(fwd) [TheOtherIsrael] THE IMAGINARY PACIFIST

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From:           	The Other Israel <otherisr at actcom.co.il>

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       TOI Billboard          THE IMAGINARY PACIFIST     
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Tel-Aviv, July 29, 2003

New phenomenon revealed in Jaffa Military Court:

THE IMAGINARY PACIFIST 

"Yoni doesn't lie; he really believes he is a pacifist; but the 
Commission has no doubts: he isn't" thus could be summarized what Colonel 
Shlomi Simchi admitted in an hours-long cross-examination by Adv. Michael 
Sfard. Simchi had  headed the Conscience Committee which rejected Yoni 
Ben-Artzi's application for CO status. 

Yoni joins the honour with Martin Luther King whose credentials as a 
genuine pacifist were also put in doubt by the colonel. This caused an 
explosion of laughter of the family and friends, among them Uri Avnery, 
on the spectator benches. And further on the name Tolstoi seemed to mean 
nothing at all. All this came up after Sfard exposed the total lack of 
criteria or guidelines of the army's Conscience Commission.

Sfard compared the percentage of successful applications to the 
Conscience Committee and it turned out that over the years less than 5% 
were recognized. Sfard had with him a dossier showing the statistics in 
other countries which have conscription and do recognize the freedom of 
conscience, in all of which 60% to 95% of applicants succeed to get CO 
status. Simchi responded that he neither knows nor cares about other 
countries.

Then Sfard showed him the statistics  for Israeli women draft refusers 
who go through a different commission, composed of civilians, unlike the 
one for males. There, the number of successful applications is 95%. 
Moreover, the number of applications by women is tenfold that of the 
males. Sfard argued that the few applications of male refusers is the 
result of the low chance of success as well as of the army not making the 
existence of a Conscience Commission known.



In a related development, Sfard who is an active member of the 
reservist refuser movement Courage to Refuse seems bound to cross swords 
with Amiram Bogatz, the governmental Registrar of Associations.
Bogatz is threatening to open proceedings aimed at disbanding this 
refuser association as "promoting illegal activity." However, according 
to the popular writer Sami Michael "refusal is a patriotic duty. Sharon 
has already admitted that Israel is maintaining an occupation rule over 
the Palestinians. He has no moral right to go on sending soldiers to 
enforce that occupation" (Maariv, July 25).

 
--
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Adam Keller's "Road Map In The Air" (lead article)
http://members.tripod.com/~other_Israel/ed.html

Saga Of The Court Martials:
http://members.tripod.com/~other_Israel/courtmartials.html

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