REFUSALS: NEGLECTED ASPECTS Asa Kasher" The purpose of the present paper is to draw attention to some neglected aspects of refusal, in public and professional discussions of refusal to serve as conscripts or on reserve duties in the IDF. Some people refuse to serve as IDF conscripts in general, while some refuse to serve in certain territories in which the IDF carries out military activities. Among those who tried to justify their refusal or their willing to refuse, some attempted to argue on grounds of a commitment to pacifism or to another form of conscientiousness. Many have voiced political opposition to governmental policies with respect to occupation of certain territories and settlements built there. Principles of civil disobedience have not been explicitly invoked as grounds of refusal, but some crude versions of them have seemed to be implicit in attempted justifications of some forms of refusal. Some principles of conscientious refusal have been mentioned in common deliberations of refusal. The present paper will show that claims in favor of refusal to presently participate in IDF military service neglect moral, ethical and conceptual elements of the situation in crucial ways. As will be apparent to any reader of the present issue, our paper is directed against some of the claims and arguments made in papers published here. I. Civil Disobedience Our starting points are several major components of John Rawls' conception of civil disobedience'. * Laura Schwarz-Kipp Professor of Professional Ethics and Philosophy of Practice, Tel Aviv University, and Academic Advisor, IDF College of National Defense. 1 It is presented in detail in the first edition and the revised second edition of his A Theory of Justice (Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1971 and 1999, respectively) sec. 55,57-59.