International
Solidarity Movement
Exposing Terrorists Posing as "Peace Activists"
ISM
Chutzpa
By Judy Lash
Balint
Jerusalem----November
27.....International Solidarity Movement member Radhika Sainath
is getting ready to leave Israel in a few days. But before she goes
she's decided to slap Israel with a $4,000 lawsuit.
The tactics
of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and its supporters
get more bizarre and brazen every day.
On Thanksgiving
Day, Thursday, November 27, Sainath filed suit in Tel Aviv against
the State of Israel for alleged unlawful imprisonment, negligence
and breach of obligations. The $4,000 is for "mental trauma
and agony" she claims to have suffered at the hands of Israeli
authorities during her 30 hour detention.
The legal action
arises out of the arrest of Radhika and eight of her buddies when
they joined a group of Palestinian Arabs protesting the construction
of Israel's anti-terrorist wall last November near the Arab settlement
of Jayyous.
Sainath had
only recently arrived in the country on a tourist visa when she
was arrested. Since then, she's been in and out of Israel four times
as each three month tourist visa expires.
Sainath says
she suffered no particular harassment at Ben Gurion airport on any
of her re-entries after her arrest (try entering the US on a foreign
passport after you've spent time in a US jail).
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a loose confederation
of people brought together by a radical, anarchic agenda and a commitment
to "end the Israeli occupation." Many ISM members are
part of the anti-globalization movement visible at demonstrations
around the world.
The ISM first
gained publicity in 2001, when a Brooklyn-born Jewish student named
Adam Shapiro, joined forces with Huwaida Arraf, an American-born
Arab woman, to defend Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound.
ISMers routinely
get in the way of Israeli efforts to rout out terrorists. Rachel
Corrie, for instance, was protesting IDF action to find tunnels
in Rafah used to smuggle arms from Egypt when she stumbled off the
pile of rubble she was standing on and was killed by an Israeli
bulldozer working in the area.
For her trouble,
Yasser Arafat sent his condolences to Corrie's family. He informed
them that the Palestine Authority decided to grant her a posthumous
"Bethlehem Star 2000" medal for her dedication to the
cause of the Palestinian people. The medal is one of the highest
Palestinian honors and is bestowed on individuals who have carried
out "remarkable services for the Palestinian cause."
For ISMers like
Joe Smith, 21, from Kansas City, their protected status covers the
standard far-left guilt trip: "I saw ISM as a way that I could
directly use my white, Western, American male privilege to directly
serve underprivileged people of color," he says.
The ISM is in
fact a Palestinian-led movement founded by one Ghassan Aduni, formerly
leader of an outfit named Alternative Tourism-another effort at
bringing foreigners to Israel to expose them to the Arab point of
view. Once the tourism dried up, Aduni turned his attention to a
more activist program. According to the Palestinian weekly, the
Jerusalem Times (January 9, 2003), the ISM was also "spearheaded"
by Palestinian activist Mustafa Barghouti, brother of Marwan Barghouti,
tried by Israel for terrorist activities.
While the ISM
is portrayed in the US and Europe as an independent human rights
group, ISMers themselves openly state that the agenda is set by
local Arabs.
Sainath told
me that each ISM region has a Palestinian coordinator. "We
work closely with representatives from local Palestinian groups
who form a committee to help us plan what to do."
When they arrive
in Jerusalem, ISM activists are told to contact George Rashmawi,
an Arab liaison, who arranges for them to get to Beit Sahour for
training. Rashmawi has spent time at German universities studying
Marxism-Leninism.
One of the reasons
Israeli authorities had clamped down on the group earlier this year
is their deceptive method of entering the country. On the ISM website
(draped in a Palestinian flag) potential ISMers are told: "We
believe that it's less suspicious if you come through Israel (as
opposed to entering through Amman) but you have to have a really
good story about why you are coming and must not mention anything
about the ISM or knowing, liking or planning to visit Palestinians.
You must play it as though your visit to Israel is for other Israel-based
reasons, like tourism, religion or visiting an Israeli friend
"
Officially,
ISM claims to be non-violent: "We utilize nonviolent, direct-action
methods of resistance to confront and challenge illegal Israeli
occupation forces and policies," notes their mission statement.
