How you helped us, ordinary people, to stop this war
(20.01.2025) My name is Max Kresch, I’m 28 years old. I was a combat soldier, and I refused to continue serving in this unjust war in Gaza. Today I wanted to thank you for helping me and my friends, hundreds of soldiers who refused fighting, to force the Israeli government to stop this war. With your help, this week we’ve won an important battle. With your help, this week we’ve won an important battle. But this period is critical: There is a real threat that the war will start again. We need to continue our struggle.
You can help. Please send this link to friends and family, or anyone who believes in justice, and invite them to join our solidarity community – people who receive our email updates and have our back.
I live in Jerusalem but I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, in a Zionist and religious community. I moved to Israel after high school at the age of 18, and I enlisted in the Israeli army almost 10 years ago as a combat medic, and since my (honorary) discharge, I have been doing military reserves duty regularly about once per year. Today, I refuse to return to serve and have joined a group called “Soldiers for the Hostages” in a brave act of resistance against this war of destruction for Israelis and Palestinians alike. If you are reading this, you are supporting our mission. Thank you!
I served in reserves for the first 2 months of the war. As the days turned into weeks and then months, the rhetoric among my comrades became more extreme and disturbing. Some of the soldiers in my unit would argue that after the Hamas attack, it was a religious duty to kill Palestinian children because they would grow up to be terrorists. I recognized this as rhetoric that came directly from the leaders in our government. At first I was very outspoken, but it was extremely difficult, I was alone in my views, and I became isolated from my fellow soldiers. Eventually I was forced to just stay quiet. I knew that if I could not raise my voice, I would no longer be able to go back to serve. Still, it took almost a year until I would do something about that decision.
On September 2, the day after the news of the murders of 6 hostages who were betrayed by our own government, I sent the following message to my commander:
Hi my friend, I am letting you know that I’m not returning to reserves anymore. I’m not willing to serve under this government. It has lost all semblance of legitimacy in leading this war.
Stay safe and come home soon,
Max
Today, 4 months later, I am at the helm of “Soldiers for the Hostages,” a group of over 200 Israeli army soldiers who served during this war and are now resisting it. We have all signed an open letter expressing that under the current reality where the government prioritizes continuing the war, wiping out Palestinians, and settling Gaza over their duty to return the hostages home alive, we will no longer continue to serve.
Since our letter was published, I found myself in the limelight which is definitely not a place I feel comfortable. I would much prefer to be out of the spotlight, commenting on facebook, or having conversations about it with friends. But I didn’t come here to feel comfortable, I came here to make a change, and I’ve come to understand that this issue is far bigger than sticking to what I feel comfortable with, or even qualified for. People are dying, people are killing, people are suffering, and as long as that is happening in my name, the discomfort that I feel from stepping in the limelight is next to meaningless compared to the discomfort I feel every day that this war continues.
I am not the expected candidate for leading a (non-violent) resistance movement of soldiers. I am not a revolutionary, I am not the son of a famous priest or rabbi, I don’t have the background or the training to be doing this, and I didn’t even grow up with many of the values that I now fight for. My background really is as mainstream run of the mill Jewish American Zionist as you can get. I’m an ordinary person, and truthfully I feel entirely unqualified for the position I’ve found myself in. But I’ve come to realize, if I don’t do it, nobody else will. That being said, I am not truly alone, I have joined in with others, and others have joined me, and at this point we really are a movement backed by hundreds and thousands of ordinary people like you, and when we work together supporting the same goal, we can achieve tremendous accomplishments like we have this week, and we will end this war for good.
In the past month we have been making big strides, we have been signing new signatories to our movement, we held a “Resisting the War” conference which was broadcast across the Israeli media. We have had our signatories speak at many protests across the country. We have adopted a new “uniform”- IDF fatigues and a black t-shirt with the words “ONE HAS A MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO DISOBEY UNJUST WARS”.
We are fostering a community of ordinary soldiers with one thing that really sets us apart, we DARE to challenge the status quo. This is along with an extended community of ordinary people like you who support us in our mission. If you are reading this, you’ve gotten this email from us, you are part of the Refuser Solidarity Network (RSN) community. Thank you for your support, and a special thanks to those who have written to us with words of encouragement, it means so much to hear that from you.
As we continue this fight, we need your help to grow our community of support. Share this email with your friends, family, and anyone who believes in justice, and invite them to join our mailing list here. You can also share an invite to join our community of support on WhatsApp, on Facebook.
With gratitude,
Max Kresch
Soldiers for the Hostages
Refuser Solidarity Network: How you helped us, ordinary people, to stop this war. Refuser Updates, January 20, 2025. https://mailchi.mp/refuser/how-ordinary-people-stopped-the-gaza-war.
Keywords: ⇒ Conscientious Objection ⇒ English Material ⇒ Israel ⇒ Militarization ⇒ Objectors Report ⇒ Palestine ⇒ War