Tag: CODEPINK

Grandson of Holocaust survivors deported from Israel for volunteering

Saturday October 26

  • An Austrian citizen of Jewish origin and grandson of Holocaust survivors was banned yesterday from entering Israel on suspicion of volunteering in Palestine. After being interrogated, searched, and held for 6 hours at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport,  Edmond Sichrovsky, 23, was forcibly deported to Amman, Jordan.
  • It is not prohibited by Israeli law to volunteer in Palestine.
  • ISM calls on the governments of deported international volunteers to condemn the actions of the Israeli Occupation and apartheid regime.
Austrian citizen of Jewish origin Edmond Sichrovsky, who was banned and deported from Israel on suspicion of volunteering in Palestine on Friday, October 25.

The Austrian national Edmond Sichrovsky arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on October 24, Thursday, 7:45AM from Amman, Jordan. At immigrations and passport control, he was detained by Israeli authorities and questioned by two separate officers. His luggage was searched and he was forced to hand over his mobile phone to Israeli intelligence officers, who searched his private messages, chats, social media, phone contacts, photo gallery, and browsing history, as well as subjecting him to a body search. He was accused of volunteering in Palestine, which is not prohibited under Israeli law. Their claim was based on the finding of several missed calls on his phone from unsaved numbers registered in Palestine. Sichrovsky’s interrogator then informed him that he was banned from entering Israel and would be forcibly deported. Authorities demanded he admit to volunteering in Palestine and sign a document accepting his deportation due to “illegal immigration considerations”, which he refused to sign. After 6 hours in detention, he was released to the airport departure zone. After being forced to wait in the airport for almost 17 hours, he was deported to Amman, Jordan at 00:30 on October 25. Israeli authorities initially told him the deportation flight would be paid for by the Israeli government. After boarding, Sichrovsky was informed that he had to pay $500 USD for his own deportation flight, which he was forced against his will to board, or face legal action from the airline for unpaid fees.

Sichrovsky had previously volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), documenting and reporting on human rights abuses by Israeli forces in Occupied Palestine. He was violently assaulted in Wadi al-Hummus by officers from the notorious Israeli riot police unit Yassam while opposing demolitions of Palestinians’ homes. The 22-year-old is the grandson of Harry Sichrovsky, a renowned Austrian Jewish writer and journalist, and nephew of Peter Sichrovsky, two-time European Parliament member and former head of the far right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO).

Edmond Sichrovsky with broken glasses and a cut on the lip after he was repeatedly kicked in the face by Israeli riot police while non-violently resisting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Wadi al-Hummus on July 22.

Sichrovsky said: “Growing up, my grandparents being some of the only ones in their entire family to survive the Holocaust in Austria,’Never again’ is something I heard a lot and resonate strongly with. To me, ‘Never again’ isn’t just for Jews, it means never again should anyone in the world have to suffer because of their religion, race, or what they were born into. That’s why I came to volunteer in Palestine. Israel claims to be ‘a homeland for Jewish people around the world’, yet by banning and deporting me and other Jews with differing political opinions, they have shown that Israel is a home for Jews only if they don’t question or speak up about the government’s apartheid policies. My ban and deportation from Israel only confirms what I have seen again and again in Palestine: that the Israeli government will do anything to keep people from seeing its brutal Occupation, ethnic cleansing, and daily violations of Palestinians basic human rights.”

Sichrovsky also called on Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg to make a public statement on Israel’s detention and deportation of an Austrian citizen who had not violated any Israeli law. He called the Austrian embassy in Tel Aviv while being held in Ben Gurion airport, but was told that they “could not provide any assistance.”

An ISM spokesperson gave the following statement: “ISM strongly condemns the Israeli government’s banning and deportation of an international volunteer. By forbidding entry to its those with differing political views Israel is acting like the anti-democratic state it really is. Governments whose citizens have been banned must call out Israel on these blatant attempts to hide its crimes from the world. To not do so is to condone Israel’s abuse of human rights and silencing of those who speak about them.”

