“Israel does not want to hear different voices,” laments Hallel’s mother, Irit Rabin, who as a young man served in the army.

“We didn’t tell him what to do, we just told him he had the natural right to choose her own way, “she explains, proud of her daughter.” You have contributed to your country in a very special way, “she said to him, hugging her. “Wonder Woman”.

AFP

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