Israeli forces assault and forcibly deport New Zealand peace activist once kidnapped in Iraq.

Harmeet Sooden. Picture taken in January 2005 on a farm outside Jenin where he was helping to plant olive trees.

Harmeet Sooden, a peace activist from New Zealand, was forcibly deported from Israel on the 18th of June at 1 am, after four days in jail. Sooden was told he was being deported because he was a ‘threat to the security of the State of Israel’. Sooden, along with Tom Fox, Norman Kember, and James Loney, was held in captivity for four months while working with the Christian Peacemaker’s Team (CPT) in Iraq.

“I am still reeling from this experience. It dredged up some old feelings. I told them honestly that I had come to revisit Yad Vashem, visit historic sites and volunteer for ISM. They never disclosed the official reason for denying me, the Ministry of Interior official told me that I was a ‘threat to the security of the State of Israel’,” Sooden said of his time in Israeli captivity.

When Sooden arrived early in the morning on June 14th he was immediately questioned by the authorities, who attempted to deport him the first time that night, without letting him talk to a lawyer. He resisted the first deportation and was transferred to “Unit 9”. Later they attempted to deport him again, assaulting him in the process and dragging him on to the plane. The pilot refused to fly and so he avoided the second deportation attempt. Sooden was later successfully deported with security officers aboard the plane, and will arrive in New Zealand at 2:15 pm on June 20th (Via Bangkok).

Sooden was targetted because of his past involvement with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Sooden was active previously in Nablus and Jenin with ISM and was part of a two week delegation to Iraq which turned into four months of captivity, during which one of his comrades, Tom Fox, was murdered.