Israel is going to call up about 60,000
reservists in the coming weeks as it
pushes ahead with plans to take control
of Gaza City. The IDF has said the move
comes 2 days after Hamas said it had
accepted a proposal for a ceasefire and
hostage deal in Gaza amid continued
fierce criticism of Israel's 22-month
offensive. A military official speaking
to pre the press on condition of
anonymity said the first call up notices
would be sent in the coming days. But
there are more and more Israelis who are
deciding not to answer that call. Ido
Ilam is an Israeli teenager who's
refusing to be drafted into the IDF. He
is one of them. Ido, thanks so much for
joining us on the show this morning.
Tell us why when that call comes or
whether it's come already, you are going
to refuse.
I refuse the call for draft even though
it's mandatory in my country because I
see the current war or better called uh
genocidal war um as not only illegal and
immoral but as something that will risk
not only the Palestinians but my own
security um in right now and in the
future as a whole because in the end of
the day when we continue killing.
We are talking about more than tens of
thousands of children, women and men in
Gaza. And we continue the occupation and
we want we are talking even about
completely occupying the Gaza Strip,
then we are talking about creating more
and more hate, more and more generations
that will not be able to change reality
for the better. um as a result, you
know, of this principal decision that
you're taking, what are the potential
consequences for you?
>> The consequences for refusal um at least
for the mandatory call and not the
reserveist call is um imprisonment. I
was imprisoned um when I refused for the
first time. Um right now there is in
prison more than eight refu other
refusnix
um 18 19 years old um who are sitting uh
out their term because they just told
the army we will not enlist. And besides
that, you have the hundreds and hundreds
of reserveists who are refusing. And
even though they are not um getting sent
to prison, they are still experiencing
um authorization and they are still
experiencing hate. Um and we are talking
at this point about a whole movement of
young people saying both for our
positions which we oppose the genocide
and also the more mainstream positions
like the fact that this war is killing
the hostages. We very close to killing
all the left the hostages that are left.
>> Are all of all of the people are now
saying we cannot continue this war
because this war hurts us.
are you um and those like you who are
refusing to answer the draft call, are
you not only facing potential legal
sanction, but are you facing hostility
from your fellow Israelis?
>> The short answer is obviously yes. I
mean, I get daily hate um online.
Everybody that's active um and open
about it's their anti- genocide
positions here is basically getting
death threats, hate curses. Um in the
past people at protest spat at me, uh
yelled at me, attacked us, took signs
just because we protested. Just this
month when we protested outside the
enlistment base for the two refusnix
that refused that day, we were attacked
by a mob of uh right-wingers and were
not protected at all by the police or
army that was present there. And that's
just like the daily life of any activist
here. Basically, at this point, we're
not surprised by it because we're almost
two years into this. And we were
experiencing this in October 2023 as
well. You know, do you see this war as
having any end? I mean, your prime
minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has has
said that he will not even consider a
cessation until Hamas is defeated. Who
knows what defeat for Hamas means? It's
hard to imagine exactly how it could be
extinguished forever. Do you think that
this war is going to end anytime soon?
I think that as long as we continue with
this narrative that we can defeat Hamas,
we can stop terrorism, we can make peace
by force, then it will never end because
like we see now, we're two years into
this where the most powerful army as we
are told and we cannot even defeat an
organization like Hamas which we are
told is a small organization not
organized and this shows shows clearly
that it's not working through force. And
it shows clearly that the only way out
of this, the only way out of this cycle
of death for all sides is to talk about
peace and talk about freedom for the
Palestinian people. And that will be on
the table and that will be an option
once the UK government, the US
government and all governments around
the world will condemn Netanyahu for the
war criminal that he is and stop giving
him aid and arms like they do now. Stop
being complicit in this genocide.
Basically,
>> I am there. Israeli teenager refusing to
be drafted into the IDF. Whatever you
think about the war, whatever you think
about the rights and wrongs, whatever
you think about Gaza and Palestine and
Israel, takes a lot of courage to do
something like that. It is a principal
decision clearly decision of principle
whether you agree with it or