Refuseniks Voice Opposition to Ongoing Israeli Attacks on Gaza

Mar 19, 2025

By Jemma Dooreleyers

When the door to Kingston’s Unitarian Fellowship opened on Tuesday, March 11, there was a small group of people, huddled in the coat area with their noses almost pressed to the door’s stained - glass window.

The group screened visitors upon entry, confirming their intentions and affiliations to ensure that there are “no more incidents like last night.”

Einat Gerlitz, 21 and Tal Mitnik, 19, are visiting Canada for the first time, on tour, bringing awareness to the war in Gaza and calling on the Canadian federal government, as well as the Kingston municipal government to divest from weapon manufacturing for Israel.

While the press conference took place on Tuesday morning for the media, there was a speaking event for members of the public the night before.  According to the group who organised both events, a few members of the audience on Monday night were supporters of the Israeli military incursion into Gaza, and “it was not pretty” for the people speaking. 

Gerlitz and Mitnik are “refuseniks”, Israeli citizens who have refused their mandatory conscription into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as conscientious objectors, which is against the law in Israel. Gerlitz was detained for 87 days in Israeli prison after she refused to serve, Tal Mitnik, served 185, the maximum sentence for refuseniks in Israel.

According to Gerlitz, she came to this decision (a decision that brings with it a criminal record, impacts her own freedom, and her and her family's social standing), after she had become friends with Palestinian Israeli citizens, during her involvement in the climate movement.

“Forming those friendships really changed my mind and changed my perspective. I saw that we live in the same place, living in completely different realities. That’s when I understood that I was going to refuse,” she said. “I don’t want to enlist in the system that oppresses my friends and their families.”

The most recent conflict between Israel and Palestine began 528 days ago, on October 7, 2023, when Hamas members killed an estimated 1,139 people (according to the Associated Press), and abducted 251 Israeli citizens and took them to the Gaza Strip. In response to this, the Israeli Defense Forces, under orders from a coalition government  headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has continued to pepper the Gaza Strip with bombs. It is estimated that, as of January 2025, over 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in these retaliatory attacks, and thousands more have been injured.

Access to food, water, medicine, shelter and other supplies for the everyday well-being of the population of Gaza, is hard to come by due to transportation and delivery restrictions imposed by Israel. It is estimated that the entire population faces dire levels of food scarcity.

This is the most recent conflict, however, the conflict between Israel and Palestine, dates back to the founding of Israel in 1948. Today, a Jewish Canadian has more transportation rights across Israel and Palestine than Palestinian citizens do.

While a cease-fire began on January 19 of this year, and was still in place when Gerlitz and Mitnik were in Kingston on March 11, it ended a week later. On Tuesday, March 18, Israel launched significant strikes in Gaza, killing 400 people, effectively ending the ceasefire.

Tal Mitnik, who entered prison in 2022 as the first public refuser (since Oct 7), received the maximum sentence for refusing military service in the IDF. After 5 consecutive 30-day sentences, was released in July 2024 on “medical grounds”, and cites the support of his mother and father for his decision to refuse.

His father was a journalist in the occupied West Bank.

“My mom, like any mom, is worried for her first son. She would have been worried if I would have gone into combat, she would have been worried about anything I did,” he said. “So obviously when I told her that I decided I was going to refuse, she was worried. She was worried about prison. But she supported me throughout the whole process and I’m very lucky to have her as my mom.”

Mitnik and Gerlitz feel they have a role to play as conscientious objectors. They emphasise their privilege as Israeli citizens and use that privilege to amplify the suffering and the voices of Palestinians in Gaza.

They are calling on the City of Kingston and the Government of Canada to divest from companies that fund Israeli weaponry. They also call on the citizens of Kingston and Frontenac to remain aware and vigilant.

“While (the war) feels far away from your communities, it is a human issue that needs human solutions,” said Gerlitz. “Make sure you are aware of your own country’s colonial past and do what you can to make your voice heard, that you do not support a colonial takeover of another country.”

Gordon Darral, who is a resident of Battersea and a member of the Kingston Unitarian Fellowship, was part of the organising force that hosted Independent Jewish Voices and Gerlitz and Mitnik in Kingston.

He says that while it is more difficult for rural communities to become involved in protest movements like marches and boycotts, he believes it is important not to ignore the conflict. 

“I don’t think it matters whether you live in a city or whether you live in rural Frontenac,” he said. “Right now there are humanitarian issues, not political issues, but human issues that totally go against the values that I have. People are going to ask in a generation from now ‘what did you do during the genocide in Palestine? We live in a very small world now, we know what’s going on, we can’t turn our backs and say we don’t know what’s going on.

“It’s important whether you live in Parham or in Frontenac County that you have some kind of involvement.  It’s harder in the smaller communities because there’s no marches or protests going on, or films being shown, but we do have to make an effort to be involved.”