Conscientious objector jailed by Israeli army for third time

Atalya Ben-Abba, 19, has already spent 50 days in prison for refusing to serve in the IDF, and has now been sentenced to a further 30 days.

Israeli conscientious objector Atalya Ben-Abba. (Yona Benstein)
Israeli conscientious objector Atalya Ben-Abba. (Yona Benstein)

Conscientious objector Atalya Ben-Abba, 19, was on Tuesday sentenced to a third stint in prison after reporting to the Tel Hashomer military induction base and refusing to enlist in the IDF. Ben-Abba will spend 30 days in jail, on top of the 50 days she has already served following her previous two refusals.

On the previous two occasions, Ben-Abba was sentenced along with fellow draft refusers Tamar Ze’evi and Tamar Alon, both of whom were recently released from the military after each serving more than 100 days in jail.

Once she has finished her current jail term, Ben-Abba is expected to be again summoned to the military induction base, where she will continue to refuse to serve in the army and will state her willingness to carry out civilian national service instead.

In March, the army recognized refusal to serve in the occupation as conscientious objection for the first time in 13 years, as it decided to release Tamar Ze’evi after she had spent a total of 118 days in prison.

Several other conscientious objectors refused to enlist in the army last year, including Tair Kaminer and Aidan Katri.

Last fall, hundreds of Ethiopian Israelis announced they would refuse army reserve duty, in protest at police violence and institutional discrimination toward them.

This post was originally published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.