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CounterPunch
January
17, 2003
Conscientious
Objectors Abused by the Israeli Military
by YIGAL BRONNER
Jonathan Ben Artzi's (or Yoni as his friends know
him) first experience with the Israeli justice system was a positive
one. As a student at an elite Jerusalem prep school, he found
that he could no longer bear the militaristic atmosphere or the
overt role the military played in his education. When his class
was bussed to a military training center for an Israeli Defense
Force (IDF) orientation as part of his school program, Yoni refused
to go. He also insisted that his parents be refunded for this
"course," and that the fees be returned to his sole
Arab classmate, who was literally taken off the military bus.
Yoni simply felt that a school should prepare its students to
be better citizens-- not soldiers. But this position, which for
many may seem rather commonsensical, is considered extremely
radical in Israel.
The high school, for its part, retaliated
by preventing Yoni from graduating and denying him his diploma.
It took a year and half of an uphill legal battle for this decision
to be overruled by an Israeli court. In a tiny and cramped courtroom,
Yoni, by then a college freshman majoring in mathematics, finally
had a graduation-ceremony of sorts.
But this small victory is now a fading
memory for Yoni, who has spent the last six months in a military
prison. Yoni is a pacifist and has been one ever since he was
twelve. He simply opposes wars. He cannot picture himself bearing
arms. Furthermore, he is incensed by Israel's ongoing occupation
of Palestine, by the atrocities and war crimes it commits, and
by the endless cycle of violence its leaders market as a necessary
component of life in Israel. Long before he was due to be drafted,
it was clear to Yoni that he could not and would not participate
in this march of folly; he would not join the military.
Yoni was one of the organizers of a seniors'
letter addressed to Prime Minister Sharon and signed by some
three hundred high school graduates, which announced their refusal
to be drafted. The group's entire leadership is now behind bars.
One might have expected the state of
Israel to respect the decisions of conscientious objectors like
Yoni and his friends. After all, Israel has signed several international
treaties which oblige it to wave military service for those who
-- due reasons of conscience or religious belief -- feel incapable
of taking up arms. These covenants require the state to assign
civil rather than military service to such people. But the Israeli
government, and more precisely the military prosecutor Menachem
Finkelstein, have decided to ignore their obligations towards
international law.
Instead the state has incarcerated the
conscientious objectors in military prisons, for an indefinite
period of time. Opposing the draft is simply too subversive a
position in Israel-- too threatening to a militaristic establishment
which has lived off the occupation and the ongoing war for so
long.
Before throwing Yoni and his friends
in jail, however, the Israeli government had to address its obligation
to the above-mentioned international treaties, and so in a cynical
effort to appear law abiding, it created a committee of "conscience-experts"
whose role was to examine the motivations of the seniors. This
committee has found that not one of the graduates is a real conscientious
objector. They are all pretenders, it claims, and as such their
place is in jail.
It would seem that the motivations of
someone like Yoni, who risked his school diploma for his pacifist
beliefs, should be beyond suspicion. After all, the decision
to sue his own school was not without ramifications. Yoni had
to pay a high social price for standing up for his unpopular
beliefs. Moreover, anyone who reads his school essays will find
that ever since eighth grade, he has had a very clear pacifist
worldview. These essays were handed over to the military's "conscientious
experts" who examined the evidence, and yet they found that
Yoni was not really guided by his conscience. Yoni, the experts
concluded, was simply a troublemaker, which, according to some
twisted logic, also made him a perfectly suitable candidate for
military service.
Accordingly, Israel and military prosecutor
Finkelstein are not really violating their commitment to exempt
conscientious objectors from military service-- there just aren't
any objectors in their midst. As for trouble-making seniors,
these exist in large quantities and have to be disciplined. There
is no international law against this.
What, then, is the suitable punishment
for the crime committed by Yoni and his friends, those trouble
makers who masqueraded as people of conscience?
The answer to this question is simple:
whatever it takes to break them.
Yoni has so far been sentenced to seven
consecutive prison-terms, amounting to 196 days, and there does
not seem to be an end in sight. He has been told time and again
that he would be released at once, if he were to give up his
principals. He would then be exempted from army service for mental
reasons, they insinuated. The process would be simple: there
would not be a team of experts this time. If he would only agree
to see a psychiatrist, they would declare him mentally unfit
instantly
But Yoni is still strong, and insists
that his conscientious position is not some kind of mental illness.
Yoni's parents, Ofra and Matania, are also strong, although they
are growing increasingly bitter with the state in which they
chose to raise their children. People of conscience, in Israel
and abroad, must take a stand in Yoni's case. We need to raise
our voice in his support. We should demand that this young man
be released immediately and be reunited with his parents. It
does not take a pacifist or even a political like-minded person
to realize that he's done more than enough to earn his second
diploma and become a graduate of the prison academy.
Yigal Bronner
teaches South Asian literature at the Tel Aviv University and
has recently spent four weeks in military prison for refusing
to serve as a reservist in the occupied territories. He can be
reached at ybronner@post.tau.ac.il
***
How to Help Free Yoni
Ben Artzi, who was been tried for a seventh time, for a total
of 196, and the other Israeli conscientious objectors?
1. Donate money for the Free the Conscientious
Objectors Campaign. To support the campaign on behalf of Yoni
and his friends please send a check ($15, $25, $50.... $1,000)
made out to Assaf Oron,
To: Free the Conscientious Objectors
Campaign C/O Assaf Oron P.O.Box 95511, Seattle WA 98145-5511
USA
2. Send faxes and protest the treatment
of Yoni: Please write to:
Brigade General Menachem Finklestein
Chief Military Prosecutor Military postal code 9605 IDF Israel
Fax: ++972-3-569-43-70
Here is a sample letter: (it's always
better co compose one's own)
Dear Brigade General Finklestein,
During the last months officers under
your charge have sentenced young conscientious objectors to repeated
prison terms in clear violation of international law. I hereby
ask you to abide by the international covenants upon which Israel
is a signatory (e.g., International Covenant of Political and
Civil Rights) and to immediately release these young men from
prison. There is no justification for your insistence to keep
Yoni Ben Artzi and the other determined young men behind prison
bars.
Sincerely,
You can also write or call the following
officials:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
Spokesperson of the Prime Minister dover@pmo.gov.il
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz sar@mod.gov.il
Spokesperson Defense Ministry info@mail.idf.il
Foreign Minister Benyamin Netanyahu sar@mofa.gov.il
Copies to: the Israeli embassy in your
country.
You can find embassy listings for Israel
on http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel1.htm
Amnesty International drovera@amnesty.org,
Amnesty International mhoubrec@amnesty.org
3. Write the imprisoned conscientious
objectors -- Yoni Ben Artzi (total of 196 days in jail), Uri
Yaakovi (133 days), Dror Boimel (119 days), Yoni Yehezkiel (112
days), Haggai Mattar (84 days), Noam Bahat (70 days), Hillel
Goral (70 days), Adam Maor (70 days), Mattan Kaminer (56 days),
Shimri Tzameret (35) -- and convey your support. The best way
to write them is by e-mail to shministim@hotmail.com and the
messages will be passed on to them.
4. If you are a professor of law or know
professors of law who will support a petition demanding the release
of conscientious objectors and have them send an email to Matania.Ben-artzi@huji.ac.il
We are considering publishing a paid
ad in their name, which will be distributed to them in advance
for their approval.
5. Sign a petition in support of the
seniors at: http://www.petitiononline.com/091202/petition.html
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