Israel to deport U.S. peace activist arrested in raid

The Interior Ministry decided Saturday to deport an American peace activist from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) after she was arrested, along with an Australian colleague, during a raid Friday on the ISM offices in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour.

The women arrested were Christine Razowsky, 28, from Chicago, and Australian national Miranda Sissons, an employee of the New York-based human rights group Human Rights Watch, as well as Palestinian Fida Gharib, 22, a secretary for the organization, police said.

About 22 army jeeps surrounded the group's offices in the village of Beit Sahour, after which soldiers entered and confiscated six computers, said spokeswoman Laura Gordon.

Israel Police spokesman Gil Kleiman confirmed that two foreigners had been handed over to police custody and were being questioned for entering a restricted military area. He said that Razowsky was being deported on charges of illegally entering a restricted military zone.

Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said in a telephone interview from New York that Sissons was "making a routine visit to pick up some documentation" when she was arrested. Human Rights Watch is "calling for her immediate release," Mungoven said.

"The aim is to deport any foreigner who supports us," said George Rishmawi, a Palestinian official close to the ISM. "We consider these people to be international witnesses to the suffering of the Palestinian people."

Many activists, who come from Europe, Canada and the United States, belong to the ISM.

Their goal is to act as "human shields" for Palestinian individuals and houses during IDF incursions into Palestinian towns, and they have often been involved in confrontations with IDF soldiers. They also try to help Palestinians pass through IDF roadblocks.

Some two months ago, an American ISM activist, Rachel Corrie, was run over and killed by an IDF bulldozer in Gaza. Her colleagues accused the bulldozer driver of having run her over deliberately. The IDF denies the accusation and decided not to indict the driver. In two other recent cases, international activists have been seriously injured by IDF gunfire during confrontations in the territories.

The IDF charges that many of the self-proclaimed peace activists are "provocateurs" and "riot inciters" who deliberately interfere with the IDF's work, with the goal of blackening Israel's image. Army sources noted that in one case, they discovered a wanted terrorist being hidden by ISM activists in Jenin.

The sources said the activists received training overseas in how to deceive border control officials at Ben-Gurion International Airport in order to be allowed into the country.

Furthermore, both the army and the Foreign Ministry fear that additional foreign citizens might be killed or wounded by the IDF if the ISM's activities are allowed to continue.

Last week's bombing in Tel Aviv, which was committed by two men who entered Israel on British passports, added a new reason to the authorities' desire to clamp down on the foreign activists - fear that other terrorists from overseas might enter the country under the guise of peace activists.

U.K. slams demand for safety waiver for foreigners in GazaBritain on Friday condemned the decision to demand that all foreign nationals entering the Gaza Stip sign a waiver exempting Israel from any responsibility should they be killed or injured, a waiver that has hitherto been restricted to Israelis.

The waiver, which includes a promise not to disrupt military activities, is one of a series of measures implemented by Israel to crack down on the activities of foreign nationals in the Palestinian territories.

"We do not regard this as acceptable," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told Channel 4 TV News.

"Indeed, it is unacceptable because military forces have obligations, and if they are in occupied territories, as the Israeli forces are, under international law they have clear obligations, under international law as well as under domestic Israeli law and the rules of engagement, which cannot be waived in this way."

"So, this is a matter which I shall be taking up with the Israeli government, not least when I see Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom next week," he said.

The measures come at the end of a week in which Israel decided to crack down on foreign volunteers in the territories, after it became apparent that the two British men involved in the recent suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv pub had posed as volunteers while in the Strip.

"This comes as a result of recent events in which foreign nationals abused their status to carry out terror attacks," an IDF statement said.

IDF raids ISM offices in West BankAlso Friday, IDF troops raided the West Bank offices of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in Beit Sahour, confiscating computer disks and other equipment and arresting three people.

In a further move to control foreign activity in the territories, the IDF is to take over responsibility for the entry of foreign nationals into the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Friday.

According to the report, individuals who are not Israeli or Palestinian must request personal authorization to visit Gaza from the army, which has taken over all administrative procedures relating to entry to the Strip.

Amnesty International on Friday condemned the demand, saying that it was "categorically opposed to any attempt to get people to sign away their rights."

"The signing of 'waivers' does not absolve the Israeli army of its responsibility in any way, nor the Israeli authorities of their duties to ensure that armed froces respect human rights in all circumstances," said a statement on the human rights group's Web site.

The site also said that several of Amnesty delegates, who had refused to sign the waivers, were prevented from entering Gaza on Friday.

Israel has also decided to bar pro-Palestinian activists from entering the country and will try to expel at least some of the dozens of activists who are already here, according a plan drafted by the Israel Defense Forces and the foreign and defense ministries.

	IDF troops carrying out a raid on the ISM offices in the West Bank on Friday. (AP)