(Fwd) Road Apartheid // Woman CO's struggle // ex-Mossad man vs IDF
Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)
info at gush-shalom.org
Tue Aug 10 00:44:57 IDT 2004
FYI
# The Forbidden Road Regime in the West Bank
B'tselem calls it "Apartheid Practice"
Translation of press release + link to Hebrew original
# "Still I won't enlist in occupation army"
Refuser Laura Milo after court rejected her plea
Translation press release, original Hebrew attached
# Ex-deputy Mossad director:
IDF under Ya'alon lost its morality
with several links to press reports
***
# The Forbidden Road Regime in the West Bank
B'tselem calls it "Apartheid Practice"
Translation of press release + link to Hebrew original
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 16:35:09 +0200
From: "Noam Hoffstater" <noamh at btselem.org>
B'Tselem, 10 August 2004
PRESS RELEASE
ìòáøéú/Hebrew version at:
http://www.btselem.org/Hebrew/Press_Releases/2004/040809.asp
The Forbidden Road Regime in the West Bank - An Apartheid Practice
B’Tselem issues a new report today: The Forbidden Roads: The
Discriminatory West Bank Road Regime. In its new report, B’Tselem finds
that:
* Israel restricts Palestinian travel on forty-one roads and sections of
roads throughout the West Bank, totaling more than 700 kilometers of
roadway (the report includes a detailed map of the Forbidden Roads
Regime).
* B’Tselem has divided the Forbidden Roads Regime into three
categories of roads: “sterile roads” where Palestinian traffic is
completely prohibited, roads where Palestinians require special permits,
and roads with restricted access. The regime applies only to
Palestinians. Israeli vehicles are allowed to travel freely along these
roadways.
* Permits for Palestinians to travel on restricted roads are
issued at the sole discretion of the Israeli security establishment.
Rejections are given verbally and without explanation. According to the
head of the Civil Administration, Brig. Gen. Ilan Paz, “There are no
definitive clear criteria for examining requests for a permit.”
* The Forbidden Roads Regime has been in operation for years, but the rules and
regulations for its implementation have never been issued in writing.
Thus, Israel frees itself of accountability and increases the
arbitrariness with which it enforces the regime.
* The Forbidden Roads Regime operates under the premise that every Palestinian is
a security risk. Based on this premise, the Roads Regime violates the rights to
freedom of movement and to equality of hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel has an obligation to safeguard the
lives of its citizens. But this obligation does not allow it to cause
such harsh, extensive, indiscriminate, and prolonged harm to the local
population. By unlawfully discriminating against Palestinians based on their national
origin, the Forbidden Roads Regime is reminiscent of the apartheid system
that existed in South Africa. The regime violates fundamental principles
of international law that are binding on the State of Israel. B’Tselem
demands that the government of Israel immediately end the Forbidden Roads
Regime and that it respect the right of Palestinians to move freely on all
roads inside the West Bank.
---------------------------
For a copy of the report, summary, map of the forbidden roads,
and additional details, contact Yariv Tikolsker, Outreach Director
054-5900976
See also:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/462450.html
Hebrew/òáøéú
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/SearchArticle.jhtml
http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID
=10614
~~~
# "Still I won't enlist in occupation army"
Refuser Laura Milo after court rejected her plea
Translation press release, original Hebrew attached
Press release of Refuser Parents' Forum
[Hebrew attached - òáøéú îö"á ]
"The court's verdict did not and could not change my conscience, my resolution not to
collaborate with the occupation and not to enlist in the army of occupation. If anything, the
situation on the ground has become even worse since I declared my refusal. The Supreme Court
decided that under the laws of the state of Israel I cannot get an exemption on grounds of
conscience. That makes me sorry, but it must be clear - for me, enlisting in the army is not an
option - unless something really unexpected happens, like the army pulling suddenly out of all
the territories" says Laura Milo, the conscientious objector whose appeal to the Supreme Court
was rejected this morning.
A year ago, Milo wrote to the army: "The occupation is, in its very essence, totally contrary to
my moral-humanist values. The government of Israel enacts a policy of daily humiliation of the
occupied Palestinian population. I will not take part in a body which carries out a reprehensible
policy. Joining the IDF, which is an immoral body, is totally against the dictates of my
conscience".
