Court frees activists, raps West Bank crackdown

The High Court of Justice yesterday ordered two pro-Palestinian foreign activists to be freed on bail, and said immigration officers had overstepped their authority by arresting them in the West Bank.

Spain yesterday sent a sharp diplomatic note to Israel over the arrest of the Spanish peace activist and demanded that she be released without delay.

Spanish national Ariadna Jove Marti and Australian national Bridgette Chappelle were arrested on Sunday by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank town of El Bireh, near Ramallah.

The Israel Defense Forces said Marti and Chappelle were arrested for security reasons, but shortly after the arrest the army handed the women over to Israel's immigration police, which is under the supervision of the Interior Ministry.

The women's attorneys, Yiftach Cohen and Omer Shatz, submitted an urgent petitioned to the High Court demanding their release. They said that their clients did not require an Israeli visa in order to stay in the Palestinian Authority. In any case, under the Oslo Accords the IDF did not have authority to conduct civil arrests in Area A of the West Bank, which was under full Palestinian control.

Cohen and Shatz said the arrests were part of Israel's campaign to choke off the weekly demonstrations by Palestinians, left-wing Israelis and foreign activists against the separation barrier.

The immigration police officers told the activists they were to be deported because their tourist visas had expired and they were staying in Israeli illegally.

Both women belong to the International Solidarity Movement, which is at the forefront of demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier.

The state initially claimed that the immigration police took custody of Marti and Chappelle on Israeli territory. Representatives of the state admitted later that "a mistake had been made" and that the women had been handed over to immigration officers on Palestinian territory, where the officers have no authority.

The court freed the women on bail but forbade them to return to the West Bank. However, the justices said they could appeal their deportation from Israel, which controls the territory's borders.

The two were ordered to post NIS 3,000 bail each; the state had originally asked that bail be set at NIS 25,000.

Sunday's incident was the sixth time that Israeli immigration officers have arrested foreign activists beyond the Green Line. Israel recently deported a leading ISM activist before her petition could be heard by the High Court. Czech national Eva Navakova was arrested in Ramallah.

Earlier yesterday the Spanish consul visited Marti in custody and reported her arrest to Madrid.

Senior officials in the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation called the Israeli ambassador to Madrid, Rafi Shotz, demanding clarifications and that Israel "solve the matter without delay."

In view of the friendship between the states we expect Israel to release [Marti] without delay, the officials told Shotz.

Similar messages were relayed by the Spanish embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

"If she is forcibly deported from Israel it will cause problems," a Spanish diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

He said arresting a person on Palestinian territory for a civil offense is in violation of the interim agreements, which allow arrest only for a breach of security. If the problem was regarding the visa, then it had no bearing on security, he said.