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Feminism & Military Refusal: Seeking a Society Based on Equality & Dignity

An Interview with Idan Halili

By Rotem Mor

On a cold evening in late January, AFSC/Quaker Service staff person Rotem Mor met Idan Halili at Dalia, a community activist center and performance space in West Jerusalem. As they drank hot tea, the young refusenik spoke to them about her refusal, her feminism, and her vision.

Idan Halili is a 19-year-old Jewish Israeli from Mish Mar Hamek, a small kibbutz in northern Israel. In November 2005 she refused to enlist for mandatory service in the Israeli military. She is the first Israeli to directly connect her refusal with a feminist anti militarist stand. (See an excerpt from her statement to the Army here.) After spending 14 days in military prison, Idan was released from service as being “unfit to serve.”

Quaker Service : How has your personal history and experience led you to refuse military service?

Idan Halili

Idan Halili: I didn't think about refusing when I was growing up. It seemed certain to me that I would serve in the Army.

I have always been interested in feminist issues though I haven’t always identified them as that. When I was sixteen, I began to volunteer at the Center for Migrant Workers’ Rights working on the issue of trafficking women. Through exposure to this extreme case of the abuse of women’s rights, I became aware of feminist thinking and women’s rights.

At first I thought that I could enter the Army in a position aligned with my feminist principles. I wanted to find a place where I could deal with sexual abuse and harassment within the Army. As I looked into it more, I began to understand the disconnect between feminism and militarism. I understood even if I was working on issues of harassment and feminism within the Army, I wouldn't be able to make much of a difference. This made me nervous because serving in the military is expected in my community.

I had a hard time deciding whether I should refuse. Sometimes I felt I should go and sometimes I thought I should refuse. I started to look at the different options for refusal. I didn’t feel comfortable with any of them because none of them allowed me to be released from service for feminist reasons. But when I realized that I wanted to refuse for who I am, for feminist reasons, I felt very comfortable with refusal.

QS: Why was it important that you refuse specifically on feminist grounds, not for other reasons?

IH: My feminist reasons for refusal were the most important to me and I related to them on a personal level. I felt I had to feel very connected to my reasons in order to justify my refusal for myself and to stand up for them with conviction. They had to have a very deep importance to me and my feminism does.

QS: How does feminism preclude military service?

IH: Feminism for me is not that women will be commanders and men will be soldiers. It’s a structure in which there’s equality and dignity. The Army in its essence is contrary to these values. It’s a hierarchical system based on power and violence.

Because of this set of values, the military allows for sexual harassment to occur. Not just the kind of sexual harassment defined by law but an atmosphere of sexual harassment that includes jokes, songs, comments. It’s not a personal phenomenon, one against another, but something that a woman has to go through daily, a reoccurring violation.

In addition, the Army fortifies the definitions of manliness and womanliness. It maintains the perception of women as pretty, gentle, and in the service of men, and of men as tough and heroic. This value system also establishes the male structure as preferable to the feminine. In a militaristic society where the influence of the Army on society is broad, the general society adopts the same values and definitions, masculine superior to feminine, as defined by the Army.

Because of this influence of the military on society, men will naturally be in positions of power, in positions that influence. Also, in a society where people internalize the violence as it’s played out in the army, women and those considered weaker are more likely to be violated.

QS: Do you also consider yourself a pacifist? How do you see pacifism related to feminism?

IH: I think that yes, I am a pacifist. I see a strong relation between feminism and pacifism, but I also see how pacifist might not identify as a feminist and vice versa.

QS: How do you see your refusal on feminist grounds relating to the larger refusenik movement?

IH: Personally I support all refusal for any reason. I am not the first to make the connection between feminism and refusing, but by making it my focus and thus a public issue, I was able to raise an aspect of refusal not often considered by the public and create greater acceptance of refusal in society.

It was also important for me to raise issues of feminism inside the refusal movement because refusal is not always a feminist action. For example, male refusers who go to jail repeatedly are hailed as heroes. Thus we replace the soldier-hero with the refuser-hero.

QS: What support have you received during this process?

IH: As an active member of New Profile, I was supported by them both personally and in my position. There was a lot of respect within the organization for my stance and my input. They assisted me legally, with the media, and personally. I was also supported by individuals who wrote letters on my behalf and offered me personal encouragement. Before I refused, I thought I would receive more criticism than support, but actually it was actually the opposite.

QS: You received significant media attention. Was the response positive? Critical? Inquisitive?

IH: I felt that the treatment I received in the media was quite positive. They related most of what I said, the way I intended. The comments I received from the exposure were usually quite supportive, but many people, specifically on Internet sites, had harsh responses. This made clear to me how sensitive the issue was. In the kibbutz I thought I would receive harsh treatment, but at least to my face it was okay.

QS: In your statement of refusal to the Army, you write that as a feminist you must “act to reduce the influence of the Army on civic society.” How do you suggest doing this?

IH: One way the Army’s influence can be limited is by young people participating in volunteer work rather than entering the Army. Volunteer service shows that there are other ways to contribute to society rather than serving in the military. This is what I’m involved in personally and that I believe in deeply. I also think that public opinion plays a huge role. Messages like this one need to be said over and over again in different ways before they sink in.

QS: The Conscience Committee released you from military service by saying you were “unfit to serve.” What is your interpretation of this?

IH: Classifying me as “unfit to serve” was a way of releasing me without putting feminism under the field of “conscience” and without making too big an issue of it. For me, even if the Army hasn’t decided that feminism falls under conscientious objection, if they’ve decided that feminists are unfit for military service, I’m very happy.

I feel that I accomplished what I wanted to. I made a public issue of feminist refusal, but I was also granted a fairly easy release and didn’t have to fight with the Army for too long. I think that I wouldn’t have been able to do this—gain exposure in the press and experience the personal difficulty of refusal—without New Profile. Having the support of the organization was very important.

QS: After your refusal, you spent 14 days in military prison before being released from service. What was this experience like?

IH: It was a very hard experience—being deprived of all independence, not having control over my freedom, a complete lack of privacy. The experience made very real to me my argument against army service. I also developed relationships with other female inmates.

QS: What are you doing now?

IH: I am in charge of the education department at the Center for Migrant Workers’ Rights.

QS: How can we support feminist and anti-militarization work?

IH: One way is to volunteer with or support financially organizations involved in this kind of work. In Israel there’s New Profile, Women’s Coalition for Peace, and others. More importantly, promote issues of feminism in the United States and in your local area. Israel is certainly not the only country that needs to be struggling with these issues.

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