But, they add,
"We recognize the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence
and occupation via legitimate armed struggle." In other words,
if our Palestinian colleagues want to blow themselves up and take
innocent people with them, we'll understand.
Sainath, an
Orange County, California resident and former union organizer, keeps
coming back here to get into trouble. On September 5 at Faroun,
Sainath and her comrades tried to shake down the gate in the anti-terror
fence. Last May she was arrested in Tulkarm for interfering with
Israeli Army pursuit of terrorists in the town.
In a May 11,
2003 Palestine Solidarity report of that incident, Sainath makes
wild unsubstantiated accusations against Israeli soldiers. They
"used a father and his small children as human shields,"
she relates. Sainath was threatened with deportation after that
arrest but Israeli attorney Shammai Leibowitz came to the rescue
and successfully prevented her from having to leave the country.
Leibowitz is
also handling Sainath's current suit against the Israeli government.
He, by the way, was the member of terrorist Marwan Barghouti's defense
team who likened his client to Moses and the Israeli State Prosecution
to Pharoah.
In an interview
last May, Sainath told me that one of her main goals was to help
people detained by the Israeli Army get through checkpoints. When
I asked how the ISM knew who they were enabling to pass through
the checkpoints, she looked stunned and said she didn't know. "In
Tulkarm people who are wanted by the army aren't going to attempt
to walk through a checkpoint. Anyway, it's not our job to check
to see if someone's carrying explosives or not."
Sainath says
her US passport was stolen here last year and she had to go to the
US embassy in Tel Aviv to get it renewed. "I encountered a
lot of difficulties because almost everyone who works there is an
Israeli-American. They're all Israelis with US passports. It didn't
seem like they'd be helpful..." To someone with her political
views, she implied.
Still, she did
get her passport and she did gain entry several times into Israel.
And she did spend by her own admission, more than ten months out
of the past year here in Israel trying to prevent Israel from carrying
out its anti-terror mission.
She's lucky
she got off with 30 hours in an Israeli jail.
It's bad enough
that Israeli authorities kept on letting her back in the country
to take part in activities that endanger all Israelis, let's hope
that the Israeli government doesn't now give her a farewell present
of $4,000 as well.
Judy
Lash Balint is a Jerusalem based writer and author of Jerusalem
Diaries: In Tense Times www.jerusalemdiaries.com
© Judy
Lash Balint. 2003
|
May. 5, 2003
Foreign 'peace
activists' had tea with Tel Aviv bombers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Foreign volunteers in the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity
Movement said Monday they had tea with two Britons later involved
in a Tel Aviv suicide bombing, but said they had no idea at the
time of the assailants' intentions.
One of the Britons, Asif Hanif, 21, blew himself up in a Tel Aviv
bar last week, killing a waitress and two musicians. The second
man, Omar Khan Sharif, 27, fled when his bomb failed to detonate
and remains at large. Both were British citizens.
Israel's defense minister said that in the wake of the bombing,
Israel would have to tighten checks on foreigners visiting Palestinian
territory.
On April 25, five days before the Tel Aviv bombing, Sharif and
Hanif toured the Gaza Strip, including the Rafah refugee camp. At
one point, they met with members of the International Solidarity
Movement, a pro-Palestinian group that sends volunteer to serve
as buffers between Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians.
The two Britons, along with 15 other people, came to an apartment
rented by the ISM in Rafah, said Raphael Cohen, an ISM member from
Britain. "Our group ... offered all of them tea," Cohen
told a news conference Monday.
Cohen said he asked the two Britons who they were and to which
organization they belonged. "They answered that they weren't
with any particular organization," said Cohen who described
the men as quiet. He said that among the visitors also were four
other Britons who wanted to establish a summer camp in Gaza.
After 15 minutes of drinking tea, the group attended a memorial
service for Rachel Corrie, an ISM volunteer crushed to death last
month as she stood in the path of an Israeli bulldozer to try to
prevent a house demolition in Rafah.
