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BY DANTE FUOCO

In print | Published October 8, 2009

While many American teenagers spend their senior years of high school writing college essays or applying for jobs, two Israeli women who spoke at the college yesterday prepared themselves for a much different future: prison.

Both 19 years-old, Maya Wind and Netta Mishly spent time in prison earlier this year for refusing to serve in Israel’s mandatory military service because, according to Wind, they are politically opposed to the Israeli military’s actions in occupied territories in Palestine and Israeli territories. The two women spoke in Science Center 101 yesterday.

The event, called “Why We Refuse,” is part of their roughly month-long national “Shminstim Tour” that has stopped at various universities, synagogues and community centers.

Students for Democratic Society, the Peace Collection, and the Peace and Conflict Studies program co-sponsored the event. SDS member Majandra Rodriguez ’12 said that, as SDS is “focusing on different social issues and organizing protests,” it was relevant to have Mishly and Wind speak at the college.

After all, Rodriguez said, the two women aimed to not only talk about the Israeli army’s occupation but also introduce “ways to mobilize people around this issue.” Rodriguez heard about the tour because she went to an IB school with Wind in India.

In an interview before the event, Wind said, “As civilians, we decided to protest our government’s policy.”

During their senior year of high school, Wind, Mishly, and eight other Israeli seniors became part of the informal group the “Shminstim,” which means “twelfth-graders” in Hebrew. In 2008, they drafted a letter openly declaring their refusal to serve in the Israeli army due to their opposition of its practices.

The letter states: “Our refusal comes first and foremost as a protest on the separation, control, oppression and killing policy held by the state of Israel in the occupied territories, as we understand that this oppression, killing and routing of hatred will never lead us to peace, and they are all contradictory to the basic values a society that pretends to be democratic should have.”

By publicly voicing refusal to serve in the military and, as a result, going to prison, the Shminstim was able to get “a platform to have a voice,” Wind said.

“[We were] expanding our ground and making a public protest and saying to everyone in our society and to the government, ‘This is not something we are willing to do. And we feel so strongly about it we’re willing to go to jail,’” she said. “It’s a pretty extreme statement, and then people listen.”

By coming to the U.S., Wind and Mishly wanted to “share the story of the occupation” and also communicate that the U.S. provides military aid to Israel.

“The U.S. is the one funding the occupation,” Wind said. “[Israel] could not do it without the U.S.”
Israeli-Palestinian issues, both religiously and politically, have historically been highly controversial.
During the tour, which finishes tomorrow, Wind said that she believes there is “a lot of misinformation out there,” citing that many people have “attacked” and “challenged” her and Mishly.
“It’s pretty intense,” Wind said. “They think we exaggerate or misrepresent things. … They rarely have decent points.”

While these issues have been problems at other places, Rodriguez said that yesterday people were receptive and open, asking “many questions.” Though there was one person who claimed “Israel is always blamed,” Rodriguez didn’t indicate this was agressive.

 About 70 people attended. Since the event was open to the community, Rodriguez said the attendants were not only students but also members from peace groups and Jewish groups.
“There were so many people … it was great,” she said. “When I talked to people after the event, people [said they] loved it.”

Rodriguez also said that Mishly and Wind were “succint,” “clear” and “educational” in stating their points.

Israeli citizens prepare for their mandatory conscription during twelfth-grade. Wind said that her draft date was Jan. 14 of this year and Mishly’s was Apr. 22. When a student voices refusal to conscription, he or she must have a hearing before a conscientious objectors committee, Wind said. The problem is what the committee deems as legitimate reasons for conscientious objections.

“Their definition of a conscientious objector is a ‘pacifist’ … and all of us were ‘political refusers,’ ” she said. “I myself am a pacifist, but not everyone in the group is.”

Wind said that she was tried five separate times, served three terms in prison and three terms in military detention. She went to prison in the middle of January and went back and forth from it until the beginning of April. According to WhyWeRefuse.org, Mishly was in jail for 20 days in 2009 before being released.

The women were released on the grounds that they were “mentally unfit to serve. … [This is] a way to get rid of us and sort of disqualify us. … Pathologize us, also,” Wind said.

Mishly said in an interview on Grit TV that going to jail isn’t the only consequence of politically refusing to serve in Israel’s military.

“The most important part is that we risk our place in society,” Mishly said. “We’re becoming outsiders, and this is much harder than going to jail. The experience, wherever you go and it doesn’t matter who … you meet, one of the first questions is, ‘What did you do in the army?’ or ‘What, at this age, are you doing in the army?’ ”

Wind added in the same interview that most job applications ask applicants what rank they served in the military. If the employer discovers that an applicant did not serve in the army for political reasons, he or she will often turn down that applicant immediately.

Wind said that she was more scared about jail before she got there: “[I wasn’t sure] how it would be, how I would feel. Would I handle it? Was I strong enough?” After getting to prison, though, “to some level you get used to it.”

“Obviously being in prison was not fun,” but “it’s not Guantanamo,” she said. “It’s not like we were ever physically abused … [There was] nothing worse than verbal abuse. … Compared to Palestinian prisons, we have nothing to complain about.”

Wind said in the Grit TV interview that this letter of open opposition roots back to the 1970s when high school seniors expressed their opposition. Only in 2001 and 2005, however, have the letters echoed 2008’s refusal to serve.

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