Noa Levy probably could have fulfilled her military service requirement in a fairly comfortable Army office job. Adam Maor had a number of options available to avoid serving in the West Bank or Gaza. Instead, in their senior year of high school, both refused military service. Noa currently performs alternative service in education, an option available only to women. Along with five male friends, Adam is currently in prison. Their refusal is part of a growing movement called Shministim (high school students). Begun in 2001 by ten high school peace activists, its ranks have grown to over three hundred.

That may not sound like much of a national movement, but in a small country in which the military is the most revered institution, these numbers can have quite an effect. They are also part of a movement currently numbering 1184 refusers both outside and inside the military. Some refuse military service totally. Some refuse to serve in the West Bank or Gaza. Others refuse specific orders while in service.

As part of a national speaking tour of the U.S., Noa Levy and Alex Maor, father of the imprisoned Adam, appeared on the radio and before a group of fifty in Baltimore, October 16. Alex, himself a refuser while in the army in 1974, continually stressed the need for Israel to return to the "Green Line", the pre-1967 border,as the best way to achieve peace and security. He believes that the refuser movement, including his own son's choice of prison as a political statement, is helping Israel move in that direction, "removing a brick from the wall we are up against". Noa Levy described the pain of living in a society made increasingly violent and undemocratic as a result of the dehumanization of the Palestinians, and therefore her opposition to cooperating with the Sharon government's policies.

While the Israeli refusal movement has gained some attention in the U.S., including the recent refusal by 28 pilots to carry out specific kinds of orders in the occupied territories, few are aware of the youth wing of the movement. This U.S. tour, sponsored by the Refuser Solidarity Network, was undertaken to publicize the Shministim and to raise money for publicity within Israel, where it attracts limited media attention.

Remaining cities on the Shministim tour are Philadelphia and New York.