Shora Esamilan, ISM activist from Sweden, has arrived back in her country after being deported from Israel. She was forced onto a plane by five policemen, including two brought in specially from Austria. On her way onto the plane, the police beat her with batons.
Shora was brutally interrogated by the Israeli general security services (GSS, or Shabak in Hebrew) for over 10 hours on her arrival in Ben Gurion airport. Israel’s expulsion of hundreds of non-violent activists reflects the fear the Israeli authorities have of non-violent resistance in Palestine. Activists like Shora are deemed a ‘security threat’. It seems that being present in Palestinian villages and cities and attending non-violent demonstrations threatens this so-called ‘democracy’.
On Sunday, July 31st, Israeli, Palestinian and international peace activists will hold a vigil at the Ofer Military Base at 3 PM to protest the imprisonment of Abdullah Abu Rahme. Abdullah, a leader of the Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall has been in detention at Ofer Military Base since his arrest during a non-violent demonstration on Friday, July 15, 2005.
Last Tuesday, the military judge at Ofer prison camp decided to keep Abdullah Abu Rahme in jail until the end of the proceedings against him.
Abdullah was arrested on July 17th at a demonstration in his home village of Bil’in. Together with Akram Khatib he was charged with assaulting a police officer. Abdullah is well known to Israeli activists who have joined Bil’in’s inspiring and highly creative struggle against the wall. Many such activists were with Abdullah when he was arrested and can testify to his innocence. Even those who have never met Abdulla might remember his last arrest on trumped up charges which were so obviously false that the police’s own internal investigation unit is investigating the policeman who testified against him for giving false testimony.
The current charges are just as ridiculous and the same amount of evidence proving his innocence (including video, still photographs, dozens of witnesses etc.) was presented to the court. The prosecution has hardly made an effort to build a case; they don’t need to. When it comes to Palestinians, the slightest evidence or the least credible testimony can land them in jail for months.
Eight ISM Internationals from Canada, Sweden, and Spain, along with 5 Israeli activists joined in a spirited march with the villagers of Asira to protest military closures and demand free movement for Palestinians.
The demonstrators walked along Sabataash road (5km distance to Nablus) towards the 3 giant mounds of earth serving as the roadblock since the beginning of this Intifada. Five families live outside of this roadblock and are unable to reach their homes by vehicle. Israeli army jeeps regularly patrol the area and prevent people from accessing their land.
As the march walked over the roadblock, Israeli soldiers came down from the hilltops to stop the demonstrators. The villagers were told to return to their village immediately. International and Israeli activists began arguing with the soldiers about the so-called closed military zone, but were eventually pushed back. The soldiers took the ID from the Israeli activists for sometime.
The Commander engaged in a heated debate with the activists claiming that he had the duty to protect his family from the terrorists, and that he never killed innocent civilians. He also said that he had Palestinian friends who agreed with him and wanted to destroy Fateh. When questioned, he admitted that his so-called “friends” were employed by his family and cleaned his house.
As the demonstrators were pushed back, and the majority of residents returned to Asira, the Commander on site ran to get an elder Israeli activist from the crowd. The Commander is from the Ariel Settlement were Sharon visited last week. He warned the activist, “Don’t go with them, they are terrorists. You must come with us.” Although, the Israeli activist refused to go with the Commander, the soldiers forced him to join the other Israeli activists that had been stripped of their IDs again and detained. They were forced into the army jeeps waiting behind and taken away.
Asira residents are determined to break closure, and will be organizing actions in the upcoming weeks to continue the fight for their freedom.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT — The city of Hebron is dissected by a labyrinth of checkpoints that keep people isolated not only from elsewhere in the occupied Palestine, but often from the other end of town. On Saturday at 11:30 a.m., Hebron citizens plan to demonstrate against this limit on travel by marching to one of the internal checkpoints with Israeli and International activists.
While many cities in the West Bank are cordoned off at their borders, Hebron residents must wait hours just to get across town. For the last four years, the internal checkpoints have severely limited resident’s access to the most basic essentials such as school, medical treatment, and shops. Travelers are regularly subjected to searches and as male solders are the norm in the area, women are often not allowed to be searched by female soldiers.
Demonstrators will select one of the internal checkpoints to be protested against as a symbol of all limits on travel for Palestinians.
While that checkpoint is not being named until the march begins, participants are invited to begin gathering at 11 a.m. at the Bab
Al Zaweya town square. Being that Hebron is under a constant siege due to the round-the-clock military presence, a violent response is expected to this peaceful call for the freedom to move from one end of town to the other.
For more information, contact Esssa at 054-789-33-56 or 0599-340-549.
Swedish ISM-activist Shora Esmailian is currently being held at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. She arrived 15.00 yesterday and was interrogated for ten consecutive hours. A representative from the Israeli Defence Departement in charge of the interrogation demanded information from Esmailian about certain Palestinians. We do not know if Esmailian even has any information. Israeli authoroties appear to be blackmailing her for entry into the country. Apparently thousands of blackmailed Palestinian collaborators are not enough.
The Israeli government would now like to destroy the relationship between foreigners and Palestinians by creating suspicion. However, they cannot jail foreigners forever, nor can they torture them. So this policy will fail. Shora has refused to collaborate and was denied entry – without any stated reason. In spite of repeated requests, neither the Swedish General Consulate in Jerusalem nor the lawyer has been informed about the reasons for the apprehension.
For more information, please call ISM-Sweden media group: 0735-884609.
