[GushShalom] From the Israeli madhouse: re Belgians & court-martialed COs
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Mon Feb 24 14:22:55 IST 2003
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Gush Shalom International release, Feb.24
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[] When A kidnaps in B the citizen of C... Uri Avnery in this weeks article
[] Army panicking? COs court-martialed one after the other
--Uri Ya'acobi, third CO to be court-martialed
--Dror Boymel back to Conscience Committee
--Adam Maor - 28 days
--WRI calls for delegation to Israel
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[Yesterday, five Palestinians killed during the reoccupation of Beit Hanoun
in the Gaza Strip. One Israeli soldier killed while guarding a settlement a bit
further south. This morning the announcement of 25 Palestinians arrested
during the night and taken off to interrogation by the security services (and
all what it means). Meanwhile, Sharon puts the finishing touch on his new
government coalition (thank God not including the Labor Party).
In Uri Avnery's defence of the decision of the Belgian court you also get a
sense of the Israeli establishment's outrage. And how much they feel
threatened by a dozen young boys with the courage to follow their
conscience comes after it.]
[] When A kidnaps in B the citizen of C... Uri Avnery in this weeks article
Uri Avnery
22.3.03
It's OK to Eat Belgian Chocolate
"Don't eat Belgian chocolate," the Israel consul in Florida ordered the
large Jewish community there.
In Israel, anti-Belgian curses reached an ear-splitting new crescendo.
Miserable Belgium! Mad Belgium! Megalomaniac Belgium! And again and
again, Anti-Semitic Belgium! Neo-Nazi Belgium!
The Israeli ambassador was, of course, recalled from Brussels. No
wonder, how can Israel keep an ambassador in the world capital of anti-
Semitism?
The storm broke when a Belgian court decided that Ariel Sharon can be
sued for alleged war crimes, but only after finishing his term as Prime
Minister of Israel. Israel army officers connected with the 1982 massacre in
the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps can be sued even now.
On an Israeli TV program, the anchorman, a lawyer, put it this way:
"Anti-Semitic Belgium wants to judge the officers of a second country for
crimes committed in a third country, while the accused have no connection
at all with Belgium, are not on Belgium territory and the whole affair does
not concern Belgium. That is megalomania, really a matter for
psychiatrists!"
"Strange," I replied on the program, "I seem to remember a case where
country A kidnapped in country B the citizen of country C for committing in
country D crimes against the citizens of countries E, F and G, all this in
spite of the fact the crimes were committed before country A even existed."
I meant, of course, the trial of Adolf Eichmann, to which we all agreed.
"How can you compare the two!" the other participants on the program
cried out in outraged unison. And indeed, how can one compare the actions
of Jews with actions of goyim committed against Jews?
Well, it were the Jews who demanded, after World War II, that all
countries put Nazi war criminals and their allies on trial. Eichmann was
judged in Israel according to the Israeli "Law for bringing the Nazis and their
Helpers to Justice", which does not recognize any borders. More recently
the Knesset enacted another law, enabling Israeli courts to judge
perpetrators of any crime committed against Jews anywhere in the world. If
so, what's wrong with the Belgian law of "universal jurisdiction", that allows
Belgian courts to judge was criminals from all over the world?
Immanuel Kant promulgated the Categorical Imperative: "Act as if the
principle by which you act were about to be turned into a universal law of
nature". But then, Kant was probably an anti-Semite.
Hundreds of years ago, the world adopted a legal doctrine that allowed
every country to judge and hang pirates, irrespective of their ethnic identity,
origin and area of activity. The assumption was that the pirate is an enemy
of humanity at large, and that therefore every country has the right indeed,
the duty to judge him.
The Belgian law against war crimes is a step in this direction, and I hope
that many other countries will follow suit. Of course, it would be better if the
International Criminal Court in The Hague would fulfil this duty, but much
time will pass before it will be able to. Immense political pressures are
being exerted, many limitations have been imposed, its hands and feet have
been shackled. Worse, the only super-power, the United States, is openly
trying to destroy it (as it destroyed the League of Nations after World War I.)
My dream is that before the end of the 21st century a new, binding world
order, headed by a world parliament, will come into being. This order must
include a world court and a world police force, that will judge conflicts
between nations the way today's national courts judge conflicts between
people. The road there is long and full of obstacles, decades will pass
before humanity will reach this stage. But we must strive towards this end.
