MARCH 2004
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION IN ISRAEL..PROFILE OF NEW PROFILE
The following is an overview of New Profile's ongoing work in offering
refusers legal aid. It provides a detailed picture of this aspect of New
Profile work, conducted on an almost dailiy basis over the five years since
our foundation. We believe this concrete description will be meaningful to
those of you who support and follow our work.
Legal Aid for Resisters
In 1993 Israel ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which recognizes the right of conscientious objection. In September 1999 Amnesty International reported on conscientious objection in Israel and called on the Israeli government to “recognize the right to refuse military service on the grounds of conscience,” as guaranteed in article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In practice the Israeli government and military do not recognize this right and routinely incarcerate those who invoke it.
It is New Profile’s policy to support any individual who decides not to serve in the military for reasons of conscience. We support this basic human right of freedom of conscience which, according to international law, includes the freedom to choose not to enlist. We support the various
individual approaches in seeking a discharge from the army.
New Profile plays a central role in facilitation of the growing legal involvement in the struggle of these young people for freedom of conscience and resistance to military service in protest to the occupation. Embarking on our first appeal to the High Court 4 years ago, we found it extremely difficult to find a law firm willing to take on the case. By now, however, in part directly due to New Profile’s work on the subject, respected legal organizations, such as the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), and well known private law firms specializing in human rights, have joined us in supporting the legal aspect of this struggle.
Prison Visits
New Profile coordinates and funds lawyer’s visits to military prisons to monitor imprisoned CO’s conditions and intervene when these are unacceptable. In 2003 we set a precedent in coordinating and facilitating of 30 prison visits by lawyers, in spite of the reluctance of army authorities. At some point the military tried to stop these visits.
This is the first time there has been organized visitation by lawyers on a regular weekly basis. As a result of these regular prison visits, New Profile was also able to bring about a greater awareness to the plight of the prisoners and their conditions. A number of visits called to attention the harsh conditions within the jails. The result being that the visits by lawyers brought on a change and physical improvements not just for the imprisoned resisters but for the entire population within the prisons.
In 2003 there were 85 objectors sent to prison. 67 were reservists. The other 18 were conscripts, both male and female. When 3 of them went on a hunger strike, New Profile organized the first lawyer’s visits, maintained constant contact with the CO’s and their families, organized a campaign of protest letters to prison authorities and placed items in the media.
The ongoing connections with the CO’s have also brought to light and to the attention of the visiting lawyers, the existence of a number of “Social Objectors”, an unorganized group unknown outside the prison walls. They are young men who refuse to enlist due to very hard economic conditions at home. Often they are the sole providers for their families. Serving in the military denies their families; this source of livelihood. They feel alienated from Israeli society that betrayed them socially and left them to struggle alone with poverty.
Monthly Updates
With this record number of draft resisters incarcerated during the past year, New Profile systematically collected data and sent out regular updates on imprisoned CO’s and their conditions. New Profile sends regular updates on imprisoned CO’s. It is the only source for this information, which is used by several human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, in preparing their reports. The monthly updates are coordinated by two members of New Profile and sent out as a newsletter in both English and Hebrew.
Appeals to the UN
Apart from distributing information about CO’s in prison, and organizing visits by lawyers, NP was the initiator of two appeals to the UN High Commissioners for Human Rights, asking them to examine legally the cases of several objectors. In both appeals the committee decreed that the repeated sentencing of CO constitutes “arbitrary detention”, and called for their release.
Appeals to the High Court
New Profile’s work with pacifist Conscientious Objectors has achieved meaningful gains over the past few years though the subject remains a site of ongoing struggle for freedom of conscience. Following a New Profile initiative in 1999, the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak
wrote to Knesset Member Naomi Chazan, distinguishing between pacifist and other CO’s and implying that the army recognized the right to object on the grounds of pacifism. Although it is our understanding that this has been the declared legal policy for some time, it is still far from the reality on the ground.
