On 23 August a Finnish antimilitarist civil disobedience group - The Wall Breakers - symbolically attempted to rescue a total objector from prison.
As part of a small support demonstration at the Katajanokka prison, one of the group threw a rope over the prison wall while two others started digging a tunnel under it. The digging went on for half an hour until the police ended the performance. No arrests were made, though it is possible that indictments might follow.
The man on…
Several young Israeli men are refusing to participate in military service and a number continue to be imprisoned for their principled stance. As we went to press at least three were serving short sentences in military prisons.
In an extract from a letter written in prison, CO David Haham explained his motivation for refusing to bear arms: “I am imprisoned over my refusal to take part in repression of the Palestinian people, because I feel it is out of the question to be a Jew, son of…
Gabriel Wolf, serving his second consecutive prison term at the time of writing, was initially imprisoned on 1 April, for refusing to be recruited into the Israeli Defence Force, after being heard by the military Conscience Committee – the body that hears requests for exemption to military service.
However they concluded that “The Committee was not convinced that you [Gabby Wolf] are a pacifist”, to which Gabby replied “I never tried to convince anyone that I was one”.…
Just three years ago my son Yinnon approached me and told me that he could not serve in the military on moral grounds. He said he knew with growing certainty that pacifism was his ideal. He was sixteen years old.
The soul-searching that followed this declaration was not just my son's. It became mine as well, and that of the entire family. The process was deep and often painful. It forced us to question our core values, demanding a re-evaluation of ourselves as parents, siblings, as…
When Peace News asked me to write this essay, I found myself in a strange position. Here I am, a conscientious objector to military service, and a feminist, asked to write about the connection between conscientious objection and gender identity from my particular personal perspective, and not knowing where to begin. After all, strange as it may seem, I had never thought of this connection in this respect before.
I would like to begin by explaining why I never thought of my…