Cohen said the group spent only a few minutes at the spot where
Corrie was killed, and that the different groups then went their
separate ways.
Cohen said said that once he saw pictures of the bombers published
in the media he realized who they were. "I was shocked,"
he said.
Cohen said he has not been in touch with Israeli police.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz revealed that the
two British bombers entered Israel several weeks ago from Jordan
with the explosive devices hidden inside a copy of the Quran, the
Muslim holy book. They crossed to the West Bank and then to Israel.
Mofaz told the Cabinet that after entering Israel, the two moved
into the Gaza Strip for talks with local Palestinian militants.
Mofaz said that the two men apparently were recruited by a Syrian-based
terror group while they were studying Arabic in Damascus.
It was the first suicide attack carried out by a foreigner during
31 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
The ISM is a Palestinian-led group that says it aims to oppose
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip through nonviolent
means
An ISM spokeswoman, Huwaida Arraf, said that Hanif and Sharif never
had any other contact with the group and never attended the training
program all volunteers have to go through before being sent into
the Palestinian territories.
Arraf ridiculed suggestions that the bombers entered Israel by
posing as peace activists. "Doing so would have ensured that
they would have been turned away," she said referring to Israel's
policy of barring openly pro-Palestinians activists from entering
Israel. Dozens of activists have been deported.
In recent days, Israeli officials have said they intend to be even
stricter about letting these activists into the country.
"We are at a time of war and they are going into enemy territory,"
said Tova Ellinson a spokesperson for the Israeli Interior Ministry,
noting that this policy has been in effect for over a year and that
dozens of people have been deported "for breaking the law."
|
Jerusalem-----May 2......The
Israeli Government will begin to screen and possibly expel so called "pro-Palestinian
peace activists" who enter the country posing as tourists or "peace
activists" and then, within hours, support and work directly with Palestinian
terror organizations.
Israel Radio on Friday
quoted British news agencies as saying that the two terrorists involved
in the suicide bombing at the Mike's Place pub in Tel Aviv late
Tuesday night had entered Israel earlier in the day in a taxi that passed
through the Erez Crossing.
Both terrorists were
carrying valid British passports.
The two terrorists
had taken part in violent demonstrations carried out by so-called "peace
activists" in the Gaza Strip.
Most of the so-called
activists, who come from Europe, Canada and the United States, belong
to the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
Their objective is
to enter Israel posing as tourists when in fact they transform themselves
into terrorists and / or support and harbor Palestinian terrorist organizations.
The International Solidarity Movement states in it's website that it will
actually provide "training" to teach people how to enter Israel
illegally and then break Israeli laws.
According to a Reuters
News report: "These foreigners, for all their good intentions, end
up being used as cover for terrorism," one Israeli security source
said. "Our forces will now enjoy greater freedom to arrest them,
and the Interior Ministry will be instructed to expedite expulsion proceedings."
In the first sign
of the new crackdown, an ISM member was detained by Israeli troops in
the flash point southern Gaza Strip refugee camp Rafah Thursday. Military
sources said the woman activist was sleeping in a house suspected of concealing
a tunnel used by terrorists to smuggle arms from nearby Egypt. According
to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, she was questioned and released in Israel,
but barred from re-entering Gaza.
The ISM positions
foreigners as "human shields" around the West Bank and Gaza,
where the Israeli army is confronting a 31-month-old Palestinian uprising
for statehood. At least 2,035 Palestinians and 737 Israelis have died
in the fighting.
A suicide terror bombing
that killed three people on Tel Aviv Wednesday has placed added urgency
on the new policy, Israeli security sources said. British newspapers
reported that the bombers, both allegedly Britons, had entered Israel
pretending to be part of a foreign movement akin to the ISM.
"An added concern
now is that terrorists could try to enter Israel under the guise of being
a peace activist'," a source said.
According to the
security source, airport staff would step up scrutiny on arriving foreigners,
who are routinely questioned on their reasons for visiting. "We
are especially on the lookout for tourists with bogus cover stories,"
the source said.