During the High Court appeal (2000-2003) of CO Pacifist Yinnon Hiller, we established close working ties with the only law firm in Israel that was willing to represent draft resisters at the time. Eventually other pacifist CO’s followed suit and also appealed to the High Court. These appeals, even before reaching a final ruling, have served as a foundation in the injunction orders handed by the judges to the military and consequently we are witness to the beginning of slight changes in military policies towards pacifists.
In the appeal by Yinnon Hiller, the state in representing the military has been handed down two orders by the court. The first required them to redefine to the court their policy towards Yinnon and the reason they denied his request for exemption on the grounds of his beliefs, and secondly to find a compromise, in accordance to Yinnon’s CO status, that would be acceptable to all sides. In October 2003 he was discharged from the army. Yinnon Hiller was the first pacifist in Israel to get an exemption from the military via an appeal to the High Court of Justice although the army released him at the last minute on the grounds of “unfitness” avoiding an actual court ruling which would have established a legal precedent.
In the appeal by another Pacifist Yonatan Ben Artzi, it was brought to the court’s attention that men appearing before the Conscience Committee were not allowed legal representation. Accordingly the court forced the State to agree that any individual required or requesting to appear before this tribunal has the right to legal representation. However, the court also found it reasonable that lawyers should not be present during their clients’ testimony before the Conscience Committee, but only following the given testimony. Yonatan was not released from army service and has spent the past year in jail and in detention. He is presently awaiting the ‘verdict’ of the Conscience Committee after appearing before it for a 3rd time.
Representing CO’s Before the Conscience Committee The decision of the military to change its policy towards male CO’s who ask to appear before the Committee guarantees that the applicant can be interviewed with a lawyer or a character witness. The importance of this policy change is significant to CO’s ability to receive a fair hearing before the Conscience Committee. Previous policy not only did not allow for representation, but also barred the applicant from recording the interview or taking notes. Furthermore, the hearing protocol, formulated by a member of the military staff, was not made readily available to the interviewee and as in the case of Yinnon Hiller, who only received the protocol several months after each interview and following repeated intervention by his lawyers.
Since this change in policy, New Profile has assisted many CO’s in finding attorneys to accompany them when appearing before the Conscience Committee. Following Yinnon’s exemption, we know of at least one other pacifist who was discharged on the grounds of “unfitness” based on the recommendation of the Conscience Committee, as well as two others who discharged “by law” following similar recommendations.
Ongoing Legal Intervention and Consultations Equally important to legal representation is the legal counseling. By receiving early counseling a resister may familiarize him/her self with actual legal rights and be better prepared when writing to or appearing before representatives of a very harsh military system. We find that by providing channels to legal services that illuminate the legal aspects of resistance, we are facilitating people and their families with preventative legal action.
In addition to the involved physical representation that the attorneys have taken upon themselves by appearing before the Conscience Committee and with regular jail visits, they have also taken upon themselves to assist in writing letters and appeals to the army and prison authorities. This ongoing correspondence by representatives of the law has been beneficial in helping us aid and support resisters. The written representation has helped us bring the complexity and seriousness of resistance into the public awareness as the attorneys meet with the press as well.
Another service that is provided by the attorneys is protection of the basic legal rights of resisters, as these are defined by existing Israeli legislation, in the course of the actual, difficult process of obtaining a legally justified dismissal from military. Resisters often experience, and are subject to, very ruthless legal tactics on the part of the military, exploiting their confusion and their lack of legal knowledge . Such tactics leave them unprotected vis a vis the military system. We have been witness to several incidents where women resisters have had to resort to legal intervention in order to guarantee due process prior to and during committee hearings and tribunals. Such interventions have secured basic conditions such as release from military prison in the course of appeals and receiving written protocols.
