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I should have planned in advance, but I didn’t, because I’m a bit of an idiot. The summer when I was seventeen, we had this program where we meet Palestinian people, kids my age, and we talk about peace and stuff. That was very nice, I liked that program a lot. Before I went there, I knew a little bit about the things happening in Palestine, but on some level I thought — this is a very bad thing to think, but I thought they kind of deserved it. Because what we were taught is that it is controlled by terrorists, and that they just won’t let us have our land that we deserve.

So I talked to these Palestinian kids who hadn’t seen their uncle or their grandparents in years, because they can’t get out of the West Bank to go to Gaza, and they can’t pass the checkpoint, they’re not legal citizens, and they can’t vote, and they don’t have many rights. It was ridiculous to me. Why are you treating someone like a second-class citizen, just because they’re not Jewish, or just because they’re Arab?

It was very hard for me to understand that the whole conflict is more complicated than history class. People try to cover it, but there’s a limit to what teachers can say without getting fired. They can’t say that Palestine is being occupied, because that would be a political opinion. Also, most of them don’t give a fuck. They don’t care about Palestine.

That was the first time I considered it. But really, it was when I was eighteen, I decided when I went on a trip to Europe that I didn’t want to go to the army. I remember clearly, I was in London and I saw a newspaper and it had stuff about Palestine. I was so shocked, because in Israel, we don’t talk about Palestine unless Palestine is attacking us. That is when I really decided.

So I kept delaying my draft date by doing stupid shit, and didn’t show up to appointments. I told them I didn’t want to go to the army, and I had to sit in front of the committee that decides if you are a pacifist, if you have a moral objection. Then they asked me all kinds of questions which you shouldn’t ask people. At first it was easy things, like what are your thoughts on violence, what are your thoughts on the conflict. Then they asked the ridiculous question of, what if someone broke into your house and threatened your mother with a gun, and you also have a gun, would you shoot them? I was like, “What is this question?” They asked me if I’d punch a Nazi. I said yes, of course, it’s a Nazi. They didn’t like that. Why would I lie to them? I would punch a Nazi, Nazis are terrible.