JERUSALEM, Israel (PNN) - April 13, 2014 - To some, they are heroes ready to trade their personal liberty for the sake of high principle. To others, they are spoiled rich kids, shirking their national duty on the backs of the less fortunate.
Now dozens of Israeli teenagers face possible jail terms and blighted career prospects after declaring that they will not join the army because of its "war crimes" in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Their stance is a wholesale rejection of the political consensus in Israel, where army service is seen as a near-sacred duty, essential to protect a country surrounded by enemies.
The mass act of conscientious objection is set out in a letter signed by around 70 senior secondary pupils, who are refusing to fulfill their legal obligation to enlist when they leave school.
"We, the undersigned, intend to refuse to serve in the army and the main reason is our opposition to the military occupation of Palestinian territories," the pupils write.
The letter to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, accuses Israeli forces of committing human rights abuses and war crimes "on a daily basis", including assassinations, torture, and collective punishment.
It also charges the army with damaging Israeli society and creating "a violent and militaristic masculine ideal where might is right. It shapes the educational system, our workforce opportunities, while fostering racism, violence and ethnic, national and gender-based discrimination," the text says.
While conscientious objectors - also known as refuseniks - are a long-standing phenomenon in Israeli society, the latest episode is the first mass refusal from pupils approaching draft-age in the past decade.
All men and women are obliged to join the Israeli Defense Forces at age 18, although exemptions exist for Arab citizens and ultra-Orthodox Jews engaged in religious studies.
The movement to write to Netanyahu gathered pace after would-be refuseniks contacted each other through social media.
The prime minister has not responded, but the missive provoked condemnation from Yair Lapid, the Israeli finance minister and leader of the secular Yesh Atid Party. He called the teenagers "pampered, wealthy youngsters" on his Facebook page, and compared them to ultra-Orthodox Jews who refused to join the army on religious grounds.
The signatories have responded by saying they hail from a variety of backgrounds - modest as well as affluent - and insist they represent a cross-section of Israeli society.
Sitting in a cafe in Tel Aviv's southern suburbs, Daniel Elsohn, 17, refuted Lapid's accusation that his refusal endangered other Israelis.
"I think the people who say this are trying to paint it as if going to the army protects," he said. "I think going to the army is actually damaging my security as a citizen. I am terrified of missiles, I am terrified of explosions, of sirens, of all those things. But I think they won't be stopped if we continue doing offensive acts in the name of defense."
Some signatories say they have encountered abuse on the Internet and confrontations from fellow pupils after the letter was publicized in Israeli media. They say they expect to see their employment prospects damaged in a country where army service is a vital stepping stone to the jobs market or further education.
Refusing to join the army does not automatically entail a jail sentence in Israel, where exemptions can be given to pacifists or on psychological grounds. However, Omar Sa'ad, a Druze from northern Israel, is currently serving his fifth term in jail for refusing to serve, while another refusenik, Natan Blanc, was freed last June after being incarcerated for 170 days.
Dafna Rothstein-Landman, 17 - daughter of a British-born mother - said she would risk jail to challenge the popular Israeli view of army service as a patriotic rite of passage.
"If necessary I am willing to go to prison," she declared, saying she had witnessed military violence while attending demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank. "The main purpose of the letter is to promote dialogue. We want to raise the question that is never asked - which is that serving in the military is seen as a matter of course."
