The heads of Zo Artzenu have been convicted of "sedition" in the Jerusalem District Court for their role in the movement's protest activities during the Rabin and Peres governments. We the undersigned declare that:

• When a government takes fateful decisions in despite of half the people;
• When a government blocks all the legitimate means of protest customary in a democratic society;
• When a government is responsible for grave violations of human rights;

Then citizens have the moral right, even the duty, to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience in the manner of Zo Artzenu.

We declare that we shared the views and participated in the activities of Zo Artzenu. Some of us helped organize those activities.

In the context of the criminal law, even the "Law Against Sedition," there is justification for individuals and for society as a whole to act in desperate situations so as to express their beliefs and their sense of justice.

The "Law Against Sedition" dates to the period of the British Mandate. It is foreign to the spirit of a free society.

We call for the defendants in the Zo Artzenu case to be pardoned before sentencing, so as to erase the stain on Israeli liberties that the very fact of their trial represents.

We call upon all to whom Israeli democracy and freedom is dear to join us in a campaign to repeal the Law Against Sedition.

The rights of protest and demonstration that we made use of in the particular circumstances described above legitimately belong to any group of citizens in the free and democratic State of Israel, regardless of their race, sex, national origin or political beliefs.

First signatories:

Prof. Ezra Zohar
Dr. Ron Breiman
Prof. Hefzibah Eyal
Prof. Arieh Zaritsky
Prof. Eli Pollak
Prof. Hillel Weiss
Dr. Yosef Dallin
Prof. Inna Dubrovskaia