The five: a bone in the throat of the military prison
Reports by Adam Keller
Early morning at one Tel-Aviv's main arteries. On one side the Twin Towers of the Azrieli Commercial Center. On the other side, a monster of concrete and glass being constructed to house the expanding Ministry of Defence. In between, a group of demonstrators holding up the placards "Release the Prisoners of Conscience". Leaflets were handed out to the big stream of mostly rear-echelon soldiers on their way to the morning shift.
At nine, not far from there - in the courtroom of the Military Appeals Court - a surrealistic scene - the testimony by Colonel Major Ochana, Deputy Commander of the Israeli Military Police Corps. "Ever since these five arrived at Military Prison-6, in January, their presence is completely undermining discipline and good order in the prison. The prison commandant and the entire staff are mainly concerned with them, and have no time and energy left for the rest of the five hundred prisoners. They are political activists with their own agenda, completely unfitting for the conditions of a military prison, governed by military discipline. Therefore, we demand that they be forthwith be transferred to a civilian prison." He was addressing the committee concerned with such prisoner transfers, convened at the Appeals Court hall.
Persistently questioned by advocate Avner Pinchuk appointed by the civil rights association ACRI to defend the five, Colonel Ochana could mention no other example than Shimri Tzameret publishing a prison blog on the internet "in contravention of prison regulations." The military authorities had been quite tardy in stamping upon this dangerous subversive activity which Tzameret maintained with the mediation of his grandmother. It had gone on for nearly a year, and in fact during the five's court martial the prosecutor had extensively quoted from the blog in his speeches. "There is much more, but I can't disclose it right now for fear of compromising intelligence sources" was the Colonel's way of saving his face. In fact, the committee obliged him by holding a session in camera, expelling the five, their lawyer, and the entire audience of supporters and family members. The five, Noam Bahat, Matan Kaminer, Adam Maor, Haggai Matar and Shimri Tzameret, seemed rather amused, as they sat in the sun on the lawn outside the courtroom, surrounded by parents and girl friends. Their good spirits were undampened by their being handcuffed two by two (the sixth one being a non-political transfer case). "The prison intelligence officer does maintain a network of spies and informers, and tries to give the prisoners the impression that he knows everything. But I doubt that they have anything real on us to say in there", said Haggai Matar.
One by one, the five were called back in, to give their own testimony and state their position towards the possibility of going to a civilian prison. Each in turn repeated the position which they had agreed upon: "We consider the intention of transferring us to a civilian prison as part of the campaign of harassment by the military authorities." Colonel Elisha Caspi, presiding judge grew impatient: "Why do you persist in throwing out this abstract principles? Do you have no personal preferences? No practical considerations?" The five did not oblige him. "But why?" exclaimed the military prosecution representative, Lieutenant Colonel Inbar. "You don't want to be soldiers. You don't accept military discipline. Why then are you trying to stick to the military prison? Would you not rather move to a civilian prison where you will not will have to get up at 5am, stand at roll calls the whole day, and address every guard with 'Sir', and where you will have a much better chance to have your term reduced for good behavior?"
"If we are not fitting for a military framework and military discipline, then the army really should send us out of the military prison, not to a civilian prison - but home. After all, our entire court martial turned on the issue whether or not we are to be soldiers, and there the army firmly insisted that we should. The civilian prison is a place for people who have done something wrong in civil society. We have not committed a light traffic offence."
This was followed by a speech of adv. Pinchuk. "The military system is exhibiting a
completely irrational hysteria towards these five guys, as if they carry in their pocket atomic bombs, ready to explode. The claim of "secret intelligence material" is void of any substance. They are not on trial here, they have already been tried and sentenced. They are not here because of any activity on their part, but because of their very essence as refusers, as people who follow the dictates of their conscience. Their integrity and courage to refuse is perceived as a threat."
Lieutenant Colonel Inbar addressed an identical question to each of the five in turn: "If you stay in Prison-6, would you be willing to oblige yourself to the prison commandant to adhere to military discipline without exception?" The answers were very much alike: "In the month and half that we are in Prison-6 we have obeyed the orders given to us, but we can't give a blanket promise for the future. If we get an order contradicting our conscience, we will not obey."
