Ariel Three Still Being Held Illegally

Ariel Three Still Being Held Illegally

Today, Israel's Supreme Court scheduled deportation hearings for the three ISM internationals, Frederick Lind from Denmark, Tariq Loubani from Canada and Tobias Karlsson from Sweden on October 7, 2003… three months after they were arrested.

Why would Israel even consider deporting peaceful internationals? They were sitting in a peace camp in Arrabonah in solidarity with Palestinian farmers. Why was this peaceful sit-down even necessary? Israel is busy building a 24-foot (8 meters) Apartheid Wall through the occupied territories of the West Bank and cutting off the land that has provided them with crops for years.

They now languish in the Ariel police station in the illegal settlement of Ariel near occupied Nablus. They have not been charged with breaking any law, but they have been charged as being a security threat to Israel just because they are members of the ISM.

Their treatment as internationals has been tough, but not nearly as terrible as it is for the thousands of Palestinians. Close to a thousand Palestinians are held in "administrative detention" and sit in detention camps with no charges against them, according to the human rights organization, B'tselem. These three peaceful men have a hearing at the District Court in Tel Aviv in front of Judge Gabriel Clean on July 24 at 9:00 am to determine if they can be let out on bail.

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