----- Original Message -----
From: "Amineh Ayyad" <amina@...>
To: "International Health" <ihp@...>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 10:22 AM
Subject: [palestinejustice] Susan from Seattle arrested in Nablus (fwd)


> Those who attended one of my presentations at the UW a week or so ago,
Susan, the young woman with short blond hair in my footage was shot at,
fortunately the bullet went through her hair and she is unharmed. Susan was
arrested in Nablus, Palestine for doing the non-violent and peaceful
activities you saw her doing in the clips I shared. She peacefully
negotiates passage of medical teams to patients who are under strict 24-hour
curfews. Internationals are being driven out of Palestine for a good/scary
reasons. Please help and act. Suggestions are below. Thanks. Amineh
Ayyad
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 00:42:33 -0800 (PST)
> From: Linda Bevis <lindabevis@...>
> To: palestinejustice@...
> Cc: Partners for Peace Michael <partnersforpeace@...>,
> Rapprochement Centre <pcr@...>, pcr
<rapprochement@...>,
> Ghassan Andoni <g_andoni@...>, Huwaida Arraf
<huwaidaa@...>,
> Deborah Barclay <deborah_barclay@...>
> Subject: [palestinejustice] Alert! yr help needed: Susan from Seattle
> arrested in Nablus
>
> 2/20/03 Action Alert
>
> Dear Friends of PSC,
>
> Background:
> Susan Barclay from Seattle has been volunteering with
> the International Solidarity Movement in Nablus for
> six months now. She has been doing nonviolent human
> rights work to protect Palestinians from the illegal,
> violent Israeli occupation. She has an Israeli visa
> with a certificate stating that her extension request
> is under consideration. On Thurs., Feb. 20, she was
> arrested while crossing a checkpoint near Nablus in
> the Occupied Territories; she was being completely
> nonviolent, and was committing no crime. The soldiers
> detained her until border police came and arrested
> her. We believe that Israeli officials are now trying
> to deport her. Her lawyer will be filing an injunction
> against her deportation with the Israeli High Court
> and a hearing will probably occur in the next few
> days. Susan is currently being held in Hadera, near
> Netanya, inside Israel. The American
> consulate/Embassy once again is following its
> consistent pattern of being extremely unhelpful to any
> American citizens doing humanitarian volunteer work in
> the Occupied Territories. Susan's arrest comes in
> the context of stepped up violence in Nablus on the
> part of the Israeli occupying army.
>
> Our concern right now is for Susan's well being and
> for her to be able to continue her work in the
> Occupied Territories. Our larger concern is always for
> the Palestinians under occupation. As more and more
> internationals are deported from the Territories,
> Palestinians will face graver human rights abuses by
> Israeli soldiers who believe that they can act with
> abandon if the "world" is not watching.
>
> Below, please find Actions Needed, contact info, the
> full description of Susan's arrest which we received
> from the ISM, and the full description of the
> increased assault on Nablus.
>
> Actions Needed:
> Please call/email your senators and congressional
> representatives, as well as the US Embassy, and make
> the following points:
> . Susan Barclay, a US citizen, is a nonviolent human
> rights volunteer and she has done nothing to warrant
> deportation.
> . Several Seattle residents have been with Susan in
> Nablus and are witnesses to the fact that she is
> nonviolent, works with nonviolent Palestinians, and
> does not take actions that should warrant deportation.
> (Contact Ed Mast, Linda Bevis 206 633-1086)
> . The Israeli army is violently occupying Palestinian
> land 36 years after the 1967 war; the occupation is
> illegal by virtue of its longevity and its human
> rights abuses, both of which contravene the 4th Geneva
> Conventions. Illegal occupiers have no legal standing
> to deport anyone from the Territories.
> . The American Embassy should be doing all it can to
> advocate for Susan, instead of being generally more
> unhelpful than any other country's embassy. (Several
> of us who have been guests of the Israeli prison
> system, can testify to the fact that the American
> Embassy tends to act more like a wing of the Israeli
> prosecutorial office, than as an advocate for US
> citizens.)
> . Susan has valid Israeli papers (visa extension under
> consideration). At the very least, Susan should not be
> deported until she has had a hearing in court.
> . The US Government/Embassy should lodge a formal
> complaint with the Israeli government, as S. Africa
> may do, about the treatment of its citizens.
