IDF Terminates Reservist Lieutenant Colonel Who Signed Refusal Letter

Photo Credit: Michael Giladi/Flash90

IDF reservist lights Hanukah candles at a staging area near the Israeli border with Syria, December 8, 2023.

Tuly Flint is a reservist lieutenant colonel who served as a mental health officer in the Gaza war. In the past, he served as a battalion commander in the Alexandroni Brigade. He belonged to the left-wing organization Fighters for Peace and refused to serve in the IDF as an act of protest. Nevertheless, Flint was called to serve as a mental health officer, and reported for duty, treating soldiers, and instructing mental health officers.

A few months into his reserve service, Flint signed a refusal letter, stating that he refused to “blindly serve a government that sends its army to fight a war that has become needless.”

In response, Flint was permanently dismissed from the IDF reserves. According to News14 which broke the story Tuesday night, Lt. Col. (res.) Thuli Flint is not the only one who signed the refusal letter and was recently terminated by the IDF.

In one of his many online posts on the Times of Israel’s Zman Israel, Flint wrote:

“States are entities that are allowed to kill. That was one of the first things I learned when I enlisted. I was trained, equipped, and sent along with many other friends to kill and try not to be killed. That was the essence of military training. At that time, I also believed that this state, the State of Israel, knows what it is doing, and when it sends me to kill, it is truly after due consideration, and in light of the fact that the people on the other side are a danger to existence.

“Believing in this principle, I served for many years in the army, both regular and reserve, while being certain that the state and those at the head of the security agencies truly have discretion. That when the state decides, it does not do it lightly. Not with abuse and certainly not with equanimity and ignoring suffering.

“But what happens when the state loses that? When it begins to allow itself to kill, murder, harm, and abuse its citizens and those under its rule?”

In addition to protesting Israeli security policies, Flint toured with the Breaking the Silence group, recounting his experiences as a soldier in Judea and Samaria and slandering his IDF comrades.