Citizens of Israel have refused to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or have disobeyed orders on the grounds of pacifism, antimilitarism, religious philosophy, or political disagreement with Israeli policy such as its occupation of the West Bank. Conscientious objectors in Israel are known as sarvanim which is sometimes translated as "refuseniks", or mishtamtim.
Breaking the Silence (BtS) is an Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO) established in 2004 by veterans of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It is intended to give serving and discharged Israeli personnel and reservists a means to confidentially recount their experiences in the Occupied Territories. Collections of such accounts have been published in order to educate the Israeli public about conditions in these areas.
StandWithUs (SWU) is a nonprofit pro-Israel education and advocacy organization founded in Los Angeles in 2001 by Roz Rothstein, Jerry Rothstein, and Esther Renzer.
The 2006 Hezbollah cross-border raid was a cross-border attack carried out by Lebanon-based Hezbollah militants on an Israeli military patrol on 12 July 2006 on Israeli territory.
The 2006 Israeli reserve soldiers' protest was a protest movement which called for the resignation of the government and the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into what they argued were crucial failures experienced during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. From late August to early October 2006, some of its followers were stationed in a tent city besides the Israeli government building, and several large demonstrations were carried out to protest against the conduct of the government before, during, and after the war.
Sufa is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the Hevel Shalom area of the north-western Negev desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of Eshkol Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 233.
The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead, also known as the Gaza Massacre, and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza, making more than 100,000 people homeless.
The Rabin Pre-Military Academy is a secular mechinah for high-school graduates in Israel, located at the Oranim College in the Western Galilee. Founded in 1998, the program features intensive studies in a range of subjects focusing on the sociopolitics of Israel, its history focusing on the pre-state pioneering settlers, Jewish studies, and humanistic-ideological aspects of current events, as well as personal development. The studies are combined with volunteer service in the public school system of outlying communities. The 10-month residential program defers compulsory military service in the framework of the post-secondary "year of service", after which its graduates are inducted into the Israel Defense Forces. The academy was founded and still directed by Danny Zamir who is a deputy battalion commander in the reserves.
On 10 February 2010, Palestinian Authority police officer Muhammad Hatib stabbed Druze Israeli soldier Ihab Khatib to death as the latter was sitting in a jeep at a traffic light. The attack was considered part of an "emerging trend" at the time, involving assaults on Israelis by members of the Palestinian Authority security services.
The 2002 Hebron ambush took place in the Wadi an-Nasara neighborhood in Hebron in the West Bank on 15 November 2002. Israeli forces were subjected to a double attack by fighters from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The battle was referred to in Israel as "The attack on the worshippers' route", Hebrew: הפיגוע בציר המתפללים. The place where the attack took place became known as the "Alley of Death" both in Hebrew and Arabic. The ambush was initially dubbed as the "Sabbath massacre" by official Israeli spokespersons.
The Hannibal Directive is the name of a controversial procedure that was used by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) until 2016 to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers by enemy forces. According to one version, it says that "the kidnapping must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces." It was introduced in 1986, after a number of abductions of IDF soldiers in Lebanon and subsequent controversial prisoner exchanges. The full text of the directive was never published, and until 2003, Israeli military censorship forbade any discussion of the subject in the press. The directive has been changed several times, until it was officially revoked in 2016 by IDF chief of staff Gadi Eizenkot. The Directive's replacement has not been published.
The Yeshivat Otniel shooting, was an attack carried out on 27 December 2002, in which two Palestinian gunmen killed four students at Yeshivat Otniel, a Hesder Yeshiva in the Israeli settlement of Otniel near Hebron in the West Bank.
The Beitunia killings refers to the consecutive killings of two Palestinian teenagers, which took place on the occasion of the annual Nakba Day protests on May 15, 2014, near the Israeli Ofer Prison outside Beitunia in the occupied West Bank. Israel described the protest as a riot in which a crowd refused to disperse, and initially denied responsibility, saying the cause of the deaths was unknown, the deaths were faked, that video clips of the killings either failed to capture the violence of the scene shortly before or might have been manipulated, that soldiers had been provoked and that only rubber bullets had been fired.
Naftali Bennett is an Israeli politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the 3rd Alternate Prime Minister of Israel from 1 July to 8 November 2022. Bennett was the leader of the New Right party from 2018 to 2022, having previously led The Jewish Home party between 2012 and 2018.
B'Tselem is a Jerusalem-based non-profit organization whose stated goals are to document human rights violations in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, combat any denial of the existence of such violations, and help to create a human rights culture in Israel. It is currently headed by Yuli Novak, who took over in June 2023 from Hagai El-Ad, who had served as its director-general since May 2014. B'Tselem also maintains a presence in Washington, D.C., where it is known as B'Tselem USA. The organization has provoked sharp reactions within Israel, ranging from harsh criticism to strong praise.
Im Tirtzu is a Zionist non-governmental organization based in Israel. Its name is derived from an epigraph appended to the frontispiece of Theodor Herzl's novel Altneuland, 'if you wish it, it is no fairy-tale,' rendered into modern Hebrew in Nahum Sokolow's translation in 1903, as Im tirtzu ein zo agadah.
Sergeant Almog Shiloni of the Israel Defense Forces was killed on 10 November 2014 after he was stabbed multiple times at Tel Aviv HaHagana Railway Station. He died in hospital from his wounds. Shiloni was off-duty, but in uniform and armed at the time.
A vehicle-ramming attack occurred in Jerusalem on 8 January 2017. A truck driven by an Arab citizen of Israel plowed into a group of uniformed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers disembarking from a bus on the Armon Hanatziv Esplanade in East Jerusalem's East Talpiot neighborhood, close to the Trotner park and UNTSO headquarters, killing four and injuring 15.
Ad Kan [“Ad Kan” (Hebrew), or “It Stops Now”] is an Israeli activist organization which was started in 2015 by Israeli security personnel to defend Israel’s Zionist character from internal and external anti-zionist groups. The name “Ad Kan”, or “It Stops Now” is used to refer to the activities by anti-Zionist groups against the State of Israel, that they must “stop now”.
Zvika Fogel or Tzvika Foghel is an Israeli politician, activist and former military officer who serves as a member of Knesset for Otzma Yehudit following the 2022 Israeli legislative election.
