TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – Four international volunteers were captured by the Israeli army during a protest in the Occupied Palestinian Territories on Friday. Two of the activists, which include one American and three British nationals, were kicked and choked by soldiers. A third sustained injuries to her arms while being arrested in the West Bank village of Kufr Qeddoum.
International peace activists Gordon Bennett (43), Eleanor Clayton (24), and Aimee McGovern (23) all of London, United Kingdom, and Lauren Siebert (37) of Iowa City, Iowa, United States are currently being held under house arrest in Tel Aviv, Israel. The international volunteers and two Palestinian men were arrested after Israeli soldiers invaded Kufr Qeddoum during a demonstration last week.
Police allege that the international activists and the Palestinian men, Majd Obeid (23) and Abdelateef Obeid (25), were throwing stones at the Israeli occupation soldiers during Friday’s demonstration. They also charged all six with being in a closed military zone.
“These charges are baseless,” said Bennett, who is one of those detained over the weekend. “I had a camera in one hand, a notebook in the other. What? Was I going to throw stones with my nose?”
Gordon and the other internationals were not indicted by the civilian court on Saturday. Instead, they were released to seven-day house arrest on Sunday after over forty-eight hours in Israeli custody. The two Palestinians are still in detention and are awaiting a hearing in a military court on Thursday.
“We were charged with the same things, using the same evidence,” Siebert said Tuesday. “But the Palestinian protesters are likely to spend twelve to twenty months in detention, whereas we will be free to go on Sunday.”
Currently, there are thirty two people from Kufr Qeddoum who are being held with or without charge by the Israeli military. Residents of the town, which lies two kilometers west of Nablus, have held weekly protests against the 12-year closure of the town’s eastern road since June of 2011.
All four of the international activists who were arrested Friday are volunteering with International Solidarity Movement, a ten year old Palestinian organization that works with people from all over the world to oppose Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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