The following information came from the Communist Party of Israel website. The YCL expresses its solidarity with Omar Saad, the Young Communist League of Israel & Communist Party of Israel and the Israeli & Palestinian people, and denounces Israel’s militaristic aggression in the Middle East. At the end of the article they have detailed a number of ways in which you can express your solidarity.
Omar Saad, a young communist 18 years old from Mghar, a village in the Galilee, arrived last week, to the Induction Base in Tel Hashomer where he declared his refusal to serve in the Israeli Army. Saad was sentenced for the sixth time to 20 days of imprisonment for his refusal, in the military prison No. 6 near Atlit. Civilian lawyers, including lawyers from Adalah and New Profile, were banned from visiting Saad and other objectors, during his incarcerations in military prisons. The army claims that civilian lawyers are not certified to enter military prisons. After we appealed to Adalah and the media exposure, the army authorities has set aside the order, and claimed it to be a “misunderstanding.”
Omar Saad is a young communist belonging to the Palestinian Arab Druze community. This community, in contrast to Arab society in large, was the target of a decision by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion in 1956 that forced them to serve in the Israeli army. Following this decision, mobilization orders were sent to all Druze citizens in deployment age. That decision was faced with serious resistance from the Druze community for many reasons. The main reasons were: refusing to fight against their own people and demanding to be treated just like the rest of the Palestinian Arab society in Israel.
After being sentenced for the sixth time, Omar issued a public statement, as follows: “To be honest, I did not expect better than that, an occupying authority that put on trial the Druze Sheikhs because of their visit to their holy sites in Syria, and prosecute members of the Arab Parliament for their political activities, and an occupying authority that kills youth with cold-blood, and detain women and children, cannot be respected or trusted.
I Omar Zahr Eldin Mohammad Saad declare again; I will not serve in the
Israeli military army, even if they arrest me sixty more times.”
In his refusal declaration, he wrote: “I refuse, because I am pacifist, and I hate any kind of violence, and I believe that the army institute is the top of physical and psychological violence, and since I received your order for making the checking procedures my life changed completely. I became very nervous and my thoughts were dispersed. I remembered thousands of hard images, and I could not imagine myself wearing the military uniform and participating in suppressing my Palestinian people, and fighting my Arab brothers. I reject enlisting to the Israeli army or to any other army, because of national and moral reasons. I hate oppression, and I reject occupation.”
His prison address is:
Omar Saad
Military ID 08143090
Military Prison No. 6
Military Postal Code 01860, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-4-9540580
Since the prison authorities often block mail from reaching imprisoned objectors, we also recommend you to send them your letters of support and encouragement via e-mail to: messages2prison@newprofile.org (hitting “reply all” to this message will send the message to the same address), and they will be printed out and delivered during visits.
Recommended actions
First of all, please circulate this message and the information contained in it as widely as possible, not only through e-mail, but also on websites, social networks, conventional media, by word of mouth, etc.
Other recommendations for action:
It is recommended to send letters of protest on the objectors’ behalf, preferably by fax, to:
Mr. Moshe Ya’alon,
Minister of Defence,
Ministry of Defence,
Hakirya,
Tel-Aviv 61909,
Israel.
E-mail: s…@mod.gov.il or pniot@mod.gov.il
Tel.: ++972-3-6975220
Fax: ++972-3-6962757
Copies of your letters can also be sent to the commander of the military prison at:
Commander of Military Prison No. 6,
Military Prison No. 6
Military Postal Code 01860, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-4-9540580
Another useful address for sending copies would be the Military Attorney General:
Danny Efroni,
Chief Military Attorney
Military postal code 9605, IDF
Israel
Fax: ++972-3-569-45-26
It would be especially useful to send your appeals to the Commander of the Induction Base in Tel Hashomer. It is this officer that ultimately decides whether an objector is to be exempted from military service or sent to another round in prison, and it is the same officer who is ultimately in charge of the military Conscience Committee:
Gil Ben Shaul,
Commander of Induction Base,
Meitav, Tel Hashomer
Military Postal Code 02718, IDF
Israel.
Fax: ++972-3-737-60-52
For those of you who live outside Israel, it would be very effective to send protests to your local Israeli embassy. You can find the address of your local embassy on the web.
