Minister of Quebec. 6."LA PRESSE" 7."THE GAZETTE". 8."HOUR" 9."MAIL AND GLOBE" 10."LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE"
11."WASHINGTON POST" 12."CHICAGO TRIBUNE" 13."BERLINER ZEITUNG" 14."ZYCIE WARSZAWY" 15."TIMES" 16."THE
GUARDIAN" 17."DOUBLE STANDARDS" (AN INTERNET ON-LINE EDITION) 18. "EXCITE TALKS" (INTERNET) TO OTHER PLACES
AND ORGANIZATIONS
ДЕЛО МЕТЕЛЬНИЦКИХ:
FROM FAMILY METELNITSKY. MONTREAL, Desember, 1996.
To Amnesty International's London Office
Why WeTurn To Amnesty International?
1) Because our complains to Amnesty International from Israel played if not the main,a very important role during all the 2 immigration
hearings in our case. 2) Because indirectly or even directly (from a particular point of view) they insinuated that we must be punished for our
contacts with Amnesty International. 3) Because what happened during our immigration hearing here in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) is so
incredible and horrible that will encourage human right violations everywhere on a wider scale. 4) Because during the hearing the
immigration officer falsificated Amnesty International's (and other human rights organizations') documents and lied about them. 6)
Because if a family comes to a country (which accepts refugees under the Geneva Convention act) but faces abuses, ungrounded
accusations, threats, hatred and injustice within an immigration court room - that means a mayhem for the human rights, placing the very
basis of human rights in jeopardy. 7) Because we are absolutely certain (and we have presented undenieble evidences to the immigration
bord) that we are going to be beatten, abused or even killed if we will be turned back to Israel.
We came to Israel in 1990 ; as many other people we had a hope for a better life. As the most of Russian-speaking people we were
"welcomed" by a malicious anger, the state unti-Russian propaganda and the most severe discrimination. Our son was 15 when we came
to Israel. Each of us (including our son) was assaulted, abused, beaten, discriminated against.The ignorance of what is going on in Israel
with the Russian-speaking people can not make what we and our friends suffered from in Israel unreal. Batteries, assaults, abuses were
real and happened to us in real life. If my son could come to school and could hear a discussion about the last article in a Hebrew
newspaper, in which "Russians" were called sons of a bitch, prostitutes, fools and thieves: was it "unreal"? And the computer games in
Hebrew accompanied by songs with words like "Russians, go home":They were as real as the real life. And the social climate in Israel is so
horrible that if a child is beaten at school "because he's Russian" he is forced to feel guilty himself as if he's guilty in not being an Israeli
but being a Russian.
Any person with conciseness (a journalist, an immigration official, a human right organization official) could take a translator from Hebrew,
go to a library or to an archive and find articles in Hebrew newspapers which have highly aggressive untie-Russian contest. And what about
thousands of articles in Russian newspapers published in Israel about what can be called almost a genocide against "Russians"?
When they began to call my son to a draft board (because Israel has a compulsory military service) he asked an alternative military service
each time they called him: because he was afraid of hostility towards "Russians" within the Israeli army and also because of the rule that a
single son can not be taken into the front-line units against his will. They gave him no decision, but kept ordering him to came to the draft
point again and again. One day a new routine order to come to the draft point arrived. My son was ordered to come one day - but the order
have been sent one day later then the date of his appearance. A couple of other days past before he got the order. But as soon as he got
it he immediately went to the draft board.
When he came they have arrested him incriminating him a disobedience to the order to come. No excuse, no explanation were admitted.
Everything happened so fast that there is no doubt: they were prepared. So, they have submitted this order for him later then the date he
was called to intentionally. He was accused in a refusal to come to the draft board (the ignored his voluntarial arrival) and in avoiding the
military service. They have treated him like if he already was a soldier and flied from a military unit. He was also given a soldier's number as if
he was a soldier when in reality he never entered the army and never wearied a military uniform. When he admitted that he's going to
become mentally ill because of the military prison they refused to give him a Russian-speaking psychologist, and the Hebrew- speaking
psychologist couldn't speak with our son, but wrote a report based on ungrounded insinuations. When later a Russian-speaking
psychologist appeared he translated him that report but told that it is impossible now to dispute what the Israeli wrote.