Colonel Ochana pounced upon this answer. "You see! They are not willing to abide by the most basic obligation, keeping military discipline in the prison. For example, we have started a project of taking prisoners out to do work on the Security Fence. Do you think that if we ordered these five to do it, they would obey?" The faces of some of the other officers present showed some consternation. To threaten imprisoned refusers with being sent to work on the very disputed fence, due next week to be on the agenda of the International Court in The Hague, that seemed to be going a bit far for them.
The members of the military committee remained closeted for more than an hour, to come out and announce that the decision will be given on an other day.
On March 3, the next act is due on the same place: the appeal prepared by adv. Dov Chenin against both the conviction of the five and the length of their term.
http://www.refuz.org.il/
***Your comments and letters show how thankful we all are that these 5 COs speak for us through their refusal. They are sitting in jail in the name of all of us who have signed the petition, and in the name of hundreds of Israeli youth who are growing aware that they are being sent to kill and die in an unjust occupation. By victimizing the five, the government and the IDF have made clear that they intend to deter new draftees from acting in accordance with their conscience.
They sit in jail - at present in cold, unheated cells exposed to constant petty harassment. Our aim, however, is to release them and, by doing so, remove the fear of jail from all Israeli conscripts. We cannot let them fade away behind the bars.
THEY cannot give more than they have, WE can do more and WE must.
These are the things we CAN do:
(1) Write a letter to your nearest Israeli Embassy (addresses
(http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH010m0) and sample letters
(http://www.refuz.org.il/Documentation/sample%20letter1.doc) , your Member of Knesset, Parliament, Senate or other representative.
(2) Download & Print our A4-size black and white Posters
(http://www.refuz.org.il/Documentation/posters.doc) - and get them displayed anyhere you imagination suggests - your working place, cafe, internet site, staircase of your block, backwindow of your car, local newspaper. We rely on grass-roots techniques - that means you.
(3) Use our "tell a friend email function" yet again - to remind all those of your friends whose names you did not find on the petition.
(4) The Parents Forum needs money to function - for legal support, communications & etc - if you can give or know someone who can go to donations (http://www.refuz.org.il/donations.html).
Keep in touch - see our latest News and Analysis
(http://www.refuz.org.il/News.html).
23.02.04 AM UPDATE -
The 5 (male) COs are currently in the Israeli Civilian Jail. The five
were sent separately to the Nizan (Ramle) jail were they are being
held in the 'Closed Branch'. They are held in cells built for 4 but
containing 7 prisoners - some of whom sleep on the floor. They are
allowed out of the cell for 1 hour in every 24. We do not know for
how long this regime will continue.
23.02.04UPDATE - Laura Milo has been sentenced to 14 days in Military
detention.
25.02.04UPDATE - Israeli COs now in Civilian Jail
On Sunday 24.2.04 the five conscientious objectors were transferred to the civilian prison service to serve the rest of their sentence. The army, in its determination to rid itself of the COs by passing them to the civilian service and opened a campaign of harassment and witch-hunting that started at the Tuesday (17.2.04) hearing of the committee on prisoner transfers (from army to civilian jails). At this hearing Colonel Ochana, Deputy Commander of the Israeli military Police Corps, described the five as "well poisoners" . Had Colonel Ochana bothered to attend history classes he would have learned that the origin of the anti-Semitic expression "well poisoner" was in the middle ages during the period of the Black Death . At that time Jews were accused of spreading the plague as part of a "Jewish Conspiracy" by poisoning European water sources. On the grounds of these accusations tens of thousands of Jews were butchered or were burnt at the stake.
