IMPORTANTE APPELLO ISM A NABLUS

IMPORTANTISSIMO nell'attuale situazione di assedio della cittą vecchia di Nablus, Cisgiordania, le forze di occupazione israeliane hanno arrestato la 27enne susan barclay, attivista di lunga permanenza nella cittą, ed il consolato Usa, contattato da coordinatori dell'Ism ha eluso i propri obblighi disinteressandosi totalmente della sorte di Susan, attualmente detenuta presso il posto di polizia di Ariel. E' di assoluta urgenza che Susan possa restare a svolgere il suo lavoro a nablus, quale una dei pochi esperti coordinatori sul posto. Chi ha una conoscenza sufficiente dell'inglese chiami per favore il consolato americano a Tel Aviv insistendo perchč il caso venga seguito, qualificandosi pure come giornalisti o come media attivisti in grado di diffondere la notizia del disinteressamento dell'ambasciata. Il nr. č +972 3 519 7575, per favore č importante per l'attivitą dell'Ism a Nablus. Grazie a tutti

From: "International Solidarity Movement" <ism-alerts@p...>
Date: Thu Feb 20, 2003 9:49 am
Subject: Israeli Army Invades Old City of Nablus / Palestinian ISM Activist Detained and Beaten at Qalqilia Checkpoint
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palsolidarity/message/487

Israeli Army Invades Old City of Nablus

Nablus

At 2.30 yesterday morning Israeli soldiers, supported by tanks, stormed into several houses on the outskirts of the Ras al-EIn suburb, using them as firing positions and terrorising their occupants before moving onto new houses, in their rolling invasion of the suburb.

At 4 am they occupied the Jamal Abed el-Nasser School on the boundary Ras al-Ein and the Old City and immediately began turning it into a base by bringing in sandbags and provisions. Throughout the day the school was used as an interrogation centre for Palestinians who were rounded up in house to house searches.

The school is in a very old part of Nablus and adjoins some of the city's Roman era tunnels (Nablus is the world's second oldest city), which the Israelis claim have been used by wanted men to escape Israeli snatch squads. Throughout its fifty-five year war against Palestine the state of Israel has systematically destroyed buildings, historical sites and artifacts of cultural or historical significance to the Palestinian people and the people of Nablus fear that the Israelis will use this claim as an excuse to blow up the tunnels as part of this campaign.

By 7.45 the Israeli Army moved on from Ras al-Ein to begin its invasion of the Old City in the same systematic manner, with soldiers moving into houses and apartment buildings, which they used as snipers' posts, while tanks and armoured personnel carriers were stationed on the main streets and intersections. When the Army had consolidated their hold on the Old City, squads of soldiers then began systematic house to house and store to store searches. Because the ship-owners had immediately closed their stores and gone home when the invasion of the Old City commenced, the stores were shut and barred and so the soldier used explosives, machine gun fire and sledgehammers to force their way in before ransacking the stores.

The Army reported that they destroyed one bomb factory in the operation but the Old City is only a very small part of Nablus and ISM activists based in Nablus diligently searched every store that the soldiers had ransacked and found only ruined merchandise. This is consistent with the pattern of Israeli attacks on Nablus this past year where security objectives are often cited to disguise attacks on economic and cultural targets (when F-16 fighters bombed two historic soap factories last April the military claimed that they were bomb factories).

Throughout the day ISM activists worked with Palestinian UPMRC (first aid) volunteers to rescue the wounded and escort people back to their homes by shielding them from sniper and tank fire. At one point one of the UPMRC volunteers was taken hostage but released later.

In the morning, when a Palestinian ambulance driver and an independent international activist tried to reach the house of a pregnant woman who had gone into labour, they were fired upon the Israeli soldiers so that the ambulance driver was hit in the hand and the activist wounded in the leg by shrapnel (the ambulance driver was fluent in Hebrew and had announced his mission to the soldiers and was clearly identifiable by his uniform). They were then joined by six ISM activists (from Sweden, Ireland, Switzerland, the US and the UK), the woman's husband, a nurse and four UPMRC volunteers who returned with them to the alleyway in which the house was situated.