 

Note to journalists:

Israel controls all borders and entrance points (land, sea, and air) into Palestine, except a small land border between Gaza and Egypt, meaning virtually anyone intending to enter Palestine must enter through Israeli immigration authorities. Israel routinely bans and deports volunteers, activists, human rights observers, and academics suspected of anti-Occupation views or of activities in anti-Occupation or Palestinian organizations. Prominent Jews banned from Israel due to their political views include CODEPINK co-founder Ariel Gold, and American-Jewish academics Normal Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky.

In 2017, Israel passed a law permitting foreign nationals to be banned from Israel for calling for the boycott of Israel or Israeli illegal settlements. There is, however, no law prohibiting volunteering in Palestine or association with legal organizations active in Palestine.

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles.

 

Jews banned from Israel for political reasons:

Ariel Gold: https://mondoweiss.net/2018/07/deports-activist-supporting/

Noam Chomsky: https://www.haaretz.com/1.5121279

Norman Finkelstein: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/may/26/israelandthepalestinians.usa

 

Others banned from Israel for political reasons in 2019:

British activist Garry Spedding: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-denying-entry-to-left-wing-british-activist-for-second-time-since-2014-1.6844179

US Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-usa-ban/israel-will-not-let-u-s-congresswomen-visit-deputy-foreign-minister-idUSKCN1V51

 

For more details contact Edmond Sichrovsky at

Phone: +20 0127 983 4929

Email: edmond.sichrovsky@gmail.com

Or contact ISM at:

Phone: +44 7757 616902

Email: palreports@gmail.com

International solidarity and history in the making

28 June 2011 | Codepink, Medea Benjamin

Today we had a great international press conference. There were representatives from Greece, Sweden, France, Norway, Canada, Spain, Turkey and of course, the U.S. The room was packed with press and passengers; there was really a feeling that we are part of something historic.

Our US speakers were Ann Wright and Alice Walker, as well as Huwaida Araf, who was not representing the U.S. boat but the international flotilla.

Ann talked about the efforts of the Israeli government to stop our boat, the bogus complaint against us launched by the Israeli legal center. (This is the same center, by the way, that has been suing us, trying to get insurance companies not to insure and pushing satellite companies not to help us get wired on the boat.)

Alice Walker gave poignant comments about the fight against slavery in the US, and how people from other nations came to support that struggle. “My government has failed us, and is ignorant of our own history,” she said. “When black people were enslaved for 300 years, it took a lot of people from outside our community to help free us. This is a fine tradition–going to help people who need us anywhere on the planet. I look at you in the room; if we have salvation as humankind, it is in the room.”

Huwaida Araf spoke first as a lawyer, stating the reasons why the closure of Gaza is illegal. Then she spoke as a Palestinian, making it clear that the flotilla is not about humanitarian aid but it is to support Palestinians demand for liberation. She chided Hillary Clinton and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon for their criticisms of the flotilla.

A few other highlights: A representative from a Jewish group in Sweden said there are two kinds of Jews: those who reflect on the Holocaust and say ‘we will do everything not to let it happen to us again’ vs. those who say ‘we will not let it happen to anyone again.’ He received thunderous applause.

Henning Mankell, the famous Norwegian mystery writer spoke as well. Assuming there were Israeli agents in the room, he said, “If there is someone in this room who reports directly to the Israeli government, please note that there is no declaration of war here; what we represent is a declaration of peace. Try, for once, to tell the truth.”

A Native American representative from Canada talked about how the Canadian government had urged their delegation to send aid through the channels that Israel has established. “As an oppressed people, one of the things we have learned over many years,” he said, “it that you should never ask the oppressor for permission. And when you work in solitary with the oppressed, you should never work with the oppressor.”

Our U.S. delegation made signs during the conference that said, “Let Us Sail to Gaza.” After the press conference, we went outside and unfurled our enormous 40-foot “To Gaza With Love” banner. To the delight of the press, we also broke out into song. “I love the U.S. delegation,” a French journalist told me. “You have signs, you sing, you are very animated.” Indeed, with Kaleo accompanying us on the trumpet and Alice Walker joining us in song and dance, we gave a great performance.

Meanwhile, with rumors swirling wildly of boats being sabotaged and/or given orders not to leave the various Greek ports, we have no idea what boats will be able to meet up at sea with the French boat and the Irish boat that are already on their way to the international meeting point. We had inspectors on our boat today but no word yet from them about whether or not they found us “seaworthy”. We obviously have to take this a day at a time.

