Jewish American peace activist jailed upon entry into Israel plans to resist deportation
K. Flo Razowsky, a Minneapolis, Minnesota resident and long-time peace activist, was jailed and denied entry into Israel
upon arrival of her flight today at Ben Gurion airport. Israeli authorities have said they will deport Ms. Razowsky on a
5:00 AM flight on Saturday. She plans to non-violently resist her deportation.
Ms. Razowsky, has spent 14 months in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories since August 2002 working with the
International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led nonviolent movement opposed to the Israeli occupation
Palestine. This would be Ms. Razowsky's third visit to the region as an international peace activist and independent
journalist.
In March 2004, Ms.Razowsky was arrested by the Israeli military while participating with Palestinians and Israelis in a
non-violent demonstration against the Wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land deep within the West Bank. The
construction of the Wall on Palestinian land was ruled a violation of international law by the International Court of
Justice, the world's highest legal body.
"As a Jewish woman raised with the religious education of Mitzvah (good deeds), it is my duty to participate in the
process towards peace between Israel and Palestine," Ms. Razowsky commented from her detention cell at Ben Gurion
airport just before her phone was taken from her. "Talk of peace cannot happen while one involved party is occupying the
other. I am here to voice the concern that the occupation needs to end before peace can even be thought about."
Despite repeated efforts to renew her visa last year, Israeli authorities have cited her yearlong stay in Israel in 2004
as illegal. Ms. Razowsky and her lawyer contest the grounds for deportation and plan to fight it in Israeli court.
ISM has documented more than 130 international activists who have been denied entry to Israel and the Occupied
Territories by Israeli authorities over the past three years. More than 70 international activists have been deported
during the same period. Most of these international activists were involved in peaceful protests against Israel's Wall.
Additionally, thousands of Palestinian, international and Israeli activists have been wounded by the Israeli military
while participating in nonviolent protests during the current intifada. Six Palestinians were killed during anti-wall
protests in the West Bank and two ISM activists, Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, were killed by the Israeli military in
Rafah in 2003. Last Monday, Israel's Supreme Court ordered that the army must reopen its investigation into the shooting
of American ISM activist Brian Avery.