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20-Jul-2004

Israeli pacifist Yoni Ben-Artzi faces further conviction

by: Clare Wilcox

Jonathan Ben-Artzi.
PHOTO: (c) private ,

Israel: Israeli pacifist Jonathan (Yoni) Ben-Artzi has now spent almost two years in military prison. Following his release for what the army termed "incompatibility due to lack of motivation", he now faces further conviction by a lower military court for refusing to enlist.

In a bizarre contradictory argument, which revealed intense contempt for Yoni and pacifists in general, the prosecutor exclaimed that even if Yoni was exempt from military service by law, as a recognised pacifist, he should still have obeyed the order to enlist and therefore deserved to be convicted.

The 20 year old has been passed from one senior army official to another, each imploring him to take basic training. As a pacifist, he cannot do anything that would make him a soldier. The head of one army base assured him that basic induction would not make him a soldier, so he agreed to comply with their wishes if the officer would put this in writing. Yoni's request was not granted. In another futile attempt to excuse him from service on "army terms", he was asked to see a military psychologist who would proclaim him mentally unfit. Yoni refused, asserting that being a pacifist was not a "mental illness."

Yoni's case has sparked such international interest because last year he became the first Israeli conscientious objector in three decades to be brought before a military tribunal. He has now been imprisoned longer than any other CO in Israeli history. Not only that, but his uncle happens to be former prime minister and current finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a staunch nationalist.

His family argue that the government is clamping down on "refuseniks" such as Yoni, because they strike at the very core of Israeli society, which is built on compulsory military service.

If Yoni is offered non-military civilian service it will be a great victory in the struggle against militarism in Israel.

Other CO news

In a related story, on 14 July, the sentences of five men who refused to serve in the Israel Defence Forces were reduced by one third, a decision taken despite the military prosecution's recommendation to the contrary.

See related PN news stories at:

http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2449/2449041.html

http://www.peacenews.info/news/article/122