The ISM activists went in front protecting the Palestinians with their bodies. As soon as the four soldiers, who had previously fired upon the ambulance driver and the independent activist, saw them they aimed their M-16s at them and ordered them to go back. The party of unarmed Palestinians and international peace activists advanced slowly towards them as the four soldiers were joined by four others.

Step by step the group advanced down the alley as the soldiers' orders to stop became more and more menacing. One soldier aimed sighted his sniper rifle on them, illuminating them with its laser.

When they had advanced 50 metres down the alley and were only 30 metres from the soldiers the ambulance driver (who has survived many attacks by Israeli troops as part of his work) warned them to go no further or the soldiers would shoot them. At this point Anne and Susan (from the US and the UK), who had been at the front of the group, went slowly forward trying to calm the soldiers by explaining to them their mission.

When they got within ten metres the soldiers screamed at them to go back so Susan began to inch her way forward alone until the doctor, who had come alone by another route, came upon the soldiers from the rear.

After a few moments of confusion, the doctor was able to negotiate permission for the woman's husband to come forward to show the doctor the woman's house. When the man's came forward the soldiers made him take off his jacket and lift up his shirt before allowing him to show the doctor to the house from which they fetched his wife and 3 year old son to take them to the hospital.

Last night the Old City and Ras al-Ein are still occupied by Israeli troops who seem to have moved into stay. The ISM estimates that 7 houses and the Jamal Abed el-Nasser School are being occupied by soldiers. More than twenty stores and an unknown number of houses have been ransacked during the operation and one car crushed by a tank. Throughout the day explosions were heard throughout the old city. These are believed to due to the creation be "rat-holes", which the soldiers blast in the walls of adjoining houses when passing between them.

Nablus hospitals report that two people were killed (a fifteen year old boy and a 32 year old man) and 21 injured.

For further information contact:
Susan on: 059 877 091 or 055 829 680 or
Hussein on: 059 355 404.

www.palsolidarity.org

From: "International Solidarity Movement" <ism-alerts@p...>
Date: Fri Feb 21, 2003 12:03 am
Subject: NABLUS: Outrages Continue
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ismers/message/89

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

www.palsolidarity.org

From: "International Solidarity Movement" <ism-alerts@p...>
Date: Fri Feb 21, 2003 11:52 am
Subject: Nablus Update
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palsolidarity/message/490

Nablus Update

Roqaia Al Aladas was freed from her occupied house today at 11 am. Feedback from our supporters indicates that initially the Nablus DCO denied that she was being held in the house and that the ISM were spreading lies to discredit the Israeli Army. Later they claimed that they were unable to do anything about her case because the house was held by Unit 35, a special forces unit that didn't answer to the DCO.

Susan, the American activist arrested at Hawarra Checkpoint, is currently being detained at Hadera Police Station, north of Netanya. Robin has told me that as soon as Susan and he arrived at the checkpoint the Israeli Captain recognised her.

"Susan," he said to her. "You've been interfering in things you shouldn't have. I thought you were a nice girl. You're very famous now you know."

He then confiscated her passport and made a phone call.

When Susan tried to explain her visa situation to him he said: "This has nothing to do with your visa. We didn't even know about you visa."

The ISM have hired a lawyer to represent her but when he arrived at Arael Police Station last night, he was refused a hearing with her. His advice is that the police do not have a leg to stand on concerning both her imprisonment and threatened deportation and that this is purely a case of illegal police harassment. He is also confident that as soon as she has her case is heard (probably Sunday) it will be dismissed and she will be freed. Feedback I have received from ISM supporters in the US indicates that they are mobililising on her behalf.

Meanwhile, in Nablus the remaining ISM activists have divided into day-shift and night-shift groups. Their activities will continue to focus on the delivery of food and medicine, rescue of the wounded and monitoring the activities of Israeli soldiers.

They are currently taking part in a demonstration organised by the Political Coalition (an alliance of Nablus community organisations). The demonstration commenced at noon outside the El Haj Nimar Mosque on the outskirts of the Old City.

The Nablus ISMers also report that another young man was killed today by an Israeli sniper while crossing the road. He was killed crossing the same street that his father was killed crossing yesterday.

For further information contact:
Maria on 059 381 803 or
Tommy 059 373 180

www.palsolidarity.org

Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 23:52:52 +0200
From: "International Solidarity Movement" <ism-alerts@palsolidarity.org>
Subject: ISM Updates for 24 Februay 2003

[...]

