(Email von New Profile, 2.8.2002, "New Profile" ist eine relativ junge israelische Friedensorganisation, deren Grundsatzprogramm  - in deutsch - hier zu finden ist; DFG-VK Marburg)

To the best of our knowledge, there are three objectors currently held in the military prisons of Israel. This is a relatively small number – smaller than anything we’ve seen in recent months. However, this relative calm will probably not last very long. According to the information that we have, the number of prisoners is likely to grow considerably already in the coming few days.

An important notice: the Refuser Solidarity Network, connected with the US-based group Not In My Name has recently set up a website that contains updated information on the imprisoned objectors themselves, as well as on existing ‘adoption groups’ for objectors and other ways of taking action on their behalf. The site can be found at: http://refusersolidarity.org/. The page containing prisoner information is: http://refusersolidarity.org/default.asp?content=prisoners. The rest of the update is divided, as usual, into three sections: information about objectors out of prison, information about imprisoned objectors and recommended action. The first section, about objectors out of prison, is this time somewhat different than usual. It contains not only information about released prisoners and objectors discharged from the army, but also about four objectors, who received prison sentences, but did not yet start serving them (see further details below).
 

OUT OF PRISON

All the objectors whose cases we have reported in our last update were released from prison. Objector Victor Sabransky (who recently completed his third consecutive prison term) is likely to be imprisoned again in the near future. There is also some possibility that Ilan Windholtz, who finished his fourth consecutive term today, will be imprisoned again.

Two of the objectors who spent time in prison in recent months were finallydischarged from the army last week and are no longer expected to be imprisoned again. The two are Daniel Weinbach, who completed 4 prison terms, and Denis Ruttenburgh who was imprisoned once. Both were discharged on the formal grounds of ‘incompatibility’. Thank you very much to all who took action on their behalf.

The developments in the Supreme Court appeal filed by objector David Sonnschein led to the establishment of a new phenomenon. There are now four objectors, who were all sentenced to prison terms, but who are not in prison, at least for now. Apart from Sonnschein himself, these are Rami Kaplan, Uri Schein, Roi Barsai and Shachar Ramah. All four were sentenced to 28 days in prison in a disciplinary procedure, although they asked to be judged by a full military tribunal. They filed appeals against this decision to the Military Attorney General (just as the Supreme Court advised David Sonnschein to do), and were therefore re! leased from prison, at least for now, as long as the Military Attorney General did not reach a decision in their cases. All four refuse to perform reserves service in the Occupied Territories on political grounds.

A similar, but not identical, case is that of the pacifist objector Zvi Osmolovsky. As we reported in the past, Zvi Osmolovsky already served one prison term in January. On 23 July he turned himself in to the military police (he did not report to military service since his release from prison in January). The army decided to sentence him in a disciplinary procedure, but Zvi refused to do so and asked to be judged by a military tribunal. Two days after his arrest, Zvi Osmolovsky was released from prison and was ordered to report at the Induction Base in Tel-HaShomer today (28 July).

Objectors Sergei Gornostaj and G. H., both refusing to perform reserves service in the Israeli army on political grounds, were both released ! from prison last week, after serving terms of 14 days in prison each.

PRISONER REPORTS This section contains information about all declared objectors we know to be held in prison at the moment. The information on the objectors is sorted according to the date on which the objector was arrested, with the most recent cases placed first. As usual, thanks to Yesh-Gvul and to Courage to Refuse for providing much of the information contained in this report.
 
 

1. Shuki Sadeh
Objector Shuki Sadeh, a 26-year-old media studies student from Tel-Aviv, was sentenced on 23 July to 28 days in prison for his refusal to perform reserves service in the Occupied Territories. Shuki is due out of prison on 16 Aug. His prison address is:

Shuki Sadeh
Military ID 5184467
Reserves company
Military Prison No. 4
Military postal code 02507, IDF
Israel
 

2. Ori Toker-Meimon
Objector Ori Toker-Meimon, aged 32, a trainee in paediatri! c medicine in the Sha’are Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem, was sentenced to 28 days in prison on 21 July for his refusal to perform reserves service in the Occupied Territories. He is due out of prison on 14 Aug. His prison address is:

Lieut. Ori Toker-Meimon
Military ID 4609349
Officers’ ward
Military Prison No. 6
Military postal code 01860, IDF
Israel.

Letters of support for Ori can be sent to this e-mail address: mailto:orioshi@hotmail.com.