In the meantime, other countries must follow the Belgian example, in order
to progress along this way. Especially concerning war crimes.
Some will say that we should not extradite our fellow-citizens, that it is
the duty of every state to judge its war-criminals itself. But this is utopian:
no country in the world has really done so. That is quite natural: not only
are states disinclined to admit to such shameful crimes and try to hide
them, but generally such crimes are committed by agents of the state itself.
The affair of Sabra and Shatila is a good example. Here, briefly, are the
facts:
In the summer of 1982, the Israeli army invaded West Beirut, violating an
explicit commitment given to the American mediator, Phillip Habib, not to
do so. By that time, the PLO forces had already left the city.
From that moment on, West Beirut, including the Palestinian refugee
camps Sabra and Shatila, became an Israeli occupied territory, making the
Israeli army responsible for everything happening there.
After the occupation, the IDF let the "Phalangists", members of an
extreme Maronite Christian group, enter the two camps. These people has
already committed heinous massacres in other Palestinian refugee camps.
They were headed by a notorious mass-murderer, Eli Hweika.
All senior Israeli officials involved with Lebanon knew that the
Phalangists were committing atrocities in order to panic the Palestinians
into fleeing from Lebanon.
When the Israeli cabinet was informed of the army's intention of letting
the Phalangists in, Minister David Levy, who was born in Morocco, warned
that this would cause a disaster. His colleagues ignored his warning.
Immediately upon entering the camps, the Phalangists started to
butcher men, women and children indiscriminately.
The commander of the action, Eli Hweika, oversaw the action from the
roof of the Israeli divisional command post, which was located right next to
the camps. The officers of the Israeli division commander, General Amos
Yaron, overheard Hweika instructing his men by walkie-talkie to kill women
and children, too. They hastened to inform Yaron, but he ignored the
message. (Later he admitted: "Our senses had become blunted.")
During the night, while the massacre was going on (it lasted altogether
three days), the Israeli Chief-of-Staff, General Raphael Eytan, ordered the
army to accede to the Phalangists' request and light the area with flares. He
also provided the Phalangists with a tractor (which served, it is assumed, to
bury the bodies).
A young Israeli officer who heard the horrible stories of the shocked
women who had succeeded in fleeing from the camps, ran from one officer
to another, begging them to interfere. All of them refused.
After the massacre, the Begin government refused to order an
independent investigation. In a huge demonstration in Tel-Aviv (the
mythological 400-thousand-demo), we compelled the government to appoint
a high-level state investigation committee, headed by Supreme Court judge
Yitzhaq Kahan. It did a good job and its report included all the facts
mentioned above. In its conclusions, it found that the Minister of Defense
(Sharon), the Chief-of-Staff and a number of other senior officers bear
"indirect responsibility" for the outrage. Some of us argued even then that
the committee had bent backwards in order to protect the reputation of the
state, and that from the same facts much more far-reaching conclusions
could have been drawn.
The committee recommended, inter alia, to dismiss the Minister of
Defense from his office and to remove Yaron from the active command of
troops in the field. But the committee did not recommend to dismiss Sharon
altogether from the government and from public life, neither did it dismiss
Yaron from the army. It did not take any step against the Chief-of-Staff,
because he was about to finish his term anyhow. Other officers suffered
minor penalties.
Today, Sharon is Prime Minister, practically commanding the army and
Amos Yaron is Director General of the Ministry of Defense. As a matter of
fact, all those accused by the Kahan report have been promoted.
Most importantly, not one of those suspected of responsibility for the
massacre was ever put on trial (as distinguished from a commission of
inquiry).
After the enactment of the Belgian law of universal jurisdiction, the
survivors of the massacre sued Sharon and the officers in Brussels. It's this
case that has caused the present uproar.
Nobody questions the integrity of the Belgian judicial system. If Sharon
and his men are confident of their innocence, why shouldn't they stand trial
and prove it? After all, the Israeli government has put at their disposal its
senior attorneys, paid by the state. (One could ask, of course, why I should
pay for the legal defense of people put on trial for alleged war crimes. But
never mind.)
