FIVE Israeli men, Haggai Matar, Amir Kaminer, Shomri Zameret, Adam Maor, and Noam Bahat were sentenced to one year jail terms by an Israeli military court in early January for refusing to accept conscription into the Israeli armed forces.
They had already been in detention for just over a year but the judges ruled that sentences would start from the date of sentence.
All five were amongst over 400 school students who had signed a public letter two years ago stating they would not accept conscription whilst the Israeli army continued to function as an army of occupation within the post 1967 Occupied Territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
Their trial was the first time since 1981 that anyone has been tried in an Israeli military court for refusing to accept conscription on conscientious grounds.
The political backdrop to the court's decision is that there is a small but growing minority of Israelis who are coming to question and oppose the increasingly genocidal nature of the Israeli occupation of the Occupied Territories. A minority which extends to within the Israeli armed forces.
Recently 28 pilots as well as 13 members of an elite commando unit stated they would not attack Palestinian targets on the grounds that any civilian casualties caused would amount to war crimes. They in turn form part of over
enlisted men and women in the Israeli armed forces who have publicly stated that they will not commit any act of aggression against the Palestinians.
There is no doubt that the five are being made an example of in order to deter others and as much was stated by the trial judges during sentencing.
Additionally, once they have completed their sentences they are liable to be called up for conscription again. If they refuse again they can be tried and jailed again, a process
that theoretically could repeated many times over. Whilst they are being sent to jail the Israeli armed forces continue to commit murder and other atrocities in
the Occupied Territories with little chance of receiving justice. Or to quote the words of Haggai Matar, one of the five:
"It is no surprise when a court of this kind sends us to prison, while soldiers and officers who commit crimes escape without punishment".
There is in fact a long history of conscientious objectors refusing conscription into the Israeli armed forces going back well over 20 years.
Similarly there is an equally long history of the Israeli state jailing conscientious objectors as well. In the early 1980s 168 Israeli servicemen were jailed for refusing to fight in the Lebanon, later in that decade nearly 200 were jailed for refusing to fight in the Occupied Territories during the First Palestinian Intifada.
There are peace groups within the Israeli state who have actively supported the actions of conscientious objectors in the armed forces
Probably most prominent is Yesh Gu (www.yesh-gvul.org) which was formed in 1982 to support Israeli conscripts and reservists who were refusing to fight in the Lebanon.
From 1982 the activities of Yvesh Gul have continued to the present despite continued harassment from the Israeli authorities and today it is championing the cause of the five convicted men.
Admittedly the central political weakness of Yvesh Gul as well as many past and pres ent conscientious objectors in Israel is their failure to fully confront the reactionary legacy of Zionism in its totality.
That is they oppose the excesses of Zionism rather than Zionist ideology itself. Nevertheless they fully deserve our active support and solidarity, this can and should be the first step to opening up a constructive dialogue.