Kerry Vernon, Sydney

Rotem Mor, a young Israeli “refusenik” — a conscript who refuses to serve in the military to protest against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza — has just finished an Australia-wide speaking tour.

His last meeting, held in Sydney on August 6, was organised by the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine. Mor spoke about his reasons for becoming a refusenik and his work with other young refuseniks and their collaboration with Palestinians.

Phil Reiss, from Sydney, who had just returned from the West Bank and recovered from being shot in the head by an Israeli “rubber bullet”, also spoke, telling the meeting how he became involved in opposing Israel’s apartheid wall.

Mor said he became a refusenik after 18 months in the Israel military, as he came to question the role and actions of the Israeli army towards Palestinians in the territories Israel has occupied since its June 1967 war against neighbouring Arab countries.

Mor explained that the apartheid wall has forced Palestinian villages into enclaves almost surrounded by the wall. But “all along the wall, Palestinian villages have resisted”. He said that one of the important things he had been involved in was taking 200 Israelis to the West Bank to see what the wall is doing to Palestinian villages.

Emma Brown reports that 50 people attended the Melbourne Palestinian Solidarity Network’s August 2 public meeting with Mor and Reiss.

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