Some good news this Jewish holiday season. The ordeal of the five COs is finally over. They have been released from prison and the army has decided not to try and re-enlist them. The Ha’aretz news article brings details, followed by a message from their parents.
Haaretz.com Update: 20/09/2004 19:43
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent
The Israel Defense Forces[sic] has dismissed from service the five conscientious objectors who were released last week from the civilian prisons where they were serving their sentences. The five have served some two years in military and civilian prisons, including 10 months “open detention” in an army camp.
The pre-holiday release of the five – Haggai Matar, Matan Kaminer, Noam Bahat, Shimri Tzameret, and Adam Maor – was made possible after a special committee reduced their sentence by one-third.
The permanent dismissal from army service did not come as a complete surprise, as the committee that commuted their sentence also discussed bringing them before the IDF[sic] “unsuitability committee” to have them released from service, a position taken by two of the three military judges who sentenced them.
Although the objectors were described in a negative light by the military prosecutor during their trial, the committee particularly noted their potential to contribute to society, which they had done before they were taken into custody for refusing to be inducted, and continued to do during their incarceration, serving as tutors and helping other prisoners in various ways.
“We were in prison for almost two years because our moral belief prohibits us from being part of an army occupying another people and destroying Israeli society, and we come to Yom Kippur with a clean heart,” Shimri Tzameret said on the eve of his release.
Adam Maor said the five felt they had won.
“In spite of the heavy punishment we received, we feel victorious,” he said. “We will continue working to end the occupation and to contribute to society.”
Said Matan Kaminer, “We refused out of love for this place and for the people who live here. All along the way, we asked to do alternative service to contribute in our own way to the community. With our release, we will work according to these principles.”
The Refuseniks Parents’ Forum is pleased to announce that the five draft resisters,
Haggai Matar, Noam Bahat, Adam Maor, Shimri Zameret and Matan Kaminer
have been officially informed that they are hereby released from the ranks of the army.
The release from the IDF comes after an epoch-making court battle and after the five young men have spent close to two years in confinement. The campaign against the imprisonment of the five, for having resisted mobilization to the IDF, as long as it is an army of occupation, has received wide international attention and evoked strong expressions of solidarity the world over.
The release of the five will be marked in a mass public reception this Thursday, September 23 in Tel Aviv. Expressions of solidarity are pouring in from public figures in Israel and all over the world.
This is a victory for all women and men of good conscience who refuse to participate in oppression and occupation. The calm bravery of these five young men reminds us that we all have the right to refuse to be part of the occupation and suggests that we might well consider that this right is really a duty.
We take this occasion to express our deepest heartfelt thanks for the many, many thousands of expression of moral, political and financial solidarity. We owe a special expression of gratitude to the attorney for the five, Dov Khenin.
We see this battle as an important chapter in the fight for an Israel living in peace and equality with our Palestinian neighbors and friends, the Palestinian people. Israel will either overcome the occupation or be destroyed by it.
