In The Adam Keller Court Martial (officially "The Military Prosecutor vs. Reserve Corporal Adam Keller", or "Case 64/88") the Israeli reserve soldier turned peace activist Adam Keller was charged in April 1984 with writing, while on active military duty, gaffity on numerous tanks and other military vehicles - an act which the army considered "seditious" but which Keller and his supporters regarded as eminently justified morally.

Political Background and Significance

Since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six Day War, the fate of these territories has become the main issue on the political agenda, with those calling for retention of these territories under permanent Israeli rule and for Jewish settlement in them being considered "right-wing", and those calling for withdrawal from these territoires and recognition of a Palestinian statehood being defined as "left-wing". The issue had become so dominant in defining political identity in Israel that even a staunch supporter of free market economics might get considered "a leftist" if he or she is also strongly opposed to Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

This decades-long controversy, manifesting itself in countless speeches, articles, demonstrations and rallies, has on many occasions focused on a specific instance or incident. Especially, considerable public attention tends to focus on cases where activists on one side or another of the debate resort to civil disobedience - i.e., non-violent acts which are clearly illegal but which those who undertake them regard as morally justified and are ready to say so at the dock in a civil or military court of law.

The Adam Keller Court Martial of May 1988 is a significant such case, especially due to the particularly sensitive and tense situation at the time. It was just a few months after the outbreak of the First Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) in December 1987, whose intensity caught everybody (including, apparently, the Palestinians themselves) by surprise.

Israeli public opinion was at the time sharply polarized between those who were appalled by the brutal measures undertaken by the IDF in the Territories and who felt that the Palestinians were justified in seeking to gain their freedom, and those who regarded the uprising as a grave threat to Israel's security which had to be crushed at all costs.

It was this atmosphere which led Keller to undertake a radical rebellious act which he knew would lead him to spend time behind bars (and might have led to a far longer term than what he eventually underwent) and which caused various political figures and editorial writers to take diametrically opposed attitudes to Keller once his act became known to the general public.

Throughout the trial sessions in May, 1988 at the Southern Command Military Court of the Israeli Defence Forces, the case aroused considerable public and press attention, and the spectators' benches in the court building, at Kastina Camp in the Negev, were packed throughout the proceedings.

Charge Sheet==

Keller was apprehended on the afternoon of April 26, 1988 by officers of the Military Police Investiagtive Branch, who arrived at the militaty kitchen where Keller was at the time involved in fulfilling the duty assigned him by the military authorities (i.e., dish-washing). After a short interrogation he consented to sign a confession, or rather a statement in which he took pride in having indeed done all that was attributed to him and declared he would do it again if given the chance.

As specified in the charge sheet prepared by the Miltary Prosecution a week later, Keller was accused of Insubordination, under Article 48 of the Israeli Military Code, and of Spreading Propaganda Harmful to Military Discipline under Article 53 of the same, in that

<blockquote>(...)While being a soldier in the IDF, the accused did on two occasions - on the night between 11 and 12 April, 1988 and on the night between 12 and 13 April, 1988 - write on a total of 117 parked military vehicles (tanks, armoured personnel carriers, trucks and lifting forks) the following text: "Soldiers of the IDF! Refuse to be occupiers and oppressors, refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories!".</blockquote>

<blockquote>Further, the accused did place upon electricity pylons in the camp where he was stationed stickers bearing the text "Down with the Occupation!" and he also did place similar stickers on the inside doors of stalls in the Officers' Toilet at the same camp . Furthermore, the accused did take down his unit's Standing Orders from the billboard where they had been placed for the edification of his fellow-soldiers and did replace them with leaflets of the Progressive List for Peace [a left-wing political party at the time represented in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset] expressing "anger and protest" at "the systematic killing of Palestinian unarmed demonstrators" and calling for "the creation of an independent Palestinian state, side-by-side with Israel". In so doing, the accused did knowingly and intentionally commit Insubordination and seek to undermine Discipline and Good Order among the troops.</blockquote>

Appended to the charge sheet was an affidavit signed by Brigadier General Yitchak Chen, stating that Keller's act had "significantly damaged the morale of an entire IDF regiment which was in the process of being sent into the Gaza Strip at the time he had done his subversive deed".

It should be noted that the prosecution refrained from charging Keller with "Incitement to Mutiny", which carries a far heavier penalty than the charges enumerated.

==Keller's Defence

At court, Keller freely admitted to having performed all the acts enumerated in the charge sheet, but claimed that they constituted no criminal offence of any kind, but were rather praiseworthy acts which it had been his duty to undertake. Since what Keller termed "systematic, large-scale violations of the human rights of the Palestinian population under Israeli occupation" were being perpetrated by Israeli forces and constituted "a gross violation of Israel's treaty obligations as a signatory of Fourth Geneva Convention", it was "incumbent upon any Israeli citizen - and specifically, upon any IDF soldier - to do all in his or her power to prevent these human rights violations from taking place, including and especially trying to dissuade fellow-soldiers from taking part in such illegal and immoral acts". In his view, it was failure to oppose Injustice and the violation of International Law which was culpable and which should lead to prosecution.

To support his stance, Keller from quoted extensively from various philosophers and political thinkers, such as Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He also mentioned the acts of both actual historical figures and characters in novels and stories which he said inspired him to his act.

Citing Heinlein's "The Long Watch"

Specifically, he mentioned Lieutenant Johnny Dahlquist, hero of the story "The Long Watch" by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein - a military officer who destroys nuclear bombs rather than let them be used against innocent civilians, and dies in the act. (The president of the court, who never heard of the story (it was never translated into Hebrew, and science fiction in general is not so popular in Israel) asked Keller to elucidate. Keller recounted a synopsis of the story's plot and asked for it to be entered into the record of the court. Thereupon, the president said to Keller: "But you did not go that far yourself, did you?" and Keller answered: "No, sir, the occasion did not arise." (As it happened, this scene took place just a few days after Heinlein's death, of which Keller learned from a small news item in a newspaper which he read in prison.)

Verdict and Aftermath

The court eventually found Keller guilty and sentenced him to three months' imprisonment, plus six months suspended and a demotion from corporal to private. (Actually, the judges could have imposed a maximum of six years, three for each of the charges against him).

Subsequently, Keller was examined by a military psychiatrist who diagnosed him as "psychologically unfit for military service" and ordered his discharge from the IDF. Upon receiving the discharge order, Keller wrote letters to the Minister of Defence and IDF Chief-of-Staff, stating "If you choose to consider my conscience as insanity, I am proud to be crazy".

See Also

Refusal to serve in the Israeli military