4 May 2011 | Palestinian Solidarity Project
Earlier this week, a group of 12 Israeli women smuggled 8 Palestinian women and 4 children into Israel, in defiance of Israeli law. The trip was an act of civil disobedience intended to spark debate about Israel’s system of segregation that denies Palestinians access to most of historic Palestine. This was the 6th trip the group has organized in the past year.
The group assembled in the West Bank, split into several cars, and drove to Jaffa. All vehicles passed through the Israeli checkpoints unhindered. The group enjoyed a pleasant afternoon along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and in a nearby park before returning home. In the past 9 months over 100 women have been smuggled into Israel in this fashion, defying Israel’s discriminatory checkpoint system that allows Israelis to travel freely throughout almost all of historical Palestine, while denying Palestinians this same right.
All of the women engaging in this act civil disobedience risk jail time if caught. In the spring of 2010 the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel filed a complaint demanding that the attorney general prosecute the woman for smuggling illegal residents into Israel. To date no charges have been filed.