Tag: Denial of Entry

Israeli “Justice”: Paul Larudee Denied Entry to Palestine by Israel

UPDATE, 19th of June: Judge Pilpel yesterday ruled that Paul will be denied entry. Paul has now left the country. There are now 15 days to file an appeal against the denial of entry. At this time, a decison on whether to do this or not has not been made.

Israeli friends who came to attend the court hearing Thursday of Paul Larudee, Ph.D., a 60-year-old piano tuner from California, were shocked at how the so-called trial transpired. After opening statements from both the defence and prosecution lawyers, Judge Pilpel requested a private conference in the judge’s chambers with secret service agents who presented her with “secret evidence” explaining why Paul should be denied entry to Israel.

Paul’s denial of entrance to Israel means denying Paul access to the occupied Palestinian territories where he was planning to support Palestinian nonviolent resistance with the ISM (the International Solidarity Movement) and has twenty engagements scheduled for tuning pianos. Israel continues to control all the border crossings in and out of the West Bank plus the only border crossing for use of internationals in and out of Gaza. Israel has denied entry to thousands of peace activists in the past three years and completely denies foreign nationals the right to visit Gaza.

To the dismay of Paul’s attorney, Gaby Lasky, Judge Pilpel came back from her session with the secret service saying that she thinks that there is no reason to discuss the other points brought up in the defence. The reason for Paul’s detention was not questioned nor presented to the public. This kind of “trial” is common in Israel’s military legal system, through which thousands of Palestinians have been sentenced to renewable periods of “administrative detention” based on secret charges that are, in turn, based on secret evidence.

It is inevitable that democratic values in the Israeli civil legal system, such as an individual’s right to defend himself in court, have been eroded under such a system. Democratic values cannot co-exist in an apartheid system. The Israeli civil court system cannot respect human rights as long as there is a parallel military legal system in which the human rights of Palestinians are disregarded.

Paul has been held in detention since the 4th of June. Judge Pilpel will give her decision on Sun June 18th at 8:00 AM

From his holding cell, Dr. Larudee made this statement,

“Am I a security threat to Israel?”

“Numerous ISM volunteers have been denied entry, for no more than the infamous ‘secret security’ reasons that no one is allowed to see. Case closed.

“What could the mysterious security reasons for my detention be? Perhaps there are clues. Let’s assume that it has something to do with my participation in the International Solidarity Movement, which practices nonviolent resistance against Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. First, let’s acknowledge that Israeli authorities are no fans of the ISM. We support Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the occupation on a regular basis. This may be against Israeli regulations, but that is the nature of nonviolent civil disobedience, and our actions have spared lives, both Israeli and Palestinian.

“Let me acknowledge that my treatment here is not onerous. The cells are as comfortable as one could reasonably expect in what is, in effect, a prison. The guards are courteous and make every effort to accommodate special needs. There are, however differences between my treatment and that of other detainees. I have been isolated from the rest of the population and am usually the only person in a single cell. Second, I am not permitted use of any mobile phone, while all others have this privilege. More than once, I have been told “not to talk to journalists.” Finally, I was not even permitted paper and pencil until a flood of calls and a visit from the US Consul managed to reverse that draconian condition. These restrictions point towards suppression of free speech and dissent as the real motivation, not security concerns.”

For more information, contact:

Neta Golan at the ISM Media Office: 02-297-1824
Attorney Gaby Lasky: 05444 18 988

Paul Larudee Finally Gets His Day in Court

UPDATE, 15th June, 4:30pm: According to Paul’s lawyer, the final decision will be heard at 8:30am on Sunday morning. More details to follow.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tomorrow morning at 11:30, Paul Larudee, the 60 year-old piano tuner and ISM peace activist will get a court hearing to decide whether or not the state of Israel will succeed in its efforts to deny his entry to Palestine. In the Tel Aviv district court (Weizman street 1), Judge Pilpel will hear the arguments from both sides and decide whether or not to deport him back to California.

Paul has been held in detention since the 4th of June. Paul’s reading and writing materials were confiscated by the Israeli authorities, but the latter were returned after consular and legal intervention. Only the representatives of the American consulate and his attorney are being allowed to speak with him. Unlike most other detainees in the same prison, he has not been allowed to use his cellular phone.

Paul Larudee, PhD, is one of those gifted people who can make a piano sing, and he was on his way to the occupied West Bank to tune pianos and to support Palestinian non-violent resistance to the Israeli Occupation.

