Israeli Teen Jailed For Refusing Army Service Over Gaza Tells Devastating Truths - w/ Tal Mitnick
The Owen Jones Podcast
Owen Jones
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
Tal Mitnick is a courageous 18-year-old Israeli citizen who was jailed after refusing to serve in the army - in protest at the war on Gaza, and the oppression of the Palestinian people.
Here he tells me absolutely shocking truths - but also explains why there is hope.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Guys, it's James and Vuad here. Our Pocock Shitts & Giggs is currently brought to you by Virgin Atlantic. |
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| 0:27.2 | Terms and conditions apply. |
| 0:31.1 | This is courage. |
| 0:32.4 | Talmitnick is an 18-year-old Israeli citizen and he's refused to serve in the Israeli army in protest at the onslaught against Gaza and the oppression of the Palestinian people. |
| 0:42.4 | Now given the political atmosphere in Israel right now, |
| 0:45.4 | taking that stand takes a huge amount of guts. |
| 0:48.6 | What we've been trying to do on this channel |
| 0:50.3 | is elevate Israeli voices who support peace and justice. Without those voices, there is no hope. |
| 0:56.5 | Now Israeli law dictates that other than with exemptions on religious or health or legal grounds, |
| 1:01.5 | all young Israelis must serve and conscientious objectors face imprisonment. |
| 1:06.2 | Now, Tao's been sentenced for 30 days in military prison, but he's been temporarily released |
| 1:11.4 | and speaks to me before he's back behind bars. |
| 1:13.6 | I start by asking him about that mandatory military service |
| 1:16.9 | and his decision to become a conscientious objector. |
| 1:21.6 | Yeah, so the Israeli society is very militarized. Yes, there's also the mandatory service that every child when he reaches the age of 18 has to go through the process of enlisting, and serving for two |
| 1:37.5 | years and eight months for men and two years for women in the IDF. |
| 1:42.3 | And this mandatory service also goes into civilian society where a lot of society is centralized around the army and coming out against the mandatory service can be scary in Israeli society and especially today after October 7th. So I'm tall and I'm from Tel Aviv. I'm a part of the |
| 2:08.3 | Mesovolt network which is a network of conscientious objectors that oppose the mandatory draft and oppose the occupation |
... |
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