The Irish High Court has dismissed an appeal from a young woman who sought asylum in Ireland having left Israel to avoid participating in military service.
The applicant arrived in Ireland in 2014, having been called for military service in Israel at the age of 17. The applicant objected to engaging in military action, which she believed amounted to war crimes, against the Palestinian people and felt she was not in a position psychologically to be enlisted in armed combat. The applicant, however, had not applied for an exemption from military service as she believed her request would not be approved. She then feared she would be prosecuted or punished for refusing to partake in military service. Her application for asylum was refused as, according to the United Nations, a person is not a refugee if their only reason for desertion or draft evasion is the dislike of military service or fear of combat.
In dismissing the appeal, the High Court found that a well-founded fear of prosecution could not be based on an assumption that she would have been refused an exemption for which she did not apply. The Court also felt there was insufficient evidence that the applicant would be required to commit war crimes as part of a military unit that had yet to be identified.
Click here for The Irish Times coverage of the case.