Israeli attorney Gabi Lasky stated: “The policy of blacklisting a nonviolent peace activist as persona-non-grata, then denying them access to the Occupied Territories because of their nonviolent activities raises questions regarding Israel’s intentions to resolve the conflict through dialogue and nonviolent means”.

Support from anyone in the court room or outside would be much appreciated.

For more information call Paul’s lawyer:
Gabi Lasky: 0544 418 988

Al Jazeera: “Israel introduces new travel restrictions”

by Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank for Al Jazeera.net, Sunday 11 June 2006

Palestinian families have accused Israel of taking draconian measures, further restricting their freedom of movement.

According to Palestinian human rights organisations, the new restrictions involve barring Palestinians carrying foreign passports, including those married to a Palestinian spouse, from re-entering the West Bank after leaving for their adopted country of citizenship, even for a brief visit.

The new measures also affect long-time foreigners residing in the West Bank such as college professors, NGO employees, religious figures and naturalised spouses of Palestinian residents in the West Bank.

Adel Samara is a noted Palestinian economist residing in Ramallah. His American wife wants to go the US for a visit. However, because she is married to a Palestinian, she is worried that the Israeli authorities wouldn’t allow her to return to her family once she left the West Bank.

“I really dont know why they are doing this to us. I am sure there is a special think-tank in Israel specialised in devising and inventing creative ways to make us suffer,” said Samara.

Right to bar

Samara believes Israeli military authorities were targeting ordinary people, most of whom are not politicised and leading a normal lives with their families and friends.

“There are hundreds of cases. You see, I am barred from travelling abroad for so-called security reasons and my wife won’t be allowed to return to Ramallah if she left the West Bank even for a brief visit to Jordan next door.”


Even spouses of Palestinian residents are feeling the heat

Aljazeera.net tried repeatedly to get the Israeli army spokespersons to clarify policy with regard to foreigners staying in or wanting to enter the West Bank.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli interior ministry said Israel had the right to bar whoever it wanted from entering the “territories”.

She said: “Those wishing to enter must apply for a permit and their application could be either accepted or rejected.”

Academics targeted

According to sources at the Bir Zeit University (BZU) in the West Bank, Israeli measures are also targeting academics and lecturers working at Palestinian universities, whether foreigners or Palestinians carrying foreign passports.

At least two professors and an administration official at BZU have been barred from returning to the West Bank without any explanation.

One of the three is Sumaydi Abbas, who holds Swedish citizenship. Aljazeera.net could not locate Abbas, but Ghassan Andouni, public relations officer at BZU, said the Israeli military authorities refused to allow the Palestinian professor to return “because he didn’t have residency rights”.

“You see, they wouldn’t even give him a tourist visa to enter his own country, his own homeland. They view Palestine, including the West Bank, as Israeli territory and us as foreigners.”

Bahjat Tayyem, who holds US citizenship and teaches at the BZU political science department, was recently turned back at the Jordan border while trying to enter the West Bank at the Allenby Border crossing.

“I think Israel wants to effect a total siege on us, a total isolation. They are not content with physical isolation which this evil concrete wall embodies,” said Anduni.

Andouni accused the Israeli military administration of trying to “empty the West Bank of foreigners”, especially those working at NGOs as well as peace activists.

“They want to reduce our towns and villages to inaccessible detention camps and large open-air prisons until we succumb to their bullying or implode from within.”

Israeli authorities have also barred international peace activists which they consider sympathetic to the Palestinians from entering the West Bank.

Peace activists

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which brings to the West Bank peace activists from around the world to encourage Palestinians to adopt non-violent means in their struggle against the Israeli occupation, seems to have been blacklisted.

ISM activists have been for years holding peaceful demonstrations and sit-ins against Israeli repression of Palestinians, including the construction of the separation wall and the bulldozing of Palestinian groves and farms.

Some Israeli officials, especially within the foreign ministry, believe ISM activities have been instrumental in getting a British union of university teachers and a Canadian workers’ union to boycott Israel.


Activists of the ISM are thought to be in Israeli officials’ sights

Last week, Israeli interior ministry authorities at the Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv incarcerated Paul Larudee, an American peace activist, barring him from entering Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories.

According to Larudee’s lawyer, Gabi Lasky, the Israeli authorities gave no explanation why her client was incarcerated.

However, according to the Jerusalem Post, Larudee’s name appeared on a Shin Bet [Israel’s main domestic intelligence agency]-compiled blacklist of foreigners identifying with the Palestinian struggle.