*
TAKEN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT WEBSITE
Don't stand
by and watch BE AN ISM FREEDOM FIGHTER RESIST THE ISRAELI
OCCUPATION HERE IS WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT
- by Danielle
Smith and NYC ISM
Media
Training: Role-play thinking on your feet, powerful sound bites,
how to negotiate with reporters and editors, how to write to get
into press, etc..
Some actions
you might take part in:
- dismantling
earthen roadblocks
- observing
and intervening at checkpoints
- taking over
a checkpoint
- solidarity
visits to Palestinian homes
- wheat-pasting
a tank
- protesting
the Israeli take-over of the Orient House, and more.
- helping to
record testimonies of survivors of the invasion in Jenin Refugee
Camp and Nablus
- providing
ongoing medical assistance
- helping rebuild
homes and buildings bulldozed and blown up by the Israeli army
- speaking
to (live from Palestine) and writing about the situation
Mid-March
to end of April: Right to Education campaign
Training
dates:
Friday /
Saturday April 11/12
Tuesday/Wed April 15/16
Tuesday/Wed April 22/23
Before You Leave
FAQ
How To Get Here
Where to stay, expected expenses, training, more
Tips for Travelers on a Budget
Training Pack
Contact Goverment Officials
Donate Equipment to ISM
Donate Funds to ISM
Learn More & Share Your Knowledge
The International
Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian
and International activists working to raise awareness of the struggle
for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. We utilize
nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and
challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies.
As enshrined
in international law and UN resolutions, we
recognize the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and occupation
via legitimate armed struggle.
STEP 5: Training
Before you go.
When you get
to Palestine there will likely be a day or two of intensive
training and role-playing. However, ISM expects you to get at
least some
of the formal training described here:
1) Nonviolence
Training: Philosophy, History, Strategy, Role-Playing (a peace organization
in your community likely can provide this)
2) Media Training: Role-play thinking on your feet, powerful
soundbites,
how to negotiate with reporters and editors, how to write to get
into press,
etc..
3) Medical and Psychological Preparation: Going to a place
where American
F-16s and helicopters gunships are regularly used to bomb and terrorize
people means being prepared to face that terror. There may be a
doctor or
EMT in your area that is familiar with street-medic training or
basic
emergency functions to know. Also, talking with a psychologist before
and
after you go could be helpful in processing difficult stresses and
traumas.
4) Try to speak with someone who has been there. Our group can provide
some help with this and we can refer you to people possibly near
you who
have been there as well.
There are three
ways to come to Palestine -- via the Ben Gurion airport - Tel Aviv,
via Amman, Jordan or via Egypt. Many people are afraid to come via
Tel Aviv because Palestinian sympathizers are being denied entry
into the country.
We
believe that it's less suspicious if you come through Israel but
you have to have a really good story about why you are coming, and
must not mention anything about ISM or knowing, liking or planning
to visit Palestinians.
You must play it as though your visit is for other, Israel-based
reasons, like tourism, religion, visiting an Israeli friend, etc.
So do a little bit of research and put together a story that you'll
be able to answer questions about.
For example, if you say you are visiting a friend in Jerusalem,
you should have the name and phone number of a real Israeli person.
If you are coming for religious purposes, have a book or two on
religion and travel in Israel; have an itinerary, etc.
Once into the
country, you can find a shuttle to Jerusalem right outside the airport
doors, to the right. This is a service that waits until it fills
up (10 passengers) and then heads to Jerusalem for 40 Israeli Shekels
per person ($9) or if you are paying in dollars - $10. It'll drop
each person off where he/she wants to go in Jerusalem. You should
ask for Damascus Gate. Depending on which order youre dropped
off in, the ride to Jerusalem can take anywhere from 40 minutes
to over an hour. If you arrive in the middle of the night, you might
have to wait 1-2 hours for the shuttle to fill up. The other option
is to arrange for a Palestinian taxi driver through our logistics
coordinator. To do this, contact George at pcr@p-ol.com or call
+972-2-277-2018. This is a more expensive option. It will run you
approximately $50 for the whole car. It's a good option if there
are a few of you coming together.
