Four Internationals Arrested At Peace Camp
[ARRABONY, Jenin Region] Four international volunteers with the International Solidarity Movement were arrested today
while maintaining a presence at the peace camp set up by Arrabony villagers and the ISM to protest the confiscation of
Palestinian land for the Apartheid Wall. The four arrested are:
Tobias Karlsson from Sweden Tariq Loubani from Canada Bill Capowski from USA Fredrick Lind from Denmark
Full details are not yet known and none of the peace activists are answering their phones, however we just received the
following text message: "at Salem abused and beaten". This seems to indicate that the four are being held at the Salem
Military Base, north of Jenin.
Since the peace camp was set up on Monday, July 7, 2003, activists have faced threats and harassment from the Israeli
Military, from heavily armed security guards working for the Israeli company building that section of the Wall, and from
Israeli settlers. Activists have been threatened with violence, removal, and arrest. The response of international
activists was that they were there at the request of the people of the village, and didn't recognize Israeli military
authority over the area. On Monday, soldiers came to the area of the camp to photograph international activists and
local villagers and yesterday armed guards threatened to destroy the camp.
Despite the harassment there has been steady and enthusiastic support from the people of the village of Arrabony. Men,
women, and children have been a twenty-four-hour presence at the camp, and are coming every day in greater numbers.
Activities at the camp have included games and sports, music, and more.
For the past year the Israeli government has been building a massive wall that it claims is for purposes of "security".
The wall, however, is being built inside of the West Bank, destroying and confiscating from Palestinians their most
fertile agricultural grounds and de facto annexing into Israeli illegal settlements and valuable underground water
aquifers. Tens of thousands of Palestinian fruit and olive trees have already been destroyed and farmers are being
prevented from working on land that they've lived off of for decades. The Palestinian people have been marching and
protesting this land confiscation and destruction of livelihood but have been met with violence from the Israeli
authorities and silence from the international community. The Arrabony peace camp is one of 4 similar protest camps in
the West Bank.