All this has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. The use of this defamation
against everybody who dares to criticize Sharon and his colleagues reminds
one of Dr. Samuel Johnson's sayings: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a
scoundrel."
So you may eat Belgian chocolate. Even if it is of the bitter kind.
[] Army panicking? COs court-martialed one after the other
--Uri Ya'acobi, third CO to be court-martialed
--Dror Boymel back to Conscience Committee
--Adam Maor - 28 days
--WRI calls for delegation to Israel
--Uri Ya'acobi, third CO to be court-martialed.
Immediately upon being released yesterday from a previous prison term, Uri
Ya'acobi was taken by military police to the Induction Center and was told
that it was "in order to be discharged from the army." Upon arrival there it
turned out that instead he will face a court martial, and thereupon was taken
immediately to Prison-4. Uri is due to have his preliminary hearing today
or tomorrow. The army doesn't give us much time to organize a presence,
but we will let you know as soon as we know when and where.
STAY TUNED FOR ANOTHER MESSAGE LATER TODAY.
--Dror Boymel back to Conscience Committee
Yesterday, the ACRI legal team defending Dror Boymel who was last Friday
imprisoned pending a court martial, succeeded to get for him a new
heaaring by the (purely military) Conscience Committee which laast year
rejected his claim to be a pacifist. Moreover, he was sent home pending
that hearing. Adv. Michaael Sfard will now try to apply this precedent both
to Uri Ya'acobi and to Yoni Ben Artzi, the first of the series.
--Adam Maor - 28 days
Also yesterday Adam Maor - who it seems did not yet accumulate enough
repeated refusals for the honour to be court-martialed - waas sentenced to
another 28 days, and was reported to be spending them at Prison-4 in the
Isolation Ward. (Which heinous violation of prison regulations caused him to
be consigned there, we don't know.) Another draft resister, Yoni Yechezkel
was invited "to see a psychiatrist", but when he arrived at the Induction
Center was told instead to (re)present himself to be drafted. Thereupon, he
succeeded in leaving the center...
--WRI calls for delegation to Israel
War Resisters' International <info at wri-irg.org> wrote:
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 11:40:35 +0000
WRI calls for delegation to Israel to observe court-martial of COs
Dear all,
In an obvious change of policy, the Israeli military is now starting to court-
martial conscientious objectors, after they already spent more than 150
days in prison. Jonathan Ben-Artzi had his first hearing on Wednesday, and
is now in "open detention" at the induction base awaiting court-martial. He
already served 200 days in military prison - seven prison terms of 28-35
days.
Dror Boimel is presently serving his seventh prison term, after having
served 168 days in prison. He too is now awaiting a court-martial.
Unlike the usual disciplinary sentences of 28 or 35 days, a court-martial
can sentence Jonathan Ben-Artzi and Dror Boimel to up to three years
imprisonment for refusing to enlist. Other conscientious objectors are
presently serving repeated prison terms of 28 to 25 days, and they might
face court-martials too. More information on Jonathan Ben-Artzi and Dror
Boimel can be found at http://wri-irg.org/news/htdocs/21022003a.html.
It is therefore important that international delegations observe some of
the hearing of the court-martials - preferably at least on of the early
hearing, and the one which is expected to be the last. Hearing will happen
on relatively short notice (about 1 week), and we therefore need a pool of
potential delegates to draw from. Everybody who is willing to join a
delegation should contact the WRI Office immediately.
(mailto:concodoc at wri-irg.org, tel +44-20-72784040).
We will also need money to pay for travel and accomodation. Donations are
therefore urgently needed. [For information how to do it from your country
please, contact info at wri-irg.org.]
Please contact the WRI Office as soon as possible.
Israeli conscientious objectors now urgently need our support!
Andreas Speck
War Resisters' International
5 Caledonian Road * London N1 9DX * BRITAIN
tel.: +44-20-7278 4040 * fax: +44-20-7278 0444
email: info at wri-irg.org * http://www.wri-irg.org
In-depth about Israeli war resisters
http://wri-irg.org/co/co-isr-03.htm
---
Photos of the Feb. 15 antiwar demonstrations worldwide
http://www.hyperreal.org/~dana/
---
Protest against repeated and unlimited imprisonment of draft resisters at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/091202/
---
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