At the committee hearing the Colonel declared that the COs will be expected to participate in work details to construct the 'Security Fence' in the occupied territories. Their predicted refusal to obey such orders was one of his main arguments for demanding their transfer to a Civilian Jail. By refusing they will loose their chance of obtaining a sentence reduction on the grounds of good behavior. At this stage we realized that if we do not agree to the transfer to civilian jail the life of the five would become a living hell. We thought that we would rather see them locked away with hardened criminals than exposed to an endless harassment that will lead to extension of their jail-time. You do not need a vivid imagination to see the five loaded on a truck , transported to the occupied territories and being ordered to participate in the construction of the Wall.
What we know today is just that they have been separated and sent to the Nitzan Jail. These are the facts as we know them today. More than ever we need your support for our sons, and for all the COs to come. Think about them, talk about them to your friends and colleagues - tell your friends what is happening to them
Benjamin Netanyahu's Nephew:Ben Artzi: still "not a pacifist" but to be released, so it now seems
It began yesterday with the curious decision of the army's Conscience Committee which had dealt for the fourth consecutive time with the case of Yoni Ben Artzi. The committee had no wish to deal with the issue again, but they were obliged to do it by the unanimous verdict of the military court, whose three judges declared themselves convinced of the sincerity of Ben Artzi's pacifist convictions and threw the ball back into the committee' court. The resolution, transmitted by fax to the office of advocate Avigdor Feldman, was an unparalleled piece of convoluted thinking and narrow-mindedness. "He is not a pacifist, but an egocentric person, to be discharged on grounds of incompatibility, rather than conscience." In order to proof their point they cited his being kept in open detention at the Michve Alon Camp, where soldiers lacking basic education are brought to learn. "He preferred to spend months in complete idleness, rather than help these unfortunates." The truth is a bit different: upon his arrival at this camp, Ben Artzi offered to teach them basic mathematics (his specialty). After two weeks the lessons were discontinued by the camp authorities - officially because "Ben Artzi is not a qualified teacher."
"They are letting me go with as bad a grace as they could manage. I expected nothing else from them" said Yoni Ben Artzi when asked for comment.
For more information: mbartzi@yahoo.com
Yes, Refusal Is In the Air
February 20, 2004 ISM & GUSH SHALOM
Four separate Refusal-centered events are currently on the agenda in the country. In Tel Aviv, a high level IDF committee discussed at length a demand from the IDF prison authorities to 'relocate' the five anti-occupation conscientious objectors, Hagai Matar, Noam Bahat, Adam Maor, Matan Kaminer and Shimri Tsameret to the civilian prison system.
The infamous IDF Conscience Commission turned down for the fourth time, Yoni Ben Artzi's demand that he be exempted from service on the basis of his clear pacifist convictions, but did redirect him to the Incompatibility Commission with a recommendation that he be released from the IDF.
Amid Zahad from the town of Dalyat El-Karmel belongs to that section of Israeli Druze who have opted for military service. Therefore, his decision to join the Israeli refusal group, Courage to Refuse, was newsworthy and led to his designation as the first Druze refusenik. Zahad told the media that his action met with general approval in his community.
Laura Milo will not be alone this Sunday morning, February 22, 2004 when she presents herself to the IDF mobilization base in order to be jailed. Laura wrote to the Conscience Commision that she "refuses to participate in the crimes perpetrated by Israel through the IDF. I am not a pacifist. My refusal is motivated by my opposition to the occupation." And the Commision wrote back that her request was rejected because her position was not related to a question of conscience. Laura, a member of Hashomer Hatzair, has recently completed a year of community service in the Yeruham development town. She will receive deep expressions of solidarity from members of the High School Seniors group (the 'shministim'), New Profile and members of the Refusers Parents' Forum. If indeed jailed, Laura will join Inbal Gilbart, serving her third sentence in jail after her
right to follow the dictates of her conscience was rejected by the Conscience Commission.