5
PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS (Dec 2001)
Encounter
with Ben Gurion Airport
Getting
in and out the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv/Lydda can turn out
to be anything between an almost entertaining absurd theatre and
a most unpleasant experience. Below follows a small guide to the
encounter with the Airport Security Service, ASS.
The
Airport Security Service is an entity of its own and is not part
of the GSS (General Security Service), better know as Shin Beth.
GSS is around, but unless you become a special case,
youll just deal with the Airport Security Service. Though
ASS take their authority beyond the limit, they do have limited
rights and authority. A good thing to keep in mind.
Arrival
All
non-Israeli citizen must fill-in a visa formula upon arrival. Usually
its of little trouble getting through the security check at
the airport: A few basic questions at the booth and a few questions
by the ASS ten meters past the booth. Besides the line at the booth
everything normally take less than five minutes.
However,
the Airport Security Service may choose to go into a brief interrogation
asking you questions like: who invited you and do you have an invitation?
Where will you stay? Why did you choose to come now? Unless you
actually are invited by a partner organisation (ISM doesnt
count!) or have a home organisation to refer to, just say that youre
a tourist to visit the Holy Land. Do not enter any political discussion
or make any statements. Its not worth it.
It
is very unlikely, but ASS could try to refuse you entry and ask
you to take a plane back. If this happens you should refuse to leave
the airport and demand to be allowed entry. Then follows perhaps
a few hours of waiting and psychological game playing before theyll
let you in. It rarely happens that people actually do get sent back.
Departure
Contrary
to what you may expect, getting out is a completely different story
than getting in. Leaving is where things may get tough and unpleasant.
Where it takes five minutes to get in, it may take hours to get
out - odd as it may sound. But dont panic - youll make
it in the end! Most other countries do luggage and body scanning
and thats it for security. Israel has a procedure at the airport
that is 10 percent security and 90 percent bullying.
Always referred to as for you own personal security.
Briefly,
this is the scenario: One or two Airport Security Service personnel
will approach you asking for your ticket and passport. Then theyll
ask you a long range of questions, finally checking your luggage
by hand. You dont have to check-in, theyll do that,
and you go straight the transit area or gate.
The
scenario in detail: The ASS personnel will always try to be friendly
but reserved. They usually work in pairs, conferring with small
clusters of other security staff. Theyll take your passport
and ticket and will keep them until theyve done the check-in
or youre done with the interrogation and luggage check.
Then
theyll ask you the security questions: Whats your destination,
is the luggage all yours, who packed it, was it under your surveillance
after being packed, did you receive any items from anybody. And
thats about it for the security questions, now follows the
90 percent irrelevant questions: Why do you fly with this company
(e.g. BA or SAS), why do you (in the event) have a connected flight,
what did you pay for the ticket, why did you visit Israel these
days, if you have a co-operating organisation here why didnt
you just call them on the phone, how did you get to the airport,
who did you meet with and why
etc. The questions can be everything
from amusingly stupid to annoyingly offensive.
Before
entering the airport you should decide by yourself what level of
discussion you are prepared to enter. Boldly speaking: do you feel
the need to make statements if the going gets tough - or do you
feel just to play the game and go easy. Or something
in between.
By
playing the game, you are just a tourist, who stayed at a hotel,
who didnt meet with Palestinians, who didnt participate
in anything
etc. Doing this, your chances of getting through
the security check smoothly are higher - but never guaranteed.
ISM leaders
Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf
Peace activists or terrorists?
"The
Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics
-- both nonviolent and violent. But most importantly
it must develop a strategy involving both aspects... [W]e
accept that Palestinians have a right to resist with arms, as
they are an occupied people upon whom force and violence is
being used. The Geneva Conventions accept that armed resistance
is legitimate for an occupied people, and there is no doubt
that this right cannot be denied." - Adam
Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf |
By
making statements, you do not hide that you, for example, stayed
with Palestinian friends -- but you refuse to give their names.
(Please note! The Airport Security Service personnel have NO right,
whatsoever, to get personal informations about people living under
the Palestinian Authority.) Or you dont hide that youve
met with various anti-occupation organisations. The
tougher you get the tougher they get.