When our son was in the military prison severe humiliations were committed over him. All the violations of the rules and of the moral norms
in his case were too innumerable to mention them. During his imprisonment our son was transformed from a healthy person to a mentally ill
boy. When he was released from the military prison (he was in the prison more then 3 months; no charges were posed against him, no court
took place) the military medical committee recognized him as a mentally ill person. When he was just imprisoned he was recognized as a
fully healthy person suitable to the military service.He received some treatment here, in Canada, and the immigration board know it. We did
everything we could to release our son from the military prison. But the civil lawyers refused to take his case as soon as they heard about
the conflict with the army. Some of them assaulted us refusing to take the case.We demanded a military lawyer but the military
commandature in Jaffo denied us a military lawyer. We turned to all the possible places like Israel Bar Association, human rights
organizations, Sharansky's Zionist Forum, Israel and foreign media, state officials: nobody couldn't or didn't want to help us. Then we
decided to send a letter to Amnesty International. A friend of us - a dissident and a journalist Lev G. - has contacted Amnesty International
and later submitted several faxes to them. When the authorities realized that we complained to Amnesty International they released our
son from the military prison.
We couldn't live in Israel any more after what happened to us and to our son there, and also because we were afraid that our son can be
arrested again if we will stay in Israel. The only reasonable solution for us was to escape. And the only way to do it was to become refugee
claimants. We flied to Montreal in November, 1994.
We have submitted all the documentary proof we had to support our claim to the immigration board (committee). We also sincerely
described what happened to us in our claim's atory without any distortion or exaggeration. But what happened to us in the immigration
courtroom and between and after our 2 hearings is just incredible...
Why We Think Our Human Rights Were Violated By the Court?
Inside The Courtroom:
1)Some of the main documentary proofs (statements, affidavits, letters, receipts, articles, ect.) were ignored as if they never existed.
2)Other extremely important documents were mentioned but were ignored (if not - they might be an obstacle to what the judges
incriminated us). 3) Other documents (including Amnesty International's confirmation of our complain) were mentioned as incomplete proof
of particular events, when in reality they were given to support other events. In the same time documents which relate to these events were
ignored. 4) The same way our words were ignored, too. For example, I was asked an insinuating question. My answer closed that question
by a clear and unbeatable conterargument. So, what then? Then the same insinuation was repeated - but this time in an affirmative form:
As if I said nothing. The same question could be given 2, 3, 5 times non-stop. If I gave the same answer again and again they shouted on
me, used threats, aggression, incredible accusations to force me to change my answer. It's clear that such a method violates moral and
legal norms - and any hesitation by a refugee claimant under such an illegal psychological pressure can not be taken into consideration. 5)
Too often they questioned us giving us no rights to response. They shuted us down replacing our eventual answer by their own - and later
based their conclusions not on our answers but on their own statement posing it as our - not their - words. 6) It was repeated again and
again that they doubt about our rights to appeal (for a refugee status) because our actions (when we were in Israel) weren't a good
solution. As examples of "good solutions" were mentioned: A demolition of our family, a criminal offense - and so on! 7) Several times the
bord members expressed their dissaproval by the norms of democracy or by my aproval of the democracy laws. It is absolutely clear that our
case was treated not according to Canadians laws but according to the rules and norms of Israel since - in the judges' eyes - we belong not
to Canadien but to Israeli jurisdiction. This position - neither being ordered to the bord or being the product of the board itself - made the
courtroom a part of Israel's territory. 8)The procedure of our immigration hearing wasn't an investigation in our case but a pure pro-Israel's
propaganda. It's goal wasn't to detect whether or not our claim for refugee status is justified but to defend the image of Israel as a "good"
country in an imprudent and abusing form. The depersonalization of our claim was done in an extreme form ignoring our personal history.
So the only criteria chosen to support the bord's point of view was the very fact that we came from Israel. But the only admissible attitude to
refugees is to base the decision on what happened to them personally, not on which country they flied. 9)The members of the board
expressed their detestation of the human rights defense and verbally denied (directly or indirectly) a number of recognized human rights.