Imprisoned For Observing & Demonstrating
6th December 2004

The reason given for my arrest was 'being in a closed-military-zone', and it was for this reason the State of Israel wanted to deport me from the country - with the prospect of up to 10 years without the possibility of returning. But this was not the real reason. The real reason was I was an international observing and demonstrating against the construction of Israel's 'security barrier'- a more suitable name is the Annexation & Expansion Wall. The Wall is being built inside the Green Line (the internationally recognised border between the West Bank & Israel), on the Palestinian side; it is annexing & confiscating (stealing) thousands upon thousands of dunums of Palestinian land; and it is expanding the State of Israel in doing so.

The State of Israel does not want international observers being here; doing what we're doing, and seeing what we're seeing. It doesn't want the world to know about the real, on-the-ground consequences that this Wall is having on the local, indigenous Palestinian people unfortunate enough to be in its path – like the land confiscation, the house demolitions, the olive trees uprooted & Palestinian families being separated from each other. And it certainly doesn't want the Palestinian people to be supported in their peaceful, non-violent demonstrations against this Wall. A Wall which the International Court of Justice in The Hague has not only ruled illegal, but demanded it be taken down and compensation to be paid to those Palestinians who have been affected by it so far.

On Thursday, December 2nd, at the invitation of the residents of a village called Beit Ula, in the Hebron region of the West Bank, I went to demonstrate against the Wall, along with other international & Israeli activists. The village is set to loose 4,000 dunums of their farmland, in a country where agriculture is the main source of income. That is, of course, if the route of the Wall, so far given to the village by the Israeli army, is correct - the route has a habit of changing from week to week and it has been evident so far that the constructed route doesn't match with what has been shown to the Palestinian villages before construction.

The aim of the demonstration was to obstruct construction; through peaceful, non-violent means. As a member of the international community I felt obliged to take part to uphold the ruling of the International Court of Justice - a ruling that the State of Israel, and most of the international community for that matter, is ignoring. On Sunday, November 21st, the village had their first demonstration against the construction of the Wall on their land, without the support of international and Israeli activists. On that occasion they were met with a high level of aggression & violence from the Israeli military, resulting in 20 people being injured by live or rubber bullets - one critically who lost his kidney and spleen after being shot with a live bullet. One of the Palestinian villagers, during a meeting to plan their second demonstration, said that the Wall is not for security reasons, it is purely for the political reasons of the State of Israel. He went on to ask: why, if it is for security reasons, Israel is not building the Wall on the internationally recognised border between the West Bank & Israel - the Green Line. The village would still not like the idea of building a Wall between two peoples, he added, but it would be much easier for the village to accept that way, and they would not demonstrate against it.

As we marched towards the construction of the Wall on Thursday - 15 internationals, 10 Israeli activists and 50 residents of Beit Ula - we were met by a line of Israeli soldiers and Israeli Border Police, approx. 200m from the construction site. Despite the Israeli military's intention of not allowing us near the construction, the residents were not discouraged and the demonstration continued by walking past the military, the military then reformed their line in front of us and the demonstration would move past them again. This continued a number of times until the military announced that the area was a 'closed-military-zone' and they started to charge aggressively towards the demonstrators grabbing at random people and detaining them. Despite the aggression from the Israeli military the demonstration remained peaceful and non-violent at all times. The Israeli military often use (or, should I say, abuse) a 'closed-military-zone' as a tactic to suppress the rights of people to peacefully demonstrate. I have seldom seen a justifiable reason for announcing a 'closed-military-zone'. In a recent Israeli court case charges were dropped against Israeli activists who had been arrested for being in a ‘closed-military-zone’, this is proof enough that even the Israeli legal system does not accept the military’s abuse of this tactic.

At this point 2 Palestinian men, 1 Israeli activist and 2 international activists were detained. The 2 international activists were soon released, after they were interviewed by a TV cameraman who was present. I was also detained at this time - grabbed by 4 soldiers and dragged about 5m along the ground before the soldiers attempted to handcuff my hands behind my back with a plastic tie. I explained it was impossible to do this as I was lying on my back while 1 soldier had his boot on my chest and another was pinning me to the ground by gripping the back of my neck with his hand. I managed to get released this time though, after explaining that the 'closed-military-zone' had only been announced in Hebrew which I don’t understand.

