UPDATE - Israeli COs now in Civilian Jail - in separate cells, 7 prisoners in each cell built for 4 prisoners - so that some sleep on the floor. Held in the cells 23 hours out of each 24 hours.
On Sunday 24.2.04 the five conscientious objectors were transferred to the civilian prison service to serve the rest of their sentence. The army, in its determination to rid itself of the COs by passing them to the civilian service opened a campaign of harassment and witch-hunting that started at the Tuesday (17.2.04) hearing of the committee on prisoner transfers (from army to civilian jails). At this hearing Colonel Ochana, Deputy Commander of the Israeli military Police Corps, described the five as "well poisoners" . Had Colonel Ochana bothered to attend history classes he would have learned that the origin of the anti-Semitic expression "well poisoner" was in the middle ages during the period of the Black Death plague. At that time Jews were accused of spreading the plague as part of a "Jewish Conspiracy" by poisoning European water sources. On the grounds of these accusations tens of thousands of Jews were butchered or were burnt at the stake. Very few anti-Semites would dare to use such this expression today.
On the other hand, had Colonel Ochana learnt history he would not have been so eager to pursue the conscientious objectors as he did.
Have to run to pick Gali from the nursery now, so I'll have to comment some other time. In the meanwhile, see How You Can Help.
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