- Title: MIDEAST: Israeli court releases pro-Palestinian foreigners
- Date: 9th February 2010
- Summary: BILIN, WEST BANK (FILE - AUGUST 4, 2006) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN AND INTERNATIONAL PEACE ACTIVISTS MARCHING DURING DEMONSTRATION AGAINST ISRAELI BUILT SEPARATION BARRIER, CHANTING AND HOLDING PALESTINIAN FLAGS ISRAELI SOLDIERS AND VEHICLES BEHIND BARBED WIRE / DEMONSTRATOR PULLING BARBED WIRE ISRAELI SOLDIERS THROWING TEAR GAS GRENADES AT DEMONSTRATORS WHO ARE RUNNING AWAY BILIN, WEST BANK (FILE - MAY 4, 2005) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ISRAELI SOLDIERS DRAGGING AWAY DEMONSTRATOR DURING ANTI BARRIER DEMONSTRATION VARIOUS OF PALESTINIAN YOUTHS HURLING ROCKS AT ISRAELI SOLDIERS MORE OF DEMONSTRATION
- Embargoed: 24th February 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Legal System,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA2O3WEK7RNPM06U5WTDFVANOE6
- Story Text: Israel's Supreme Court ordered two pro-Palestinian foreign activists released on bail on Monday (February 8), saying Israeli immigration officers overstepped their bounds by detaining them outside of Israel, in the West Bank.
The pair's lawyer described their arrest as part of a campaign by Israeli authorities to halt weekly demonstrations by Palestinians, left-wing Israelis and foreign activists against controversial West Bank barrier.
Israeli soldiers raided the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday (February 7) and detained Spaniard Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian Bridgette Chappell, handing them over to immigration officers overseen by Israel's Interior Ministry, for possible deportation.
Both women belong to the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which is at the forefront of anti-barrier demonstrations.
Palestinian authorities and the women's attorney called the entire operation illegal, arguing the military had no right to raid a city within an area designated by interim peace accords as being under Palestinian civil and security jurisdiction.
"They cannot arrest internationals in area A, Israel has no jurisdiction in area A and Ramallah. This arrest is completely illegal," Chappell told reporters outside the court room.
The activists' lawyer, Omer Schatz, said that the arrest was unlawful.
"We claim that the army didn't have any authority in Ramallah to arrest them and that the ministry of interior has no authority to re-arrest them also in the occupied territories. So therefore we asked the court not to cooperate with this unlawful behavior which is not the first time. The state claimed that it was a mistake. This is the sixth time, one month ago a czech citizen was kidnapped by immigration police from Ramallah," Schatz told reporters before the court ordered his clients freed on bail.
"Clearly", he said, "it's chasing after political activists and peace activists who try to support the Palestinian struggle, the non violent one, against the wall and against the occupation."
The Supreme Court ordered Marti and Chappell released, saying immigration officers -- authorised only to operate inside Israel -- had taken custody of the women from the military at a prison inside the West Bank.
The two activists were banned by the court from returning to the West Bank but were told they could file an official appeal against deportation from Israel, which controls the territory's borders.
Meanwile, in Ramallah, the coordinator for the Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, Jamal Juma, told Reuters that his movement's office was raided on Sunday night by Israeli troops.
"They started the campaign by arresting, and taking us to the investigation centers for many days. And now they raided the campaign's offices, confiscated our stuff , and hindered our work in order to terrify us as activists and popular resistance. It is obvious why they are doing this, it is because Israel is terrified and afraid from the expansion of the popular resistance," Juma told Reuters TV amidst broken furniture and computers.
An Israeli army spokesperson said the report was being checked.
Palestinian Government spokesperson Ghassan Khatib called for the international community to stop Israel's "illegal campaign of arresting and deporting."
"We think that this Israeli campaign is sending the wrong message to the Palestinian people and it's complicating the mission of the Palestinian Authority to to maintain law and order and to prevent Palestinian violent activities against the Israelis. That's why we think that it is important that the international community will interfere strongly in order to prevent Israel from its illegal campaign of arresting and deporting those peace activists," Khatib said.
Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war but has not formally annexed the area, which Palestinians hope to make part of a future state.
Protesters stage weekly demonstrations in various Palestinian villages against Israel's construction of West Bank walls and fences that have denied them access to their land.
Israel says the barrier, which the World Court has deemed illegal over its construction in occupied land, has stopped suicide bombers in the past and can be removed in the future if the security situation improves.
The Israeli authorities deported a leading ISM activist last month, the organisation said. Eva Novakova, from the Czech Republic, had also been arrested in Ramallah. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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