The demonstration continued with the residents of the village praying on their land, after which we left the area that was 'closed' and attempted to get to the construction another way. Realising what we were doing, the Israeli military again formed a line in front of us and proceeded to charge aggressively at us, to grab demonstrators and detain us - it was then I was detained again. Despite explaining that we'd left the 'closed-military-zone' I wasn't so lucky to be released again. So I was taken to join the 3 remaining detainees. Fortunately, I wasn't injured or detained in the same fashion as I had been the first time. One of the Palestinian men who was detained wasn't so fortunate, he was badly injured to his right leg when he was detained - a fact that didn't gain him any improved treatment from the Israeli military during his detention.

We were detained there for a couple of hours - enough time for the Israeli military to continually verbally harass the Israeli activist and abuse the Palestinian men by bringing a dog over beside them (dogs are seen to be dirty animals in Islam, so this would have been very provocative to the Palestinian men). We were eventually brought to an Israeli police station in Hebron for our formal arrest and interrogation. The 2 Palestinian men and the Israeli activist were released that evening, and I was imprisoned to be brought to court the following morning (Friday) to have a deportation order placed on me.

Despite it being my legal right I was not given access to my lawyer during interrogation, and when she (my lawyer) phoned to get the details of my court hearing she was told that I had another lawyer - this, of course, was a blatant lie - they wanted to get rid of me as easily as possible, and didn't care that they were breaking their own laws.

At my court hearing on Friday morning I asked for it to be adjourned, so that my lawyer could be present, and the judge agreed to another hearing at 3pm on Sunday. So I had 3 days of Israeli jail to look forward to.

Similarly to my interrogation, I don't see it as important to describe my imprisonment. There are some entertaining stories of my 18-year-old, Israeli cell-mate, but that wasn't the biggest thing that struck me about those 3 days. The thing that struck me the most was the way I was treated in comparison to the Palestinian prisoners. One of the days while I was in the yard outside our jail for our one hour of fresh air per day, four Palestinian prisoners were being led by an Israeli soldier across the yard. When I say led, I don't mean that the Israeli soldier was just showing them the way. The four Palestinian prisoners were all blind-folded, and had their hands cuffed with plastic ties. The Israeli soldier was dragging the first Palestinian prisoner by the plastic tie which was cuffing his hands, and the other three Palestinian prisoners had to hold the back of the shirt of the prisoner in front to know where he was going. It was like watching a scene from Guantanamo Bay.

Watching the two Palestinian men who were detained with me, during our time together, gave me the first flavour of how differently my treatment, as an international, is compared to theres. I knew I would be released eventually, but those two men could have faced 'administrative detention'. This would mean 6 months in jail - without open trial and without a known charge - which could be extended by another 6 months, and another 6 months after that at the discretion of a military court; without a jury, where the defence lawyer may not even get to see the evidence the State of Israel holds against the defendant. Currently there are approx. 7,500 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails; mostly men, but also women and juveniles.

On Sunday I was brought from the Police Station, with my feet cuffed together with shackles. I was told that the case had been handed over to the Immigration Police and they would issue me with my deportation order, rather than the court. I was not allowed contact my lawyer, or my Embassy, to inform them of this - in true Israeli justice style! Immigration Police were waiting for a fax from Shappak (an Israeli Secret Service agency) to say that I was a danger to the security of the State of Israel. Fortunately, for me, the fax never arrived and they were left with no other option but to release me. For once, justice prevailed. The shackles were taken off my feet, my passport was returned, and I was free. Perhaps, for once, the State of Israel didn't want the bad media of deporting international non-violent demonstrators, which it has done so many times in the past.

On a personal level, I'd like to sincerely thank all those who supported me while I was in prison and for supporting the struggle against the unjustified deportation of international activists. For your messages of support; for the phone calls you made demanding my release. We cannot allow the State of Israel to deport us as they do. So, thank you all.

When I told the 18-year-old Israeli, that I shared the cell with, why I was in prison, he said, "We can't ghettoize people like that. We shouldn't separate two peoples with a Wall". If only his government shared his opinion.