Although the story of Yoni Ben Artzi is extremely important, there are many other Israeli COs in prison. Like Yoni, they are being given repeated jail sentances. No doubt, like Yoni they will soon be facing court martial and up to three years in prison.
In May of last year I helped organized a tour for a slight, long-haired 18 year old boy named Haggai Matar. Haggai has been a peace activist for many years, and was one of the founders of the Shministim. Below is a letter from his mother, Anat, who talks about Haggai spending his 19th birthday in prison.
For more information on the CO prisoners of conscience, you can check out Amnesty International. The War Resistors International has also submitted a detailed report to the UN’s Human Rights Committee.
31 January 2003
Dear friends,
Haggai was sentenced today to 14 days in military prison, for refusing to enlist to the IDF. This is his 4th term of imprisonment, after 3 terms of 14, 28 and 56 days. Incidentally, today is his 100th day in prison, and tomorrow – his 19th birthday.
Haggai’s health and mood are very good. (Relatively speaking, of course, in these dark, horrifying days.)
There are, at the moment, 8 draft resisters sitting in military prisons in Israel. Two more are currently at home, but will probably be back in jail soon. Two of the prisoners, Noam Bahat and Hillel Goral, opened a hunger strike 14 days ago. This unprecedented move is totally ignored by the Israeli media. However, Amnesty International is trying to raise awareness to their case. [see link above].
Yours, thanking you again for your consistent support,
Anat