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About Yesh-Gvul

Yesh Gvul (literally, ‘There’s a Limit’) was launched in 1982 as a political movement aimed at supporting refuseniks and conscientious objectors.
Its basic assumption is that every citizen in a democratic state, when serving in the military, must decide what their red lines are, and which actions cross those lines.
Alongside members of the movement who refuse to serve in the army and seek an alternative form of national service, are selective objectors against occupation and wars that are not defensive wars.
By transforming the act of individual refusal into public political action, Yesh Gvul’s members take issue with the concept that positions army service as conscripts and reservists, at the top of Israelis’ civic duties.
The movement aims to sway public opinion against wars of choice, and the occupation of Palestinian territories.

Since the outset, the movement has provided individual assistance to refuseniks, in tandem with political, legal, and informational activity in the struggle to end the occupation and avoid unnecessary wars.
In recent years, its members have battled the continuing occupation together with other organizations, helped conscientious objectors, led monthly vigils, organized an annual torch-lighting event on the movement’s Alternative Independence Day ceremony, and the awarding of the Yehoshua Leibowitz Prize.

History

Yesh Gvul was founded in 1982 with the outbreak of the First Lebanon War, as a refusal movement of soldiers in the reserves force.
Its first petition, which would define the movement’s trajectory, reads:
"[…] you are trying to solve the Palestinian problem by warfare … to impose a ‘new order’ on the ruins of Lebanon, to spill our blood and the blood of others for the sake of the Phalange. That is not why we enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces.” 
Close to 3,000 reservists signed the petition, 160 of whom were jailed for refusing to serve on Lebanese territory. Yesh Gvul supported the first Lebanon War refuseniks, most of whom were selective objectors, and worked to influence public opinion against waging wars in Lebanon. Ever since, the movement has helped soldiers who refuse to serve or are considering refusal, as well as their families.

Yesh Gvul organizes solidarity demonstrations with refuseniks serving time in military jails, and publishes their statements of refusal to enhance public awareness. The movement’s hotline (Tel. 02-6250271) provides phone advice for soldiers who have refused to serve in the Occupied Territories, or plan to do so. Young people phoning the hotline learn about the implications of refusal and the army’s attitude to refuseniks, and learn how to equip themselves ahead of a military prison sentence. Over the years, hundreds of soldiers and youngsters ahead of army service have contacted the hotline, receiving a sympathetic ear and solid advice on service.
The movement first petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court in 1983 over the abuse of conscientious objectors. That was followed by a series of legal battles that the movement conducted (details follow). After a successful fundraiser to protest the war in Lebanon, the movement launched the Yesh Gvul Foundation, which helps imprisoned refuseniks whose refusal resulted in financial straits. Since then, the movement supports the families of refuseniks, and financially helps the refuseniks and conscientious objectors whose families are in financial distress.
In 1985, the movement published Limits of Obedience (Siman Kriah, publishers), an anthology of articles in Hebrew on obedience in a democracy, and the Lebanon War. It would be followed by numerous books and publications.

The movement has always held that that the Green Line constitutes Israel’s borders, and it started organizing activities to mark the Green Line, and to stage alternative Independence Days.
With the eruption of the Frist Intifada in 1987, the movement issued a Declaration of Refusal against service in the Occupied Territories:
"[...] The uprising in the territories and its brutal suppression by the army clearly prove the terrible price of the continuing occupation and the absence of a political solution. We, soldiers in the IDF, declare that we will no longer accept the burden of responsibility and complicity in this moral and political deterioration. We refuse to participate in suppressing the uprising and rebellion in the Occupied Territories. "
Over 2,500 reserve soldiers signed the Declaration, and 180 of its signatories were sentenced to jail terms.
After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the movement decided to put its public political activity on hold as long as political negotiations with the Palestinian leadership continued, although it continued providing support to people refusing to serve in the Territories. This break lasted a year and a half.

Each year since 1998, the movement holds a beacon-lighting event at the start of Israel’s Independence Day, to celebrate the values of a just, egalitarian, and moral nation. Lighting the torches are human rights activists, involved in efforts against the unnecessary oppression and war in the occupied Palestinian territories, people who mobilize to help the weak, and those seeking peace with our neighbors.
When the Second Intifada began, Yesh Gvul drafted a new petition that was first published in 2000, and later updated in 2004: 
"Despite the ostensible Palestinian autonomy – in a fifth of the Occupied Territories - the occupation continues unendingly... The war that the Israeli government is waging for the land of (the settlements of) Ariel and Beit-El, the protection it awards the violent settlers of Itamar and Beit Hadassah, the continued occupation of Netzarim and Kiryat Arba, and continued control of Rachel's Tomb and Nabi Samuel - is not our war! We, IDF soldiers, declare that we won’t take part in the never-ending oppression of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and will not be involved in policing and guarding activities in the settlements used for that purpose.”

