Imprisonment of conscientious objectors Alex Kohn, Orwa Zidan, Shaul Mograbi-Berger, and Uri Natan
Use this form to send the letter below to the relevant authority (Shaul Mofaz, Minister of Defence, Israel). You can add your own notes in a separate box after the standard text, if you wish. You must include a name, address, and email address; a copy will be sent to you with a cc to the WRI office (so we have a record of how many email letters have been sent out for this particular case).
Dear Mr Shaul Mofaz, Minister of Defence
I am very concerned about the imprisonment of conscientious objectors Alex Kohn, Orwa Zidan, Shaul Mograbi-Berger and Uri Natan.
All four are conscientious objectors, and have recently been sentenced to military prison. All four refuse to enlist in the IDF for reasons of conscience.
Alex Kohn spent already more than 130 days in prison. He presently serving the eighth term in prison. Orwa Zidan is presently serving third second prison term, as is Shaul Mograbi-Berger too. Uri Natan began his cycle with a first prison term on 28 September. All four are likely to be reimprisoned on their release.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in opinion 24/2003 on Israel came to the conclusion that the repeated imprisonment of conscientious objectors in Israel is arbitrary, and therefore it constitutes a violation of 14 par 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Israel is a signatory.
In addition, Israel does not recognise the human right to conscientious objection, contrary to article 18 of the ICCPR.
I therefore urge you to immediately release all imprisoned conscientious objectors. I urge you to respect human rights.
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