Danger to state

The paper quoted unnamed Israeli security officials as saying that Larudee was an ISM leader who took part in anti-Israeli demonstrations during the Israeli army assault on the West Bank between 2002 and 2004.

“This person is a danger to the state. He is one of the ISM leaders who had been involved in anti-Israeli activities and therefore will not be allowed into the country,” the security official was quoted as saying.

Lasky said Larudee visited Israel and the occupied territories four times and had never been arrested. She dismissed the security official’s explanation as “dubious”.

“To blacklist non-violent peace activists as ‘person non grata’ raises questions regarding the sincerity of Israel’s intentions to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians through dialogue and non-violence,” an ISM statement given to Aljazeera.net said.

Help Free Paul Larudee!

Paul Larudee, piano tuner and non-violent activist, has been denied entry to Palestine by the Israeli authorities and is being held in detention at Ben Gurion Airport. Please take a few minutes to take action to free him!

Paul Larudee, a piano tuner from El Cerrito, California, is the lastest of over 13,000 people to be denied entry to Israel/Palestine in recent years. Like many others, Paul was not trying to visit Israel, but territories ostensibly controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Yet the Palestinians have no say in deciding whether he is allowed to visit their country, where he was scheduled to tune more than 20 pianos.

People concerned about the detention and exclusion of Paul Larudee by the Israeli authorities can take the following actions:

1. Write op-eds and letters to the editor in your local newspapers or any other media you have access to based on the Talking Points below.

TALKING POINTS:

1. WE ARE NOT ONLY DEMANDING PAUL BE ADMITTED; WE DEMAND THAT THE UNITED STATES AND ISRAEL BREAK THE SIEGE ON THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. Israel’s policy of denying entry to people who support Palestinian non-violent protest and report on the situation to the world is one aspect of a campaign to isolate the Palestinian people from the world. This campaign, which began long before the election of Hamas affiliated candidates to lead the Palestinian legislature, includes closing the only passage for goods into the Gaza Strip (it has been closed more than 50% of the time since the beginning of this year), building the Segregation Wall, frequent closures on the West Bank, and malicious prosecutions of Israeli activists who participate in Palestinian-led demonstrations (recently a judge ruled that an almost two-year prosecution of two Israeli anti-Wall activists was completely devoid of merit). Recent U.S. moves to strangle the Palestinian people economically to punish them for exercising their democratic rights have created what the UN Food Program and the World Health Organization call a humanitarian disaster. Because the official Israeli view receives much more widespread coverage in the U.S. media than reports reflecting the relaity of the impact these policies have on the lives of Palestinians, it is important that people like Paul be able to go and report the situation accurately, and show the Palestinian people that the world has not completely abandoned them.

2. PREVENTING PEOPLE WHO PLAN TO SUPPORT PALESTINIAN NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE FROM ENTERING THE COUNTRY IS INTENDED TO DEPRIVE THEM OF THEIR RIGHT TO RESIST OCCUPATION, WHICH IS ENSHRINED IN INTERNATIONAL LAW. There is no evidence to support the claim that Paul specifically or ISM in general participate in “violent” demonstrations. Rather, ISM has clearly and repeatedly stressed its commitment to non-violence. ISM requires non-violent direct action training of all participants, and Paul has participated in a number of these trainings. The only violence at the demonstration at which Paul was shot in 2002 came from the Israeli Army.

Paul’s desire to share his love of music and his skill as a piano tuner with people in the Occupied Territories demonstrates that his intent is to increase harmony in the area, not to support any form of violence.

3. OVER 15,000 PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DENIED ENTRY BY ISRAEL IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS. SOME EXAMPLES:

1. Kate Maynard, UK Human Rights Lawyer (May 2006)
2. Raeed Tayeh, Palestinian American former public affairs director for the Muslim American Society (May 2006)
3. Enayeh Adel Samara, US citizen, married to a Palestinian, owned business in Ramallah, two kids born in Jerusalem (May 2006)
4. Meri Calvelli, representative of the Italian development NGO Centro Regionale d’Intervento per la Cooperazione (CRIC) (November 2005)
5. Black Umfolosi, renowned Zimbabwe music group (July 2003)
6. Curtis Unger, Michael Goode, Kathleen Kern, US/Canadian Christian Peacemaker Team volunteers (2002)
7. Ahmed Bahaddou, Belgian Reuters cameraman (August 2002)
8. Eva Rinsten, Swedish lawyer coming to work with PCHR (June 2002)
9. Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation of 19 people, including 9 Muslim Americans and quite a few Jewish Americans (January 2001)
10. Cat Stevens, Pop Star (July 2000)

MANY OF THESE PEOPLE, LIKE PAUL, WERE NOT TRYING TO GO TO ISRAEL BUT TO SUPPOSEDLY PALESTINIAN CONTROLLED AREAS. The Palestinian people have the right to choose who can visit them. If Israel wants to be taken seriously about any plans to withdraw from the Occupied Territories, it cannot maintain control over Palestinian borders.

4. THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT CLAIMS IT IS EXCLUDING PAUL IN PART BECAUSE HE SLEPT IN HOMES OF FAMILIES OF PEOPLE WHO HAD CARRIED OUT ATTACKS AGAINST ISRAEL. ISM’s policy has been to provide accompaniment for families who are threatened with collective punishment by the Israeli forces because of acts committed by family members. This does not convey any support for attacks against civilians. Rather, it conveys support for international law, which considers collective punishment a war crime. In February 2005 Israeli defense minister Shaul Mofaz announced an end to the policy of punitive home demolitions, upon recommendation of a military panel. The Israeli human rights group Bt’selem had long campaigned for an end to the policy, which left at least 4240 people homeless.

5. IT IS NOT ONLY INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS WHO ARE BARRED FROM PALESTINE. MORE IMPORTANTLY, MILLIONS OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES LIVING ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE PREVENTED FROM RETURNING TO THEIR HOMELAND. The ongoing refusal of Israel to implement UN General Assembly Resolution 194, passed in December 1948, requiring “that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date” is one of the most serious obstacles to peace in the region.

Moreover, 1552 Palestinians were deported from their homeland by Israel between 1967 and 1992, when such deportations stopped. However, even after 1992 Palestinians have been deported to Gaza from their homes in the West Bank.

Once again, the right of the Palestinian people to control their borders, and to travel freely to, from and within their land, is an essential condition for peace.

2. Call your local Israeli Consulate (San Francisco Phone 415-844-7000, Fax 415-844-7555) to protest the exclusion of Paul and hundreds of other nonviolent activists, human rights lawyers and Palestinians wishing to visit their families.

3. Contribute to the NorCal ISM Legal Fund, which is paying for Paul’s appeal of his denial of entry. We need to raise at least $1,400 for his costs. Anything we raise over what is needed for Paul’s defense will go toward the defense of Palestinians or international activists arrested in nonviolent protest or other ISM volunteers denied entry. To find out how to contribute, see http://www.norcalism.org/contribution.htm.

Christmas in jail for peace campaigners

An Italian peace activist was hospitalized Thursday after refusing to be deported from Israel.

Italian, Vittorio Arrigoni, 34, was injured yesterday evening when Israeli authorities tried to deport him and two other detained UK residents,from South Africa and Ausralia, by force, according to Israeli lawyer Gaby Lasky. Lasky added that the authorities failed to notify her or the consulate of Vittorio’s injury and originally instructed their guards not to allow the three detainees to communicate with their attorney or concilate representatives.

Vittorio was returned yesterday to the detention centre at Tel Aviv airport. The three are being held after they were refused admission to Israel to attend a peace conference in Bethlehem. They will be spending their Christmas holidays in Israeli jail.

The three are experienced peace campaigners who were on their way to the “Celebrating Non-Violence” conference that starts on 27 December in Bethlehem. But when they tried to pass through Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on December 20, when the authorities detained them.

Only quick legal action by an Israeli lawyer prevented the three from being forcibly deported Thursday morning. They must now await the outcome of an appeal hearing, the date for which has yet to be set.

All three have worked previously as international observers in the Palestinian territories. All are members of Access for Peace in the Middle East, a pressure group that intends to challenge the criminalisation of peace workers and the deliberate isolation of Palestinians from international observation and assistance.

One of the detained activists, Robin Horsell, a UK-based South African who formerly campaigned against apartheid gave his reasons for fighting deportation: “Israel gives spurious grounds for deportation or refusal of entry. But the real reason is our support for human rights and justice. We hope this legal challenge sets a precedent that in future will allow international citizens full access to Palestinian lands.”

Many prominent peace campaigners support Access for Peace in the Middle East including Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Nonviolence International, European Jews for a Just Peace., Clare Short, George Monbiot, AngieZelter, and Jeremy Hardy.

For more information contact:
Attorney Gaby Lasky: 054 441 8988
Charlotte: +44 (0) 7768 305897, charlotte@ism-london.org

For details of the conference: http://www.celebratingnv.org
Access for Peace in the Middle East