Canadian citizen arrested by Israeli police; to be deported
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
October 15, 2003
For Immediate Release
HARASSMENT AND PROFILING
Canadian citizen arrested by Israeli police; to be deported
Mostafa Henaway, a 23-year-old student from Toronto, Canada was arrested by Israeli police this morning in the Israeli
town of Afula. Mostafa was subjected to interrogation by Israeli secret service all day and is currently being held in a
jail cell in Haifa, told he will be deported. A Canadian of Egyptian heritage, Mostafa was detained with two other
foreign nationals, UK citizen Claire M. and Swiss national Elsa S. while waiting for a cab in Afula. Claire and Elsa
were later released but Mostafa put under arrest because according to the arresting officer, he "looked like a beatnik."
Mostafa was amongst 11 internationals with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) detained by the Israeli military
police in the Palestinian village of Tora Shakir, Jenin, last night while spending the evening in the home of a
Palestinian farmer. The volunteers earlier in the day had joined a few dozen Palestinian farmers in setting up a peace
camp in front of the gate, part of Israel's Separation Wall, that locks the farmers of Tora Shakir out of their
farmland. The Israeli military forced the peace activists away from the tent and later police stormed the home of the
farmer, where ISM volunteers were being hosted. "The police arrived, storming towards the house in a violent manner;
they forced all the Palestinians into the house at gunpoint, yelling and knocking chairs over. Their commander put off
an air of violent insanity and we thought he was going to shoot some of the Palestinians" said volunteer Ben J.
The eleven internationals were marched in the dark at gunpoint to a military checkpoint where Mostafa was singled out
for violent treatment. At approximately 10:30PM the Israeli police left the international volunteers on the side of some
highway inside Israel, telling them to "find their own way", though took Mostafa and dropped him off in a separate
location. The group, unfamiliar with the area, caught a bus to the nearest Israeli city and spent the night in a public
park. In the morning, as they were waiting for a cab, Mostafa, Claire and Elsa were detained.
The ISM team in Jenin has been working with the farmers of Tora Shakir, a small Palestinian village besieged by
settlements, a constant army presence, and suffering from the effects of Israel's Separation Wall, which has usurped
much of the villages' farmland. Farmers are routinely denied entry to said lands, despite assurances by the Israeli
military for reasonable access to their ancestral olive and tobacco fields. Mostafa has been a volunteer with the ISM in
Jenin for the past three months and is a coordinator of the Olive Harvest Campaign. At home, Mostafa is a student at
York University and a longtime peace and justice organizer. According to his friend and colleague, Jennifer, "Mostafa is
the kindest, sweetest person I have ever worked with."
For more information, please contact:
In Palestine - Huwaida at +972-67-473-308 or the ISM Office at: +972-2-277-4602 In Toronto - Jennifer at 416-417-8962
END