Ometz LeSarev (Hebrew: אומץ לסרב, Courage to Refuse) is an organization of reserve officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who refuse to serve beyond the 1967 borders, but "shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense." These conscientious objectors refer to themselves as refuseniks a reference to the refusenik Jews of Soviet Russia.
The movement began as a nucleus of 51 reserve officers and soldiers, who in January 2002 published an ad in the Israeli daily Haaretz, which would later come to be known as "The Combatants' Letter". Three years later the number of signatories had reached well over 600.
At first, the IDF responded by sentencing any refusenik who refused to serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to jail. Seeing that this was not a deterrent, and only raised awareness of refusal within the populace, it has stepped down its efforts, and has simply stopped calling on the refuseniks, or sending them to alternate duties within the 1967 borders, meaning, those borders that existed prior to the 1967 Six-Day War.
There are differing opinions in the Israeli public regarding the organization. The right wing opposes the movement up to calling their activity a treason during wartime and claim that their refusal encourage the Palestinians to step up suicide bombings in order to break the Israeli society.
The left wing, which opposes the occupation, is split between those who see refusal as a legitimate political tool, and those who believe that it is unlawful and only serves to undermine the IDF's and the Israeli peace camp standing within the populace.
Israeli left-wing activist professor Amnon Rubinstein has warned that the refusal to serve by soldiers on the left could encourage the refusal by soldiers on the right to remove Israeli settlements.