 

Jewish protester disrupts Netanyahu During Congressional Address

24 May 2011 | Move Over AIPAC

Rae Abileah is dragged to the floor after disrupting Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the US Congress.
Rae Abileah is dragged to the floor after disrupting Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress.

During the Joint Session of Congress while Prime Minister Netanyahu was speaking, Rae Abileah stood up from the gallery and shouted “Stop Israeli War Crimes.”

From the peace group CODEPINK, Rae is a 28 yr. old Jewish American of Israeli descent. She has traveled to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and witnessed firsthand the reality of occupation and oppression. “Prime Minister Netanyahu says that the 1967 borders are indefensible. But what is really indefensible is the occupation of land, the starvation of Gaza, the jailing of dissenters and the lack of equal rights in the alleged Israeli democracy. As a Jew and an American taxpayer, I can’t be silent when these crimes are being committed in my name and with my tax money.”

Ms. Abileah grew up on Half Moon Bay and presently lives in San Francisco. She was arrested and charged with disrupting Congress. Upon release, she can be reached at 415-994-1723.

This protest is part of the week-long series of actions, organized by CODEPINK as part of a coalition of groups gathered in Washington D.C. for a campaign named Move Over AIPAC. During Netanyahu’s speech to AIPAC yesterday, 5 individuals interrupted Netanyahu and were removed from the building (see: http://bit.ly/aipac2011).

Gaza’s border must be opened NOW

Pam Rasmussen | The Electronic Intifada

29 December 2009

Tell Egypt you stand in solidarity with Gaza – use this online form to send a letter to the Palestine Division at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo, and to the Egyptian Embassy in the US

Solidarity activists joined approximately a dozen hunger strikers in front of the journalists' syndicate in Cairo.
Riot police barricading protesters in Cairo.
Protesters occupying the grounds of the French embassy.

This time is clearly different.

I have traveled to Gaza twice this year, in groups ranging from 40 to 60 persons, and although there was a lot of behind-the-scenes work involved in “greasing the wheels” with the Egyptian authorities, we pretty much sailed in. CODEPINK (the group that organized both of my previous trips) developed a well-earned reputation for being able to pull just the right levers to open the doors to the isolated enclave of Gaza — even more so than George Galloway’s Viva Palestina convoy, which is typically allowed in for only 24 to 48 hours (versus our four days).

But too many months have gone by with no change in the crippling isolation of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt, and it was time to risk our privileged access to take our efforts to break the siege up a notch. Our numbers had to be massive enough to threaten the jailers’ growing complacence and broad enough to send the message that this is a global movement that won’t stop until the Palestinian people are given the freedom and justice they deserve. Thus, this time CODEPINK allied with a number of other organizations around the world, and the number of participants quickly ballooned to more than 1,300 from 43 countries. Likewise, while we have collected or purchased thousands of dollars’ worth of school supplies, winter clothing and electronic devices (such as computers — currently only available via the tunnels and thus too expensive for the average Palestinian in Gaza), our message is also unapologetically political: the borders must be opened, to everyone, all the time. NOW.

We have obviously accomplished our objective. The jailers have taken notice and are running scared. So scared that we not only have been denied entry into Gaza, we have been threatened with arrest and deportation if we so much as carry a sign or gather in groups of more than six. Our reservation with a facility in downtown Cairo for an orientation meeting for delegates was canceled at the government’s order, and requests to hold educational workshops instead were refused. In an even more audacious move that was aided and abetted by participants’ own governments, consulate representatives were called to a meeting and apparently instructed to warn their residents not to come. In Spain, that warning was echoed in a news release. In Canada, individuals registered for the march or who had participated in past delegations received emails from their embassies. In Portugal, one marcher was called on his personal cell phone!

As word spread of Egypt’s refusal to open Gaza’s doors — announcing its decision long after thousands of internationals had purchased expensive airline tickets and mere days before they began boarding their flights — supporters around the world inundated Egypt’s embassies with calls, emails and faxes in protest. Many came from legislators and other government officials, past and present. Egypt only backed further into its corner in response, using the aggressive tone of some of the calls and emails to ignore the overall theme: the injustice of the collective punishment imposed on Gaza’s nearly 1.5 million Palestinians and Egypt’s refusal to allow supporters to help.