Susan Barclay Deported "for security reasons"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palsolidarity/

Yesterday American ISM activist Susan Barclay, who has been held in the
Mikhal detention facility for women since Thursday night when she was
arrested at the Howarra military checkpoint outside of Nablus, was served a
deportation order ordering her to leave the country within 72 hours.

The order cited security as the reason for her deportation. It seems that
the Israeli government considers Susan a threat to Israel's security
because of her tireless work monitoring and reporting the Israeli Army
atrocities in and around Nablus and trying to relieve the suffering of the
Palestinian through non-violent direct action.

Since her arrest Susan has been denied access to visitors, including her
lawyer (although one Israeli supporter succeeded in bringing her clothes
and food yesterday by appealing to the guards) but tomorrow her lawyer
intends to talk to her briefly before her appeal to be released on bail
until her appeal against her deportation in heard. The appeal will be held
in private within the Mikhal detention facility at around 12 noon. No
supporters of Susan will be allowed to attend.

ISM supporters in the United States have done their best to lobby their
government to demand her release through appeals to the State Department
and direct phone calls to the US Consulate in Tel Aviv. They have reported
that they were put on hold for as long as twenty minutes, hung up on and
diverted to answering machines for passport applications. Recently, they
have also reported being told that information on Susan cannot be released
for the sake of her privacy. All of the mainstream American media stations
have shown no interest in covering Susan's incarceration.

Over the past weeks international volunteers working in Palestine have been
under increasing pressure from Israeli authorities. The pressure has
manifested itself in the form of threats, physical assault, passport
confiscation and the noting of passport and visa numbers at checkpoints.

=======================================
Michael
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour
Occupied Palestine
Phone: +972-2-2774602
Cell: +972-67-862 439
web: http://www.palsolidarity.org

www.palsolidarity.org

From: "International Solidarity Movement" <ism-alerts@palsolidarity.org>
Date: Tue Feb 25, 2003 7:31 pm
Subject: ISM Update of 25 February 2003
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/palsolidarity/message/495


[...]

Susan Barclay to be Released on Bail

This afternoon Susan Barclay was granted her appeal to be released on bail. A friend of her family is raising the bond of $15,000 for her release and has informed the ISM that he expects her to be released in the next 48 hours.

Susan was arrested at Howarra Checkpoint outside of Nablus last Thursday. She has been working as a human rights activists in Occupied Palestine for more than six months. The Ministry of the Interior has cited security as the reason for her arrest and impending deportation.

Susan has been given until March 10 to leave the country. The ISM is uncertain as to whether she intends to appeal against her deportation since we have been denied any contact with her since her arrest.


=======================================
Michael
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour
Occupied Palestine
Phone: +972-2-2774602
Cell: +972-67-862 439
web: http://www.palsolidarity.org

www.palsolidarity.org

6-SEATTLE WOMAN ARRESTED, THREATENED WITH DEPORTATION IN THE OCCUPIED
TERRITORIES OF ISRAEL/PALESTINE
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rapprochementpalestine/message/84

On Thursday, February 20, Seattle resident Susan Barclay, 26, was detained
and arrested at an Israeli checkpoint near the occupied Palestinian city of
Nablus. Susan was in custody over the weekend and has been served a
deportation order on "security grounds". She will try to appeal the order.
Since her arrest, Susan has been denied access to her lawyer.

Susan has been in Israel/Palestine for the past eight months. She is one of
many international volunteers working non-violently to shield Palestinian
civilians from some of the worst assaults by the Israeli military in their
repeated invasions of the Nablus area. International volunteers from
Sweden, Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, Denmark, the U.S. and elsewhere
have been working with first aid volunteers, escorting people escaping homes,
and visiting houses and buildings that have been ransacked or demolished by
the occupying Israeli forces.

Susan and a volunteer from South Africa were trying to pass through the
checkpoint outside Nablus on Thursday when they were stopped by Israeli
soldiers. According to the South African witness, a soldier said to Susan
"You're a troublemaker. You're not going anywhere." The soldiers then
confiscated her passport, which has a current legal visa in it, and detained
her.