3. Itamar Shachar
Objector Itamar Shachar, aged 20, from the town of Carmiel, was sentenced on 11 July to 28 days in prison, due to his refusal to serve in the Israeli army. In the letter below, written shortly before his arrest, Itamar explains in detail the motives behind his act of objection. Despite it is relatively long, we bring the letter here in full:
 

29 June 2002

I, Sgt. Itamar Shachar, military ID 7015440, hereby declare that I am no longer willing to ! continue my service in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The acts perpetrated by the army in the last two years in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are immoral and illegitimate. The wounding and killing of hundreds of innocent civilians; the denial of medical treatment, education and livelihood to millions of human beings; the acts of deportation, demolition of houses and uprooting of trees - all these are acts that cannot be tolerated. It is certainly inadmissible that I would take part in these acts or be a part of the body that perpetrates them. The policy of occupation, colonisation and oppression practiced by the governments of the State of Israel are the cause of the bloodbath in our region, the main victims of which are civilians on both sides. Therefore, if we wish to live here in dignity, freedom and peace, we must struggle against the occupation that brings calamity on both peoples, and refuse to follow any order that might assis! t the perpetuation of the occupation.

The way I see it, the State of Israel, like any other country, has the right to maintain a popular armed force, which would be activated to protect the lives of the county's citizens when no other alternative is available. As someone who has the will and ability to contribute to such an armed force, I was enlisted in August 2000 to perform combatant service in the IDF. Two months after I was conscripted, in late September 2000, the current violent events in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have erupted, and since then I spend many long months stationed in the area of the colonies known as "Gush Qatif", in the Gaza Strip.

In the course of these months I came to know first-hand the everyday realities of the occupation: the delays and humiliating examinations at roadblocks; the shameful exploitation of Palestinian labourers by the settlers who took away their lands; the settlers themselves, who a! re willing to sacrifice the physical and mental well-being of their children in favour of material benefits or fanatic religious beliefs; the deafness of the military system to the needs of the population at its mercy; and the psychological process that 18-year-old children undergo when they are suddenly given the power to dominate other human beings. It is precisely this acquaintance with the circumstances that led me to the conclusion that it is impossible to act morally in a reality based on occupier-occupied relations. At first I thought that it would be possible to try and make this reality somewhat less ugly, but eventually I understood that the only way for the common soldier to protect the well-being of everyone concerned, Palestinians and Israelis, is to refuse to take part in the apparatus of occupation.

After discussing the issue with my military commanders and following several months in which I was not stationed in any! position in the army, I was eventually assigned to be a tutor in an intelligence platoon in a rookie base in the Negev area. I innocently thought that in this position I will be solely required to contribute to the protection of Israel's citizens, and I was glad to receive a function in which I might affect the worldview of soldiers who are just beginning their military service. But I soon found out that even this function directly assists in perpetrating the apparatus of occupation.

In April 2002, shortly after I was stationed in my new position, the Israeli army, under orders from the government, commenced a series of barbaric attacks on the centres of Palestinian population in the West Bank, in which all basic moral norms, expressed not only in international covenants, but even in Israel's own laws and in the moral code of the IDF itself, were systematically violated. In war too there are rules that should not be broken, and in! April 2002, the most grave war crimes were perpetrated not only in practice, by the soldiers in the field, but also by the senior command and the political leadership, which imposed flagrantly illegal orders on the combatant forces. These events increased the doubts I had all the time: how can I be in the ranks of a body, a considerable portion of the actions of which these days constitute acts of terror against innocent civilians?

The name "Defensive Shield" was a cover for the systematic destruction of the physical and human infrastructure of Palestinian civil society. This operation destroyed most of the chances for reconciliation between the two peoples in the visible future. Now, when beyond the Green Line there remain only physical destruction and broken, hungry and depressed people, Ariel Sharon can easily support his claim that there is no partner for peace on the other side.

My act of refusal is not purely altruistic:! I do not only refuse only because of the human rights violations perpetrated against the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (although I view this to be a sufficient reason to refuse in its own right). I also refuse to serve in the army in order to benefit the society to which I myself belong. The fates of the two nations are bound with each other, and the assault against the Palestinian people causes some of them to resort to illegitimate means, to attack innocent Israeli citizens, to the point that fear becomes a central part of our daily routine. 35 years of occupation turned our society into a violent and racist society, a society, wide parts of which are ruled by poverty and ignorance. As if this were not enough, we assassinate with our own hands the last chance of attaining peace in this region. If we do not find a way, as the members of the ruling nation, to allow the Palestinian people to exercise its legitimate rights, we ! will find ourselves in an even gloomier situation than the one we have already reached.

