Help Conscientious Objectors in Israel

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday January 03, 2003 20:02 by David Raban - 'New Profile' draban at pob dot huji dot ac dot il

information about conscientious objectors in Israel and a request to sign a petition against their mistreatment.

At the moment there are 10 draft objectors in military prisons in Israel.
These young men have chosen to follow their conscience and refuse to enlist into the army of occupation. Some of them have been recognized by amnesty international as “prisoners of conscience”.
The two longest-imprisoned objectors are Yoni Ben-Artzi, who already spent 161 days in prison, his sixth consecutive term, and Uri Ya’acobi, who already spent 131 days in prison, his sixth consecutive prison term.
In Israel, conscientious objection for men is not recognized, and objectors are required to do a three-year army service, without any option for alternative civilian service.
Therefore they are tried in a military court, which usually sentence them to a short period (about a month) in prison. When this period is over they are tried again and again…according to the law each refusal is a separate offence and therefore, in theory, they can remain imprisoned for many years.
However, until recently the army usually decided to exempt them after a period of about 90 days in prison, because “they are not suitable for service” . Now, as more and more young men & women have decided to refuse , the army has severely harshened the treatment that CO’s get.

Please sign this online-ptition calling for the end of mistreatment for conscientious objectors:

http://www.petitiononline.com/091202/petition.html

More information can be found at:

http://www.shministim.org
http://www.newprofile.org