Amnesty International Israel calls for the release of conscientious objector Natan Blanc

17 January 2013

Re: Prisoner of conscience Nathan Blanc

Dear Sir,

I am writing you about conscientious objector Nathan Blanc, who was first arrested on November 19th, 2012, due to his refusal to serve in the IDF, and has since served three terms of imprisonment.

Amnesty International considers Nathan Blanc to be a prisoner of conscience and considers partial or full objection to performing military service to be an act of conscience, since no alternative civilian service is offered to conscientious objectors in Israel. Every person has the right to refuse military service on grounds of conscience or belief (whether political or religious), without suffering legal, physical or administrative consequences.

I again beseech you to act to implement alternative civilian service for people choosing not to serve in the military on conscientious grounds. In addition, Israel should act to fully recognize conscientious objection to military service and avoid prosecuting and imprisoning such objectors.

Blanc's third term of imprisonment ends tomorrow, Friday, January 18th. I call on you to make sure that this would be the last term of imprisonment Blanc serves and to make sure Israel recognizes his right to refuse military service on conscientious and political-ideological grounds.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Ger
CEO of Amnesty International Israel

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To:
Ehud Barak,
Minister of Defence,
Ministry of Defence, Hakirya,
Tel-Aviv 64743

CC:
Dani Efroni, Military Attorney General
Gili Ben-Shaul, Commander of the Meitav Unit

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Thanks to Sergeiy for the translation.