(fwd) [TheOtherIsrael] THE IMAGINARY PACIFIST
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Tue Jul 29 23:44:12 IDT 2003
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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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