New
Profile: Update on 5 jailed conscripts and Yoni Ben Artzi
From:
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc) <info@gush-shalom.org>
Tel-Aviv,
February 17, 2004.
In early
2003, with the occupation becoming increasingly grim, the military
authorities
sought to stem the tide of refusal by court-martialing some of the "trouble makers". A year later,
the army seems to have a bad case of indigestion,
trying to get rid of them.
[Report
by Adam Keller on behalf of the Refusers Parents’ Forum.]
The
five: a bone in the throat of the military prison
Ben
Artzi: still "not a pacifist" but
to be released, so it now seems
The
five: a bone in the throat of the military prison
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.
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."