Conscientious objection to military service in Israel:
an unrecognised human right
Report for the Human Rights Committee in relation to Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The procedures governing the hearing and deciding of cases of conscientious objectors are unfair and unknown (to the public).

(A violation of human rights.)

The imprisonment of (male) conscientious objectors is a violation of the human rights to conscientious objection, derived from art 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

(Some democracy.)

The legislation on exemption of religious women is based on Jewish tradition, which does not permit daughters either to stray from their father's authority or to live in a mixed-gender society. Military service by women would conflict with both these proscriptions, hence with the traditional religious way of life[17].

(Israel is a sexist theocracy.)

        •        At present the ongoing attempt to force conscientious objectors into betraying or changing their convictions by means of escalating the tactic of repeated imprisonment is of major concern. This is in breach of article 14, paragraph 7, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and contrary to Commission on Human Rights resolution 2002/45.

(Imprisonment of this kind is a tactic of a totalitarian regime.)



Jewish male scholars studying in a yeshiva (religious school) are granted exemption or automatic deferral until they are past military service age. There is an arrangement whereby they can study while in the armed forces. Druze male religious scholars too are exempt[10].

(Orthodox Judaism runs Israel.)