Professors for a Strong Israel

Statement to the Press - 10 December 2003

Re: Human rights - for Jews too!

One doesn't have to endorse Noam Federman's views in order to protest against his lengthy administrative detention - with no trial, under cruel conditions that not only violate his rights as a citizen and human being, but that also endanger his health and his life. Professors for a Strong Israel declares that administrative detention of a citizen of the state is an act that has no place in a democracy. We have requested an urgent meeting with the defense minister in order to demand Noam Federman's release. If there is evidence against him, let him be tried in court.

And more on human rights: Professors for a Strong Israel rejects the various plans proposed for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the heart of the country. These suggestions violate all the Zionist, Jewish, democratic, and human values on which the state is based. We will raise this issue with the defense minister as well.

Today, International Human Rights Day, we demand that the "rightist" government on the one hand, and the various groups that speak of democracy and human rights on the other, remember that human rights are the property of all human beings - even Jews! Administrative detention without trial, ethnic cleansing of Jews from their homes, and the denial of the right of these Jews to live in anywhere in their homeland are denials of the human rights these bodies espouse.

Dr. Ron Breiman, Chairman of PSI
Tel: 050-518 940