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

# 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

B'Tselem, 10 August 2004

PRESS RELEASE

Hebrew version at: 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:

www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/462450.html

Hebrew www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/SearchArticle.jhtml

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

“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: www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/462003.html

And for gow to support the refuseniks' struggle: 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: www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/461995.html

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ ShowFull&cid=1092021256772

~~~

# For photos of the Gush Shalom visit to the Muqata

www.gush-shalom.org/index.html

www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html

# Truth against Truth – opposite views on the history of the conflict in 101 steps

Hebrew www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Heb.pdf

English www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf

# Boycott List of Settlement Products (newly updated)

Now also with list of settlements

Hebrew gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boycheb.htm

English gush-shalom.org/Boycott/boyceng.htm

— www.gush-shalom.org/ (Hebrew) www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html (English) 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 Articles and documents in German, French and Spanish

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