Your people reject you

Refusal. Your People Protect You (or Refusal. Your People Protect You) is a Palestinian youth movement aimed at overthrowing the compulsory conscription imposed on Palestinian Druze youths in the Israeli occupation army since 1956. The movement seeks to "oppose all forms of conscription, and contribute to the re-union between the sons of one people, filling gaps and attempts to erase and conceal identity that has been practiced since before 1948."

Background
Conscription in Israel is imposed by the Security Service Law (the law since 1949 and a new modified law was introduced in 1986) on every person who has reached the age of 18 and holds Israeli citizenship or residence. Therefore, he can be called for service by the Israeli Minister of "Security", but this does not apply in practice, and following a government decision that the minister makes to exempt Arabs from compulsory service except non-practicing Arab Druze youths. Conscription was imposed on Arab Druze youths on May 3, 1956 through a decision issued by the first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, where this decision at the time faced rejection and resistance from the sons of the Druze Arab community.

Therefore, the refusal of compulsory conscription imposed with force on Palestinian Druze youths is not new, as its beginning was with the imposition of conscription and continued with the establishment of the "Arab Druze Initiative Committee" in the 1970s and other movements and initiatives such as the Arab Druze Communication Committee. The Refusal. Your People Protect You movement launched on March 21, 2014 through a demonstration on the "Mountain of the Rejectors", which is the slope of a mountain opposite Military Prison No. 6 located in Atlit.

The Movement's Vision
Refusal. Your People Protect You is a youth movement, non-partisan, not confined to a sectarian framework, comprising girls and boys from various regions and sects in occupied Palestine and the diaspora, for the purpose of opposing all forms of conscription that the Israeli institution seeks to impose on Palestinians. The movement focuses its efforts initially on opposing compulsory military conscription imposed on Arab Druze youths. The movement is based on human values, and on establishing the Palestinian Arab identity.

The movement has two distinctive features: the first is that it is a feminist movement, where women play a leading role in the movement, in addition to being an integral part of decision-makers. This feminism is not only evident through their clear stance and opposition to all forms of oppression, domination, and injustice, but also against the patriarchal suppression and racist discrimination.

The second feature is its inclusivity. The movement rejects attempts to divide the Palestinian people, whether through sectarian or geographical fragmentation. The movement rejects all forms of conscription for all sons of the Palestinian people, including what is called civil service and also voluntary service, and always calls for fighting sectarianism and rising above differences between the sons of one people.

The Movement's Strategy
A significant part of the movement's activity is providing support and solidarity to those who refuse military service, through making information available about paths of exemption and refusal, and providing legal advice in case of detention, and supporting their cause by all means through building a network of support for refusers. The support network includes lawyers, psychologists, and volunteers, aiming to unite efforts to accompany youths until they obtain exemptions from the military institution through providing them with information about paths of refusal and compulsory service, assisting them in obtaining official documents and papers, facing the bureaucracy of the military authorities.