[GushShalom] Military court recommends re-hearing for CO Ben Artzi

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

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

{We were considering to pass on a translation of the Refuser Parents 
press release, but then we saw that the version of Galili in Ha'aretz 
includes most of it, and more.]

Military court recommends re-hearing for draft objector   
 
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent 
 
òáøéú
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/327964.html

English:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/327966.html 
 
An unexpected twist occurred Sunday in the trial of draft refuser 
Yonatan Ben-Artzi when a Jaffa military court recommended that he be 
brought anew to the army's conscience committee. 
  
In a well-publicized conscientious objection case, Ben-Artzi, the 
nephew of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has already 
served 200 days in military prison after the committee refused in
an earlier hearing to recognize him as a pacifist. [Actually, Yoni is 
already "celebrating" a year in prison. GS]
 
The Jaffa court on Sunday cut off summation discussion and issued its 
recommendation for Ben-Artzi's re-appearance before the army's
conscience committee. It issued this recommendation to the IDF 
Advocate General after conferring behind closed doors with the
prosecutor and defense counsel in the Ben-Artzi case. 

The Jaffa court opined: "We believe that in light of new materials [that 
have surfaced]...the army draft board should consider the arguments 
for a re-hearing" of Ben-Artzi's claims. 

The court was referring to the testimony of Yonatan Ben-Artzi himself, 
as well as that of his sister and IDF Colonel Shlomo Simhi, who
headed the conscience panel before which Ben-Artzi originally 
appeared. 

Ben-Artzi's attorney, Michael Sefarad, said Sunday that he views the 
court's recommendation as a rebuke of the decision reached by the
conscience committee to refuse to grant his client pacifist status. 

In an appearance before the Jaffa court, Simhi stated that while Ben-
Artzi might genuinely believe that he is a conscientious objector,
the IDF committee believes otherwise. 


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