> . The US government should support a UN international
> peacekeeping force in the Occupied Territories to
> protect Palestinians until the Israeli occupation
> ends. As long as the US government vetoes such
> actions, its citizens will feel morally bound to try
> to protect the Palestinians themselves.
> . Please investigate this situation and let me know
> what is happening and what your office is doing about
> it.
>
> Contact Info:
> Sen. Patty Murray: 206 553-5545; 1- 202 224 -2621;
> senator_murray@...
> Sen. Maria Cantwell: 206 220-6400; 1- 202 224-3441;
> Maria_Cantwell@...
> Rep. Jim McDermott: 206 553-7170; 202 225-3106
> Rep. Jay Inslee: 425 640 0233; 1-202 225-6311
> US Embassy in Tel Aviv: 011 972- 3 -519 -7575
> (and if you have any press contacts, please ask them
> to cover this story -- we'll be sending out a press
> release soon)
>
> Excerpt from original email received from the
> International Solidarity Movement telling of Susan's
> arrest:
>
> "....Tomorrow, the ISM is having a strategy meeting of
> its core activists in Beit Sahour. When its two
> representatives from Nablus were leaving for the
> meeting through the Huwarra Checkpoint, one of the
> soldiers stopped Susan (from the United
> States). "You're a trouble maker," he said to her
> before confiscating her passport. "You're not going
> anywhere." When the other activist, Robin (from South
> Africa), refused to leave without her, his passport
> was taken too and both were detained at the checkpoint
> until the border police arrived to arrest them. When
> Susan phoned through the news of their arrest I
> contacted the US consulate to inform them of her
> situation but they hung up on me. With some
> difficulty I was able to let the South African
> consulate know about Robin's situation and they are
> considering a lodging a formal protest to the Israeli
> government. When the border police arrived they took
> Susan and Robin to the police station at Arael
> Settlement and interrogated them both. After an hour
> Robin was released and taken to a bus stop at the
> settlement from where he intends to catch a bus to Tel
> Aviv. Susan is still in custody. She has been
> working as an ISM activist in Occupied Palestine for
> the past six months and had a certificate in her
> passport advising that her visa extension was under
> consideration. The police have told her that they
> have phoned the Ministry of the Interior and that her
> extension has been refused. The ISM have notified a
> lawyer who is lodging an injunction with Israel's
> supreme court against her deportation but the police
> seem intent on transporting her to Tel Aviv from where
> they hope to deport her. Susan is a woman of almost
> boundless energy and compassion and has been a pillar
> of strength to the activists who worked with her. She
> has displayed the most remarkable courage and
> resourcefulness and never lost her cool, even under
> the most trying of circumstances. Her deportation
> would be a heavy blow to the ISM as the Israeli Army
> steps up the tempo of its terror campaign in the lead
> up to the next Gulf War...."
>
> The whole email message (detailing the Israeli assault
> on Nablus as well as Susan's arrest):
> NABLUS: Outrages Continue Today in Nablus the Israeli
> Army continued its campaign of terror and vandalism
> against he Old City. All of the 12 the ISM activists
> based in the city (from Sweden, Switzerland,,
> Palestine, Ireland, South Africa, the UK, Denmark and
> the USA) were active around the city escorting people
> who were fleeing their homes to other parts of the
> city, working with Palestinian UPMRC (first aid)
> volunteers to rescue the injured, visiting houses and
> buildings that had been ransacked or demolished by the
> Israeli occupying army and following groups of Israeli
> soldiers who had taken Palestinians with them as human
> shields in their house to house terror campaign. With
> the coming of daylight the activists were also able to
> investigate an explosion they heard the previous
> night. When they did so they discovered that the
> Israelis had demolished an historic Turkish bath-house
> - part of Israel's ongoing campaign against the
> Palestinians' cultural and historical heritage.
> During the day two more demolitions were carried out.
> One of demolitions was of a goldsmith's store (where
> the soldiers found acid, which they concluded might be
> used in the manufacture of bombs). As they surveyed
> the Old City the activists discovered that throughout
> entire neighbourhoods there was not one house that had
> not been trashed and that many had "rat holes" blown
> through the walls.