According to local human-rights activist and lawyer Linda Bevis, "Susan's
arrest comes as part of a pattern of escalating Israeli military violence
against civilians. Over the past few weeks, non-violent internationals
trying to protect Palestinian civilians in both the West Bank and in the Gaza
Strip have been beaten, shot at with live ammunition, and repeatedly
threatened with violence by Israeli soldiers. The motive seems to be an
attempt to empty the Occupied Territories of international witnesses." Since
Susan has been denied access to her lawyer, Bevis is concerned that Susan may
be denied due process and a fair hearing. "Israel is an illegal occupier,
and so the arrest itself is of doubtful legality. Furthermore, it will be
hard to prove how nonviolent protection of Palestinian civilians is a
security threat to the Israeli state."

Susan grew up in California, Wisconsin, and Victoria, BC. She attended the
University of Notre Dame, where she graduated cum laude. She spent 27 months
with the Peace Corps in the West African country of Guinea. Susan lived in
Jerusalem in 1999, where she studied at both Hebrew University and Bethlehem
University. During that visit, she worked with the Center for Rapprochement
in Bethlehem which was sponsoring dialogues between Israelis and
Palestinians. She returned to Seattle and went back to the Occupied
Territories in the summer of 2002.

Michael Shaik, another international human-rights worker in the West Bank,
says "Susan is a woman of 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 International Solidarity Movement to End the Occupation as the
Israeli Army steps up the tempo of its terror campaign in the lead-up to the
next Gulf War . . . .”

Before she left Seattle in July 2002, Susan wrote in a letter to friends:
"The catastrophic proportions of the current situation, the daily horrors,
the continuing oppression, the ongoing military assault, and the stories
about sisters and moms, brothers and fathers in Bethlehem, Beit Sahour,
Jenin, Ramallah, and Beit Jala have truly become too much. I simply must take
a stand against these gross human rights violations and the extreme
injustice. Given the international community's lack of reaction and the
complicity of America, I think the presence of activists is more crucial than
ever. All my former concerns still exist but they seem so incredibly small in
comparison to that which is the deepest within me: the call to go, to lend my
ears, eyes, body, heart, spirit, and hope to those in desperate need, and to
be part of this struggle for justice, and for all of humanity."

www.palsolidarity.org

Di seguito testo in inglese dell'attuale situazione dopo il pagamento della cauzione; in sintesi l'attivista americana non viene rilasciata per l'appello presentato dal ministero dell'interno, che segue la vicenda con straordinaria attenzione
Ministry of the Interior Appeals Against Susan Barclay's Release

Today Susan Barclay telephoned the ISM Media Office from Mikhal Detention Centre, where she has been held by the Israeli authorities since her arrest at Howarra Checkpoint last Thursday. She informed me that the Israeli Ministry of the Interior had appealed against her release so she was not going to be free any time soon.

Despite her ordeal she said she was OK but would appreciate some books, phone cards and cigarettes (which the ISM has had delivered to her by an Israeli sympathiser).

I told her of all the messages I'd received enquiring as to how people could help her and asked her what she wanted her supporters do regarding legal representation, publicity and lobbying for her release and she said she intended to fight her deportation every step of the way, that she wanted to return to work in Nablus if at all possible and wanted those who expressed their support for her to raise as big a storm as possible, not for her sake but for the sake of the Free Palestine for which she was being imprisoned.

FAREBBE MEGLIO A TORNARSENE A CASA SUA E SMETTERLA DI ROMPERE PI COGLIONI IN GIRO PER IL MONDO.

SE č IN PRIGIONE QUALCOSA HA FATTO... NON č UN PAESE TIRANNICO CHE PUO' TENERLA IN PRIGIONE TANTO PER..
RICORDIAMOCI ANCHE SE MOLTI CONTINUANO A DIMENTICARLO VOLENTIERI CHE ISRAELE č UNA DEMOCRAZIA!!

SE č IN PRIGIONE QUALCOSA HA FATTO... NON č UN PAESE TIRANNICO CHE PUO' TENERLA IN PRIGIONE TANTO PER..
RICORDIAMOCI ANCHE SE MOLTI CONTINUANO A DIMENTICARLO VOLENTIERI CHE ISRAELE č UNA DEMOCRAZIA!!