January 2 2004:

A member of Sweden's parliament arrested as he took part in a protest against the construction of the West Bank separation fence, was released last night and was later to fly home, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said.

Green Party lawmaker Gustav Fridolin was one of four foreigners arrested Wednesday during a scuffle with troops at Budrus, a West Bank Village near the line with Israel southeast of Tel Aviv, where bulldozers are clearing ground for a scetion of a 750-kilometer barrier around the West Bank.

All four were slated for deportation.

Interior ministry spokeswoman, Tova Ellinson said Fridolin waived the usual three-day grace period to allow deportees an opportunity to appeal and would leave Israel voluntarily yesterday evening.

Fifteen people were lightly wounded yesterday during another demonstration against the separation fence, near Budrus north of Modi'in.

Most of the wounded were Palestinians and two of the injured were foreign peace activists, who were hit by rubber coated bullets.

The demonstrators were marching to protest the wounding of Israeli protestors and Swedish member of parliament Fridolin a day earlier.

Israeli peace activists said that after the march ended, some of the protestors threw stones at Israel Defense Forces troops, who then fired tear gas and rubber coated bullets at them.

The IDF imposed a curfew on the village and conducted house to house searches for the stone throwers.

Amos Harel and Arnon Regular