In my opinion, a decent and moral person should only agree to serve in the army of her or his country under two conditions:

1. The army would only serve to protect the life and freedom of the citizens of the State and not any other cause.

2. The State and its security forces shall perform each and every one of their actions in accordance with the basic laws of morality, stemming from the equality in value of all human beings, as expressed in international covenants, such as the Geneva Conventions, protecting civilians in times of war and the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In view of the clear violation of these conditions by the Israeli government and its army, and considering the fact that at present, every function within the IDF involves assisting an immoral and illegitimate policy, bringing calamity to the! entire region, I hereby declare that beginning with the coming week I no longer consider myself to be a soldier in the IDF, committed to performing the orders of the military. Once the above conditions are followed in a reasonable way, I will be again willing to put myself at the service of the citizens of the country where I live in any way required.
 

Itamar Shachar
Military ID 7015440
Military Prison No. 6
Military postal code 01860, IDF
Israel.

Letters of support for Itamar can be sent to this e-mail address: mailto:itamarsh@aquanet.co.il.
 

RECOMMENDED ACTION

First of all, please circulate this message and the information contained in it as widely as possible, not only through e-mail, but also on websites, conventional media, by word of mouth, etc.

Please send the prisoners your messages of support to the addresses above.

Adi Leibovici, an activist of Courage to Refuse, has started an important new initiative. She opened a mailbox through which you can send letters of support to all imprisoned objectors. This way of sending letters is definitely more reliable than sending letters to the objector’s prison address. The prison authorities do not always pass the mail on to the prisoners (especially when they receive a lot of it). The letters sent to the new mailbox, on the other hand, will be given to the objectors by their family members on visits and in other similar ways. It is thus almost certain that they will reach their destination.

Another important advantage of this way of sending letters to objectors lies in the fact that you can now also send letters of support to prisoners who wished to remain anonymous.

Letters should be sent with the prisoner’s name in the "To:! " field, to:

POB 16238
Tel-Aviv
Israel.

When possible, please send your letters of support to objectors to both addresses. Letters sent to prison do not always reach their final destination, but they certainly apply pressure to the prison authorities, even if they are just piled up somewhere in the prison.

In addition, please send letters of protest on behalf of the objectors to:

Mr. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer,
Minister of Defence,
Ministry of Defence,
37 Kaplan St.,
Tel-Aviv 61909,
Israel.
E-mail: mailto:sar@mod.gov.il or mailto:pniot@mod.gov.il
Fax: ++972-3-696-27-57 / ++972-3-691-69-40 / ++972-3-691-79-15

Copies can be sent to the commanders of the prisons at:

Commander of Military Prison No. 6,
Military Prison No. 6,
Military postal number 01860,
IDF
Israel.
Fax: ++972-4-869-28-84
Commander of Military Prison No. 4,
Military Prison No. 4,
Military postal number 02507,
IDF
Israel.
Fax: ++972-3-957-52-76

Another useful address for sending copies would be the Military Attorney General:

Brig. Gen. Menachem Finklestein
Chief Military Attorney
Military postal code 9605
IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-3-569-43-70

In the cases of draft resisters and conscripts (like Itamar Shachar) it would be especially useful to send your appeals to the Commander of the Induction Base in Tel-Hashomer. It is this officer that ultimately decides whether an objector is to be exempted from military service or sent to another round in prison:

Commander of Induction Base, Tel-Hashomer
Military Postal Code 02718, IDF
Israel.
Fax: ++972-3-737-60-52

Copies of appeals in the case of Itamar Shachar can also be sent to:

Head of Incompatibles Unit
Induction Base (Baqum)
Tel-Hashomer
Fax: ++972-3-737-67-05.

Addresses of additional military and government officials, as well as those of ! some Israeli media, to which you can send copies of your appeals, can be found at this web address: http://www.newprofile.org/english/Summery_CO_01.html (see the bottom of the page).

Please be aware that writing to the media at this time is more important than ever.

A standard sample letter is available at the bottom of the same web page (http://www.newprofile.org/english/Summery_CO_01.html#sample). However it would be advisable to adjust your letter to the particular circumstances of the case.

Of course, many other things can be done. Any form of public support for objectors and public denouncing of war crimes is welcome, be it in the form of holding vigils, painting graffiti on walls or whatever comes to your minds.

Finally, Yesh-Gvul issued a call for groups to "adopt" objectors. For further information on this initiative, please contact mailto:peretz@yesh-gvul.org.

Additional information on imprisoned o! bjectors in general and on action that can be taken on their behalf (including a list of existing adoption groups for objectors) can be found on this website: http://refusersolidarity.org/default.asp?content=prisoners.

All the best and thanks,

Sergeiy Sandler - New Profile.