JERUSALEM, September 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - More than 200 young Israelis called up for the (obligatory) national service said in a petition released Tuesday, September 17, 2002, that they would refuse to serve in an "army of occupation."

"We refuse to be soldiers in an army of occupation," the 213 young Jewish conscientious objectors said in the petition, a copy of which was received by Agence France-Presses (AFP).

The petition, signed by "secondary school students" was addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Education Minister Limor Livnat, a spokesman for the petitioners said.

The 213 petitioners accuse Israel of "committing war crimes and violating human rights" in the Palestinian territories, and back any form of refusal to do military service.

"Among us there are some who refuse to wear the uniform, others refuse to serve beyond the Green Line (separating Israel from the West Bank and Gaza Strip) and others will find different ways of refusing to serve the occupation," said the text.

On Wednesday, September 4, a group of Israeli soldiers refusing to serve in the Palestinian territories submitted an unprecedented petition to the Israeli Supreme Court arguing their objection is legal since the occupation by the army was itself "illegal".

In a statement issued before the case was filed at Israel's highest legal authority, the Ometz Lesarev ("Courage to Refuse" in Hebrew) group said their refusal "to serve in the occupied territories is legal and imperative, because the entire occupation has become illegal over the past two years."

The seven petitioners are headed by Lieutenant David Zonsheine and include another four officers. All of them served jail terms for refusing to serve in the territories.

Their petition, the first ever requesting that the Supreme Court rule on the legality of the occupation, also includes a detailed account of the army's activities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip based on reports by various organizations as well as testimonies by soldiers and officers.

"The Israeli occupation has over the past two years become a mechanism of collective punishment of the civilian population. The state of Israel abrogates its duties - as demanded by international and Israeli law - to take care of the Palestinian population living under occupation," the petition says.

The army reoccupied most of the West Bank since it launched Operation Determined Path on June 19, keeping at least 700,000 people under regular curfews and completely disrupting their lives.