fwd: 3rd CO to be court martialed: preliminary hearing tomorrow 12 ,Yaffo

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

For who can get there:
Being at the Yaffo military court, tomorrow at 12, is a constructive way of 
expressing despair. Those young "trouble makers" deserve it.


[] Matan Kaminer 3rd CO to be court martialed
   preliminary hearing tomorrow 12 Yaffo
------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	Noam Kaminer <noam.kaminer at exlibris.co.il>
Date sent:      	Wed, 5 Mar 2003 19:50:59 +0200

Hello All,
Matan will be brought to court martial tomorrow Thursday March 7th at 12:00
(noon). If you can come to support and show solidarity please do so.

The court is in Jaffa: Yefet St. no. 91-93 (on the corner with Shivty
Israel).
BR,
Noam

[The following is from the message of 
"Reuven Kaminer" <mssourk at mscc.huji.ac.il>]

Israeli Draft Resisters Fight Draconian Apparatus.
Matan Kaminer Refuses further Disciplinary Proceedings

  Matan Kaminer returned to the IDF conscription center yesterday, March 
4, 2003, after a two-day furlough. Upon his return, he exercised his right to 
refuse to be tried in yet another, fourth disciplinary proceeding. He 
understood full well that this would result in his being arraigned for court-
martial along with Yoni Ben Artzi and Hagai Matar. Kaminer explained his 
refusal for the following reasons. First, his ‘offences’ are not of a disciplinary 
nature. Second, the officers called on to try him in disciplinary proceedings 
have absolutely no knowledge of the case or its background. Third, he is in 
the same circumstances as that of his friends, Yoni Ben Artzi and Hagai 
Matar, who are waiting for the date of the beginning of their court-martial 
proceedings.
  Officers in disciplinary proceedings can only impose limited sentences of 
up to 35 days, while the military court can impose a three-year sentence for 
refusing an order. It is reasonable to assume that Kaminer would have been 
sent to a full court proceeding after the fourth or the fifth disciplinary 
sentence. Kaminer’s move is designed to emphasize the common roots 
and goals of all the resisters as against what has appeared, formally and on 
the surface, to be separate proceedings for unconnected individuals. It is 
also intended to show the common goals and interests of all the 
refusenicks, despite the various shades of opinion among them.
  Kaminer has been remanded for 48 hours, pending his arrangement for 
court martial. Ben Artzi and Matar, have already been charged and are in 
camp detention until the opening of their trial.
  Another six conscriptions refusenicks are currently serving monthly 
sentences. It is to be expected, according to the reading of current IDF 
policy that all or most of them will eventually be put on military trial.
  Tens of thousands of young Israeli men and women, some belonging to 
particularly categories – such as orthodox seminary students - and others 
on an ‘individual basis’, are exempted from military service through formal 
arrangements or as a result of the army draft classification policy. It 
appears that the IDF has decided to single out and persecute the prisoners 
of conscience. It is obvious that the IDF prefers that a hundred youngsters 
opt for a psychological ‘discharge’, instead of recognizing the conscientious 
motivations of these speaking in loud and clear voice against the occupation 
and the militarization of Israeli society. Incidentally, all the prisoners of 
conscience have announced that they are willing to do humanitarian 
community service instead of killing and dying for the perpetuation of the 
occupation. 

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