When examined by the army's "Conscience Committee", Milo stated fortrightly that she is not
opposed to all military service anywhere, but rather to the occupation in particular, and that she
would be willing to enlist if the army were to terminate the occupation.
In the past, young women taking such a position were granted exemption from military service;
however, shortly before Milo came before the comittee, the discrepency between treatment of
male and female refusers came out during the court-martial of five young men who refused to join
the army. As a result, the military authorities undertook a tougher attitude to the female refusers
,
so as "to establish gender equality".
Laura Milo was the first girl refuser to be affected. She was ruled to be "a political refuser",
denied discharge and ordered to formally enlist - and upon her refusal sent to a term in the
military prison. She appealed the comittee's decision, stating that Israeli law specifically grants
women the right to exemption on grounds of "conscience or a religious way of life" and that
therefore the comittee had no authority to deny her the exemption.
However, the court this morning rejected the appeal. The verdict, written by Judge Ayala
Procatcha and assented to by her two colleagues Matza and Levy, interpreted the law as
meaning that exemption on grounds of conscience should be granted as of right to religious
women only.
Non-religious women refusers would be treated like their male counterparts: exemption might be
granted total pacifists, who oppose all miltary service at times and circumstances - but even that
would be given at the army's discretion, as a "good will gesture", rather then as a right; and
"selective refusers", male or female, would be totally excluded from any possibility of exemption.
The court did grant a two weeks' stay of execution before Milo has to go back to the military
prison, so that her lawyers can ask for a further review by a larger panel of judges. The two
advocates, Smadar Ben Nathan and Gabi Laski, assert that there are many ill-considered points in
today's verdict, both in substance and judicial procedure, to justify such a review.
"The judicial system has again exhibited toughness towards persons of conscience, who refuse
to take part in violent and immoral acts - while soldiers who mistreat Palestinian passers-by at
roadblocks get off with ridiculous punishments" said Adv. Laski. And Adv. Ben Nathan added:
"In the name of so-called equality, the Supreme Court effectively wiped away women's Freedom
of Conscience, which had been recognized for decades - rather then extend recognition of the
same freedom to men as well.
According to this verdict, a woman who strongly approves of war and conquest but is part of a
conservative community wose spiritual leaders hold that "a woman's place is at home" would get
automatic exemption from military service. Yet this kind of exemption is denied to an independent-
minded young woman who already formulated a clear and coherent worldview, a woman who
spent the last two years in doing valuable community and educational work at Yerusham and
other poverty-stiken towns. Now the court tells her that she must give up that communitry work
in order to enlist in an army of occupation, and that refusing to violate the dicates of her
conscience could land her in prolonged,repeated prison terms.
With all due respect,one finds it difficult to deny the impression that,with regard to
conscientious objectors, the judicial system is extremely accomodating to the wishes of the
govenment and the army command.
Contact:
Laura Milo 03-6416802 / 064-840678
Adv. Laski 03-6243215 / 054-418988
Adv. Ben Nathan 03-5619666 / 053-589775
Adam Keller 03-5565804 / 050-6709603
See also:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/462003.html
And for gow to support the refuseniks' struggle:
http://www.yeshgvul.org/english/article/?id=8811d70502372c03cb5023c51eb9f3
ee
~~~
# Ex-deputy Mossad director:
IDF under Ya'alon lost its morality
with several links to press reports
As we could see on our TV screens (News of Channel-II):
Former deputy Mossad director, Shmuel Toledano, launched a
harsh verbal attack on Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff
Moshe Ya'alon, saying that under his lead the IDF has lost its "purity of arms".
for more:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/461995.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/
ShowFull&cid=1092021256772
~~~
# For photos of the Gush Shalom visit to the Muqata
http://www.gush-shalom.org/index.html
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
# Truth against Truth - opposite views on the history of the
conflict in 101 steps
Hebrew / òáøéú
http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Heb.pdf
English
http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf
# Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)
Now also with list of settlements
Hebrew / òáøéú
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm
English
http://gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm
--
http://www.gush-shalom.org/ (òáøéú/Hebrew)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English)
http://www.gush-shalom.org/arabic/index.html (selected articles in Arabic)
with
\\photos of recent actions
\\the weekly Gush Shalom ad
\\the columns of Uri Avnery
\\Gush Shalom's history & action chronicle
\\position papers & analysis (in "documents")
\\and a lot more
N.B.:
On the Gush Shalom website links for
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