>
> Several homes throughout the city were occupied by the
> invading troops including that of the long term
> Israeli peace activist, Neta Golan who is nine months
> pregnant and now has two of her Palestinian brothers
> in law being used as human shields by the Israeli
> occupiers. The two men are among seven Palestinians
> civilians who have been forced to march in front of a
> Israeli troops during their house to house searches.
> The weather throughout the West Bank has been cold and
> wet today. When the soldiers are conducting a house
> search or occupying a house the activists are made to
> stand outside. When the soldiers retired to Neta
> Golan's house for the evening the men were made to
> stand outside in the rain until 8.30 when the soldiers
> took them inside. No one has been able to contact
> them or gather any information on how the men are
> being treated.
>
> Tomorrow, the ISM is having a strategy meeting of its
> core activists in Beit Sahour. When its two
> representatives from Nablus were leaving for the
> meeting through the Huwarra Checkpoint, one of the
> soldiers stopped Susan (from the United
> States). "You're a trouble maker," he said to her
> before confiscating her passport. "You're not going
> anywhere." When the other activist, Robin (from South
> Africa), refused to leave without her, his passport
> was taken too and both were detained at the checkpoint
> until the border police arrived to arrest them. When
> Susan phoned through the news of their arrest I
> contacted the US consulate to inform them of her
> situation but they hung up on me. With some
> difficulty I was able to let the South African
> consulate know about Robin's situation and they are
> considering a lodging a formal protest to the Israeli
> government. When the border police arrived they took
> Susan and Robin to the police station at Arael
> Settlement and interrogated them both. After an hour
> Robin was released and taken to a bus stop at the
> settlement from where he intends to catch a bus to Tel
> Aviv. Susan is still in custody. She has been
> working as an ISM activist in Occupied Palestine for
> the past six months and had a certificate in her
> passport advising that her visa extension was under
> consideration. The police have told her that they
> have phoned the Ministry of the Interior and that her
> extension has been refused. The ISM have notified a
> lawyer who is lodging an injunction with Israel's
> supreme court against her deportation but the police
> seem intent on transporting her to Tel Aviv from where
> they hope to deport her. Susan is a woman of almost
> boundless energy and compassion and has been a pillar
> of strength to the activists who worked with her. She
> has displayed the most remarkable courage and
> resourcefulness and never lost her cool, even under
> the most trying of circumstances. Her deportation
> would be a heavy blow to the ISM as the Israeli Army
> steps up the tempo of its terror campaign in the lead
> up to the next Gulf War.
>
> I have just been on the phone with our activists in
> Nablus who have been working since nightfall to
> deliver food and baby formula to houses in the Old
> City and gathering together the wounded into places
> where the ambulances were able to collect them. At
> around 9 pm they received a call from the neighbours
> of an occupied house to report that a twenty four year
> old woman was being held alone in her house by Israeli
> soldiers. When the neighbours had tried to take her
> out of the house to the safety of their own homes the
> soldiers had refused to release her. When the
> activists arrived at the house they found a group of
> fireman whom the soldiers had detained and proceeded
> to negotiate with the soldiers for the release of the
> firemen and the woman. The soldiers denied that there
> was a woman in the house but eventually released the
> firemen. As they left the house the firemen said that
> they had seen a Palestinian woman in the house.
> According to her neighbours the woman's name is Roqaia
> Abu Aladas who is alone in the house because her
> mother is in hospital suffering from a long term heart
> condition and her father and brother have been taken
> away into detention. If you want to help free Roqaia
> you can phone the Nablus DCO on +972 2 5486 218 / 217
> or +972 2 5486 301 / 302 and demand her immediate
> release from the Abu Aladas House near Yasmina St of
> the Old City.
>
> If you want to help Susan continue her humanitarian
> work in Occupied Palestine over the coming months, you
> can contact the US consulate in Tel Aviv on +972
> 3 519 7575 and demand they do their job by
> intervening to ensure that Susan not be deported so
> that she can continue her humanitarian work in the
> Occupied Territories. For further information contact:
> * Hussein on 059 355 404 or
> * Maria on 059 381 803
>
> =======================================
> Michael
> ISM Media Coordinator
> Beit Sahour
> Occupied Palestine
> Phone: +972-2-277 4602
> Cell: +972-67-862 439
> web: http://www.palsolidarity.org
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________
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>


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