Another declaration was made in 2006, when Yesh Gvul decided to take issue with Israel's policy of non-investigation of war crimes and the possibility of universal jurisdiction. It stated, among others:
"We will approach the enforcement and judicial institutions - civilian and military – to request a thorough investigation, and if their findings confirm our suspicions, we will demand that those responsible be brought to trial. If it transpires that the judicial institutions – military and civilian – are evading their responsibility to investigate, we will not hesitate to act jointly with entities overseas, so that the matter can be appropriately handled by international and foreign courts."

Each year since 2009 the movement has awarded the Leibowitz Prize to two people whose endeavors comply with the spirit of Yeshayahu Leibowitz's public activities. The prize has two categories: life-work and public-political activity (the recipients usually represent an organization in which they are active). To date, sixteen people have received the award. 
In 2014, the movement was involved in founding Mesarvim (Refusing) - a political refusal network. Yesh Gvul members participate in the network's activities and in helping young people facing military service, who refuse to take part in the IDF’s activities as an occupying army.
Publicity and publishing activities

There are three chief areas to the movement’s informational activities:
1. Pamphlets and handouts explaining the principles of the movement, its responses to Israeli policy, and warnings to soldiers regarding the laws of war.

2. Public meetings, and media appearances.

3. Published books:
1985 - Limits of Obedience (Siman Kriah) - the first collection of articles in Hebrew on issues of democratic compliance and the Lebanon War. Among the contributors were Michael Walzer, Hanan Hever, Noam Chomsky, Asa Kasher, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Avigdor Feldman, Meir Pa'il, Adi Zemach, and Yosef Raz.
1990 – Democracy and Obedience (Siman Kriah) - a collection of articles on democracy, law, and the limits of obedience in a democracy. Contributors included David Hed, Yitzhak Zamir, Haim Cohen, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Yishai Menuhin, Moshe Negbi, Amos Oz, and Yosef Raz.
1990 - Refusal! Testimonies of Refuseniks ( Hargol Publishing & Aliyat Hagag) - edited by Peretz Kidron, a founding member of the movement. The collection presents 30 years of refuseniks' testimonies, refusal petitions, and letters from twelfth-grade students ahead of conscription. It has been translated into English, Turkish, Greek, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.
2006 – Occupation and Refusal – (Sifrei November) - an anthology of articles on occupation, democracy and refusal. Contributors were Jonathan Bennett, Moshe Greenberg, Slavoj Žižek, Hanan Hever, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Ishai Menuchin, Susan Sontag, S. Yizhar, Yehouda Shenhav and others.
Legal efforts .

Petitions
• The movement first petitioned the Supreme Court In 1983 (HCJ 734/83 Yaakov Shain et al. v. the Minister of Defense et al.), on the abuse of call-up orders against conscientious objectors.
• 1992 - Yoav Hess, on behalf of Yesh Gvul, petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ 92/4110 Yoav Hess v. The Minister of Defense and the IDF Chief of Staff), arguing that the IDF open-fire regulations make soldiers vulnerable to carrying out an illegal order, and committing an act which is a grave criminal offense - of murder or a war crime. This petition was dismissed.
• 2003 - the movement appealed twice to the High Court of Justice – first, against the demolition of Palestinian-owned houses in Hebron to enable the construction of a promenade for the settlers of Kiryat Arba. The second petition was filed by several intellectuals – Yoav Hess, Nathan Zach, Sami Michael, Ronit Matalon, Amos Keinan and Yitzhak Laor. Represented by Avigdor Feldman and Michael Sfard, they sought to instruct the Military Advocate General and the Attorney General to revoke their decision not to open a criminal investigation into the planning and execution of the assassination of Hamas activist Salah Mustafa Shehadeh in Gaza City on 22 July 2002. In that operation, a one-ton bomb dropped in the heart of a densely populated neighborhood killed 14 people, and wounded dozens (HCJ 8794) / 03 Yoav Hess et al. v. The Military Advocate General et al.)
• 2006 – a petition to the High Court of Justice against the Supreme Court for refraining to hear the petition that the movement had submitted in 2003, in the matter of Salah Shehadeh. That same year, the movement also petitioned the Supreme Court regarding the IDF’s use of phosphorous bombs in wartime activity in the Gaza Strip.
• 2016 – Yesh Gvul petitioned the Supreme Court concerning the inequality between women who are entitled to be released from military service due to their religious values and way of life, and women who are obliged to appear before a Conscience Committee due to their pacifist values and way of life.
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