The
bottom line is: answer all their questions with personal information
as the ultimate limit. If you choose not to hide that you know Palestinians
privately and met with them, the ASS will certainly ask for their
personal information. When refusing this ASS will occasionally threaten
you and say that you wont reach your flight if you dont
cooperate. They may even bring a supervisor who yells at you that
theyll keep you if you dont behave. These are empty
threats; in the end youll win the power game and youll
catch your plane. Just stay calm and cool.
They
often swap teams so you get a new team of interrogation personnel
or theyll confer your information with each other and them
come back asking the same question again or asking for an in-depth
explanation.
After
the interrogation the luggage check comes. Dont get too optimistic
if they start by scanning your luggage - theyll hand-check
it anyway. The hand-check can be described as follows: All your
bags will be completely emptied, they will turn everything inside-out,
all electronic devices will taken aside for a special check (unless
you - against all odds - persuade them not to). So, within minutes
youll se you personal belongings spread all over the place!
Youll
be asked to explain what things are if its not clear to them, and
you may be asked to turn on your laptop to demonstrate that its
a working PC and not a bomb that goes off (yes!). Keep batteries
in your devices so they can see that it works as expected.
You
may expect that the Israeli Airport Security Service (ASS) is well
organised, well structured and with the big general view. But they
are not. Rather, they are disorganised and disordered - sometimes
with a strict procedure, sometimes behaving randomly (e.g. having
a bag searched twice by the same person). First they get started
checking your luggage, you should have one single focus: Get all
your belongings back in your bags safe and unbroken!
Donts
Do
NOT carry any private information about Palestinians youve
met or know. Business cards and names of people at upper level positions
at organisations are OK, but never any private address or phone
number. The ASS have no right, whatsoever, to get personal informations
about people living under the Palestinian Authority. Got new friends?
Write yourself an e-mail before you leave back home with names and
contact information and dispose your notes. And dont forget
to clean sweep your laptop or PDA.
Do
NOT carry any sensitive paper. At least not when leaving. If you
carry any paper or document you consider sensitive, one way or the
other, then send them by fax or mail.
Do
NOT accept personal harassment. The ASS personnel may do a body
search on you. This is done by a person of your own gender and behind
a curtain. This is by the book. However, from time to time it happens
that they ask you to undress naked for the body search. This is
not by the book; it is personal harassment and beyond their authority.
So, never accept to undress naked or to do anything else that violates
your personal integrity.
Do
NOT accept their offer to have personal items sent to you
later. It may happen that the Airport Security Service gets
extra suspicious about some of your personal items and expresses
the utmost need to do further security checks on the item (camera,
laptop, shaver etc.) and that they will send it to you when you
get back home. Never accept this: you may never see the item again
and if you do itll be broken.
Pro-Palestinian
terror or Pro-Peace?
Dos
Confirm
your ticket for departure whenever its an option.
Co-operate
and answer all the questions - theres no point in not answering
the question, however stupid they are. But do not ever go beyond
the limit of protecting personal information about Palestinians
or sensitive information about organizations.
Be
helpful when the ASS is searching your luggage - it they allow you
to. It is annoying and beyond reason to have your luggage hand checked,
but be helpful: this is your best chance of checking up on your
personal items and their future condition.
Keep
an eye on that ASS take away for extra check. They will try to take
all your electronic devices aside for a separate check. Try to persuade
them, if you can, not to take your most expensive or fragile items
out of your sight. Offer to demonstrate on location that your disc
player or camera are what they look like and not nuclear bombs.
Count
and test your devices when they return. If they broke your disc
player or laptop while checking, your only chance of complaining
and filing is while you're still at the airport. Make sure everything
works and has not been disassembled. And make sure that you dont
miss anything - the luggage check is chaotic and disorganized.
Help
packing your luggage - your chance for a second check on your belongings.
Stay
cool - and stick to your rights and personal limits. And youll
win the power game, eventually.
Time
for check-in
When
to be at the airport upon departure? Thats good question.
