Five Israeli Refuseniks Indicted 3 Year Sentences

Five Israeli “Refuseniks” Indicted, Sentenced to Three Years in Prison

GAZA, December 17, 2003 (IPC + Agencies)-- Five Israeli soldiers who refused military service in the occupied Palestinian territories have been indicted by the Israeli Jaffa military court on Tuesday.

The soldiers; Noam Bahat, Hagay Mattar, Adam Mouar, Shimi Tzamrit and Mittan Kminar, refused service in the Palestinian territories in the sense of right and wrong doings and for political reasons.

They also asked the court to shift them from military service to a civil one.

The advocate Dove Hanina, defending the five refuseniks, told the judge panel that the five Israeli soldiers refused service for conscience reasons and their draft is a contravention to the dignity and freedom of human beings.

In turn, the Israeli military public prosecution claimed that the acts of the Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories are “legal” and the youths’ refusal of the service is a “political objection for legitimate policy” as pretended by the military prosecutor Yaron Kostolitch.

The Jaffa court had accepted the claims of the public prosecution and considered the youth’s decision as aiming to “influence the public opinion and the government policy.”

Before the court, tens of supporters of the “refuseniks” demonstrated and chanted slogans condemning the occupation, the arrest of their comrades and threatened the occupation to bring it into trail in the international war crimes court in the Hague.

One of the five refuseniks, Mitan Kiminar, denied the accusation of trying to evade draft, they just wanted to tell the truth. "The Israeli occupation army is a criminal one, we are fully aware what is going on the ground. If our credibility will lead us to jail, we will go to jail.”

Meanwhile, his mate Adam Moaur, viewed their tribunal as a political one. “The army did want us but what bothers him is that labeling it as an occupation army."

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