As I write this, we are still being refused entry to Gaza, and even permission to travel to al-Arish and Rafah on the border. Thirty-eight of our marchers tried to get to al-Arish on their own, but 30 were then put under house arrest in their hotel and eight were detained at the bus station. Every peaceful vigil or protest we staged was met with an “iron wall” — and sometimes, by violence.

When the French contingent of about 450 persons asked for help from their embassy, and occupied the grounds of the building in protest when initial promises negotiated with the Egyptian government were reneged, they were surrounded by heavily-armed and helmeted riot police and refused permission to leave — even for food or to use a toilet. At the time of this writing, their “occupation” is going on 48 hours now.

Similar “sit-ins” have been or are being waged at the US, UK and Italian embassies (with more to come). At the US embassy, 30 Americans were detained within a circle of police for eight hours (at the direction of their own countrymen, by the way) before being released. The only small victory was an (ultimately frustrating and fruitless) meeting for three of the protesters with one of the embassy’s higher-level officials.

The same treatment was received when vigils were staged at the United Nations, the journalists’ syndicate (in support of about a dozen hunger-striking marchers) and the Kasr al-Nil Bridge over the Nile.

However, there are a few, bright silver linings to this dark cloud. Groups on the left of the sociopolitical spectrum are known for being far less cooperative and cohesive than their conservative, reactionary counterparts. It truly gladdened my heart, therefore, to see the immediate mobilization in our support by groups ranging from the War Resisters League to Jewish Voice for Peace.

Meanwhile, it’s a truism that controversy attracts media coverage. Our missions to Gaza have been ignored by the mainstream media in the past, but this time, Egypt’s defensive and angry response attracted the attention of such mainstream media pillars as the BBC, the Associated Press, Newsweek and The New York Times. I am a communications professional, and Egypt has violated a tenet of Public Relations 101: The more you protest, the guiltier you look.

All images by Pam Rasmussen.

Pam Rasmussen is a peace activist and communications professional from Maryland who recently received a Community Human Rights Award for her work on behalf of Palestinians from the UN Association of the National Capitol Area. She can be contacted at peacenut57 A T yahoo D O T com.

CODEPINK women for peace & the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement

Code Pink

23 September 2009

The Israeli assault on Gaza at the end of December 2008 and into January 2009 was a tipping point for many with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For CODEPINK it no longer felt possible to sit on the sidelines and do nothing while white phosphorous bombs rained down on the people of Gaza — bombs paid for by American tax dollars. CODEPINK led several humanitarian delegations to Gaza, in March and June of 2009, where we witnessed the devastating wake of Operation Cast Lead, and saw the debilitating effects of a two-year blockade on the people of the Gaza Strip. We also went to Israel where we met with Palestinians and Israelis who were working for a just peace for both their peoples, and who invited us to join their struggle.

Decades of a so-called “peace process” have only resulted in further dispossession and oppression of Palestinians, both inside Israel and in the Occupied Territories: home demolitions in East Jerusalem, settlement expansion in the West Bank, the Annexation wall separating Palestinians from their land and from each other, and the terrorizing of Gazan fishermen and West Bank farmers. What recourse do we have as concerned citizens, whose tax dollars are subsidizing a brutal occupation and whose government blocks any meaningful international response to Israel’s flouting of international law? We have at our disposal the non-violent tool of boycott, which was successfully used during the Civil Rights Movement here in the United States and against the Apartheid Regime of South Africa.

In June of 2009 CODEPINK launched its Stolen Beauty boycott campaign against the Israeli cosmetics manufacturer Ahava Dead Sea Laboratories. We chose Ahava because, although it labels its products as “made in Israel,” its main manufacturing plant is located in an illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank; and its practice of excavating mud from the shores of the Dead Sea in the Occupied West Bank for use in its products is against international law. The settlements in the West Bank—all of which are illegal under international law—are an impediment to a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

In September 2009, following the endorsement of CODEPINK’s Stolen Beauty Ahava boycott by the U.S. Campaign Against the Israeli Occupation, CODEPINK Women for Peace signed onto the official Palestinian Unified Call for Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions. In so doing, we join with hundreds of Palestinian civil society groups and many international organizations committed to pressuring Israel into adherence with international and human rights law.