Youll be requested to be at the airport two-three hours before
departure. However, there seems to be a tendency that the Airport
Security Service take the time they have - if they have three hours
theyre likely to use three hours, if they have less it takes
less. An hour and a half before departure seems to be a good compromise.
Dont count on the duty-free at Ben Gurion: youll probably
be escorted by the ASS straight to the gate last minute, anyway.
|
The IDF states 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, Shadi Sukeya, being hidden
by ISM activists in Jenin. The sources said the activists received training
overseas (see above text taken from ISM website) in how to deceive border
control officials at Ben-Gurion International Airport in order to be allowed
into the country.
Furthermore, both
the IDF and the Foreign Ministry fear that additional foreign citizens
might be killed or wounded by the IDF if the ISM's "peaceful"
activities are allowed to continue.
Wednesday's terror
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, which was committed by two men who entered
Israel on British passports, provided clear evidence as to the clamp down
on the foreign "peace activists" - fear that other terrorists
from overseas might enter the country under the guise of peace activists.
Also exposed is the
myth that "Palestinians commit acts of terrorism and suicide bombings
out of desperation - they are impoverished - they have nothing to lose."
The two British terrorists were educated from comfortable financial environments
- they acted not out of desperation - but out of twisted ideology. And
let's not forget Yasser Arafat and his friends who own and operate the
Oasis Casino in Jericho, which takes in one million dollars a day - and
not one penny goes to the impoverished children living in a refugee camp
across the street. This money, as well as millions from the EU, wind up
in Swiss bank accounts. Where does Suha Arafat, the wife of Yassar Arafat
live and drink - Paris! Not very desperate...
Why were millions
of dollars spent on the purchasing of weapons that filled every inch of
space on the Karine-A terror ship - when this money could have fed thousands
of people, could have built infrastructure for a peaceful Palestinian
entity, could have been used to create bridges for peace - rather than
terrrorism, bloodshed and war?
The International Solidarity Movement - it's a great name for branding
- and as the ISM states themselves that it is a label which is very effective
with the international media as a "soundbyte" - but it is anything
but "peaceful".
Some of the weapons
captured on the Karine A - are Palestinians throwing stones?
IDF and Foreign Ministry
officials held another meeting on the subject this week and decided to
instruct border control officials at Ben-Gurion and the land crossings
with Egypt and Jordan to bar foreign activists from entering the country.
In addition, IDF officers who encounter such activists in closed military
areas will be ordered to arrest them, after which they will be deported.
On Thursday, the IDF
arrested a foreign "activist" during its search for arms smuggling
tunnels in the Gazan town of Rafah. Army sources said the woman was inside
a house that was slated for demolition. The woman was later released and
allowed to remain in the country, though she was barred from returning
to Gaza.
Recently, the IDF
discovered and arrested a member of the International Solidarity Movement
who was hiding an Islamic Jihad terrorist (wanted for planning and
executing several terror bomb attacks against Israeli civilians) in
Jenin.
Israel's war on terrorism
must be comprehensive and complete.
To allow foreigners to enter the country posing as tourists, peace activists
or being on a religious mission and then to witness these same people
bearing weapons or providing cover for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah
and other internationally recognized terror organization, is either neglect
or perversion of the first degree.
True "peace
activists" are concerned about establishing peace and security on
both sides of a conflict.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is not made up of Jesse Jackson's,
Jimmy Carter's or Bill Clinton's!
Their mission, as stated on their Website, is clear:
"to support the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and
occupation via legitimate armed struggle."
Palestinians terrorists
abuse their children.
Using kids as human shields in violent demonstrations and teaching them
to hate using extreme Islamic values.
In
a recent news release the International Solidarity Movement stated: "We
demand protection for Palestinian civilians and for internationals, a
moratorium on construction of the apartheid wall and its associated land
confiscations and home demolitions, and an end to the occupation."
Where is the call for the protection of Israeli civilians? You will
not find it.
The
International Solidarity Movement has never met with Israeli leaders or
visited one hospital where an Israeli terror victim is being treated for
losing their eyes, their arms or legs in a Palestinian terror attack!
The days of
allowing wolves wearing sheep's clothing into Israel are over.
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