Vicious, Savage Character Assassination by an Official IDF Panel
The lengthy nine month proceedings in the case of the IDF v. Yoni Ben Artzi propelled the IDF Conscience Commission into the public limelight. The Commission became the object of justified media criticism and public ridicule. Nobody could accept that it was reasonable that army officers with no previous training or minimal understanding of the problem, and who never bothered with small matters like rules of procedure or criteria regarding the nature and the definition of pacifism, should be the ones to decide the fate of conscientious young men and women. A while back, a panel of military judges expressed their belief that Ben Artzi was indeed a pacifist and with this in mind sent Ben Artzi back to the Conscious Commission instead of sentencing him for refusing to obey orders.
It wasn't a complete surprise when the CC stuck by its previous decision. However, in a fit of vengeance and anger, the CC proceeded to release a flood of vilification against Ben Artzi, accusing him of 'ego-centricism', inconsistency and indifference to the welfare of fellow soldiers. In an action probably unparalleled in the annals of military bureaucracy in this country, an official IDF panel defended its crude behavior by an act of totally uncalled for character assassination against a young Israeli who had been in confinement for over a year struggling to make his totally honest
case before them. The IDF prosecutor chimed in trying to convince the public that Ben Artzi was devious and dangerous because he expressed on one occasion that dangerous idea that the state should not force people to act against their will.
In short, an official government body seized on partial and distorted quotes from hundreds of pages of testimony in order to defend themselves, at the expense of an honest young person, from the justified suspicion that they really had no understanding of the subject and just enjoyed setting themselves up as all powerful and all knowing.
Divide and Conquer
The manipulation of the Druze community in Israel is one of the stellar achievements of the government policy to set Arab against Arab by extending preferential treatment to candidates for co-option. Thus, most young Druze, at the insistence of their elders become regular and often professional soldiers in the IDF. The idea that a young member of the community can set up his own ideals and feelings as the only guide to his behavior can, unchecked, spoil the deal that
is based on the strange idea, promoted by Israeli quasi- intelligence 'academic' experts that Druze are not Arabs. A Druze soldier has declared that he will not serve in the occupied territories. What a lack of gratitude for all the Israeli government has done for the Druze by separating them from their Arab brethren.
A Matter of Slight Lack of Proportion
I have little chance of being appointed an advisor to the PR division of the IDF. But here is a bit of free advice for them. Be very careful about throwing women into military prison because they
have a conscience and refuse to participate in the crimes of the occupation. We have witnessed a surge of solidarity here and abroad with the anti-occupation five serving their second year in jail. If
you insist on imprisoning all the young women who openly and clearly tell you that they refuse to serve the occupation, you are going to get into a very serious battle, indeed.
The glare of publicity on the Conscious Commision may be indirectly responsible for the current wave of arrests against young women. During the Ben Artzi proceedings, it was revealed that 97% of male requests for exemption are rejected while 97% of requests from women are accepted. Two things have to be said here. The first is that the reason for the discrepancy is obvious: men are cannon fodder in demand and women are less suitable in this respect. The second is that the only 'logical' explanation of the discrepancy is that the women are all devoted pacifists and the men are just a bunch of fakers. The problem with this explanation is that no one will believe
that it is true. It may be that the CC is trying to even up the numbers by jailing more female conscientious objectors. If this is true, boy, are they making a mistake.
International Solidarity Movement Report
(Special thanks to Adam Keller of Gush Shalom)
From a letter:
Bertolt Brecht wrote:
General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.
And indeed, general, whoever you may be-- colonel,
brigadier, chief of staff, defense minister, prime
minister, or all of the above-- I can think.
Perhaps I am not capable of much more than that. I
confess that I am not an especially gifted or courageous
soldier; I am not the best shot, and my technical skills
are minimal. I am not even very athletic, and my
uniform does not sit comfortably on my body. But I
am capable of thinking.
I can see where you are leading me. I understand
that we will kill, destroy, get hurt and die, and that
there is no end in sight. I know that the
"ongoing war" of which you speak, will go on
and on. I can see that if the "military
needs" lead us to lay siege to, hunt down, and
starve a whole people, then something about these
"needs" is terribly wrong.
I am therefore forced to disobey your call. I will
not pull the trigger.