The court deemed that Yoni Ben Artzi, who has been sitting in jail for the past eight months for his refusal to serve, must appear in front a military court, Israeli official sources said.

The young man is a pacifist who asked to be exempted from his military duty and fall under the army's conscientious objector category.

But the army very rarely grants such dispensation, especially when it considers an Israeli citizen does not want to serve on political grounds.

Israelis are called to arms when they turn 18. Men serve for three years and women for 21 months, while ultra-Orthodox Jews are exempted on religious grounds.

Israeli Arabs are however barred from serving in the army.

The trial of five other refuseniks opened Tuesday.

The five men have already spent two to six months in jail, but unlike Ben Artzi, they only object to serving in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories and are asking to perform a civil service instead.

But only Israeli women can swap their military service for a civil one.

In a letter to the Israeli defence ministry, Hagai Matar, one of the five, wrote that the army is "an instrument of violence that contravenes human rights and international conventions."

Eighteen Israelis are currently serving month-long sentences in jail for refusing to serve in the army or in the Palestinian territories.

In December 2002, the London-based human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement condemning the army for its treatment of conscientious objectors.

SPACE.WIRE