Former Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu's nephew faces jail as army refusenik

Netanyahu nephew faces jail as army refusenik
Jonathan Ben Artzi is a patriot, but this week he appears before a court martial because he won't do his military service. Conal Urquhart reports from Jerusalem on the high-profile symbol of a swelling protest.

Conal Urquhart
Sunday March 9, 2003
The Observer

His grandparents fought to establish the state of his Israel and his father and uncles fought to defend it from aggression. One of his uncles is among Israel' s foremost hawks, the former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Yet on Tuesday, Jonathan Ben Artzi faces three years imprisonment for refusing to serve in the Israeli army.

Ben Artzi, 20, had already served 214 days in military jail and is being detained on a military base until his trial. He is one of a group of men whose refusal to serve in the army is dividing Israeli society and has forced the military hierarchy to take a strong stand.

He is one of nine men facing courts martial for refusing to do their military service and has been designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. Hundreds of men who have done their service are also refusing to do compulsory reserve duty in protest at the role of the Israeli Defence Force in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli men do three years of compulsory military service from the age of 18 and then at least a month a year of reserve duty until the age of 40. Women are are also obliged to do military service but are not required to serve in combat units.

Netanyahu, who has just become Finance Minister, tried to dissuade his nephew from refusing to enlist last year. Jonathan' s father, Matania, whose sister is married to Netanyahu, said the two families respect their political differences.

Refusal to serve in the army is a growing problem in Israel. Few confront the system as directly as Ben Artzi. The majority avoid the draft by claiming psychiatric problems. Others exempted from service include students of the Torah, Israeli Arabs and those with a criminal record. In total around 45 per cent of Israeli men avoid the draft.

On Tuesday, Ben Artzi will be tried before a court martial for refusing to enlist. Today, his lawyers will argue in the Supreme Court in Jerusalem that the court martial has no jurisdiction over Ben Artzi because he remains a civilian having refused to enlist.

It is the latest bizarre paradox Ben Artzi has encountered in his battle with the military authorities. When he sought to be excused service as a pacifist last year, he was brought before the Conscience Committee of the army to be assessed. It studied Ben Artzi's record of refusal to engage in military areas of his school curriculum and came to two conclusions. First, his record of opposition to the army showed he had the character of a warrior and was clearly not a pacifist. Second, the best place for someone like him who refused to submit to authority and discipline was the army.

When Ben Artzi received his call-up, he went to the induction centre and refused to serve. He was summarily sentenced to 28 days imprisonment. This began a process that was repeated seven times.

He would be released from military prison and go to the induction centre where he was again sentenced to imprisonment for his refusal to serve.

His mother Ofra, a university teacher, said: ' We never suspected that the consequences would be that harsh. We know that so many people are exempted so we didn' t think the army would make an exception of Jonathan.

'At times it has felt quite Kafka-esque, standing in front of this illogical bureaucracy.' Ben Artzi is the first member of his family not to do military service. His paternal grandfather fought the British and Palestinians in the terrorist group, Irgun, and his maternal grandfather was injured in the 1948 war of independence.

His mother and father met during military service and his uncle was killed in 1967 while serving as a paratrooper. His elder sister and brother completed their service in the air force and navy 'without enthusiasm' according to their parents.

However, it was clear from an early age that Jonathan was determined not to serve. His father said: 'Israelis talk about their military service from the moment they can speak. As early as that he decided it was not for him. He was a natural pacifist.'

Jonathan says his pacifism dates from a visit to Verdun, the site of a key battle between the French and German armies in the First World War. He saw graves stretching as far as the eye could see and the massive ossuary where the unidentified bones of 150,000 soldiers are held.

Matania Ben Artzi, a professor of mathematics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said he would have received more support from friends if his son had been accused of drug-dealing or another crime.

'They would have said, "It can happen to the best of families".' But refusing to serve in the army is taboo in Israeli society.

'We have had three generations being asked to fight. I fought in the army so that my children would not have to,' he said.

Yoram Peri, a sociologist at Tel Aviv University, said the issue of refusing to serve was becoming more and more central in Israeli society. He explained that the major issue was what is known as ' grey resistance', people avoiding service by claiming mental health problems which allows 10 per cent of men to avoid service.

'The military has adopted the position of "don't ask, don' t tell" on the subject of the grey resistance,' he said. 'They take the view that if they need 100 soldiers, they will summon 200. Fifty will not be eligible because of religion or health and 50 will claim psychological prob lems. But in the end they get their 100 men.'

What the military do not want is anyone to become a symbol, he said. Such symbols have to be shown there is a serious cost to refusing to enlist in a direct manner.

Matan Kaminer, 19, refused to serve in the IDF because he sees it as an army of occupation. Unlike Ben Artzi, he is not a pacifist.

His grandfather, Reuven Kaminer, said he served in the army and his son served in an elite unit during the Lebanon War until he became a conscientious objector.

'There are two kinds of patriotism. There is the obsequious "my country-right-or-wrong" patriotism and then there is the thoughtful, questioning patriotism which does not want the country to be damaged by misguided policies.

'This refusal to serve for most of the men is a response to the occupation. They do not want to kill or be killed according to government policies which they feel are dangerous to their country.'

A spokesman for the Israeli Defence Force said the draft was mandatory in Israel and the army could not be seen to waive the rules for those that made a fuss.

In the case of Ben Artzi, he added, the army attempted to arrange for him to serve in a military hospital, which officers hoped would satisfy both parties.

Matania and Ofra Ben Artzi hope the court martial will signal the end of their son's ordeal.

'Jonathan has already been in jail for almost a year. We hope this will be the end of it. There has already been enough insanity.'

· An interview with Jonathan Ben Artzi will appear in the Guardian on Tuesday.


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