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[17 Jun 2004,
Claiborne M. Clark]
To the US Embassy Staff in Tel Aviv, the capital of Israel:
I have been advised that an American citizen, Brooke
Atherton, was detained
by the Israeli government and was told that she would be
deported on the
next Alitalia flight from Ben-Gurion Airport, at 5:30 a.m.
local time,
today (Thursday). No reason was given for the deportation,
and her lawyer,
Yael Berga, was denied an injunction to allow Brooke to
remain in the
country pending a court hearing.
As you know, Palestine has no international airport and the
Israeli
government controls all access to Palestine. Israel's policy
of restricting
movement by people like Brooke violates international human
rights
standards. Worse still is their restriction of movement by
Palestinians in
their own land. But why was this peace loving American
woman detained?
Brooke Atherton was enrolled in an Arabic language course
being offered by
Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem, which is in occupied
Palestine, not in
Israel; however Israel is denying her permission to attend.
The Holy Land
Trust is a Palestinian organization that is dedicated to
peace, nonviolence
and understanding. In the absence of any official
explanation by Israel,
one can only speculate that the Israeli actions are aimed at
undermining
the educational initiatives of a peaceful Palestinian
organization, and at
preventing visitors from witnessing the repression and
killing being
carried out by the Israeli military in Palestinian areas.
More than 10,000
visitors have been denied entry to Israel since January,
2001.
Dispite Israel's government's attempts to hide the extent of
its misdeeds,
and dispite the near silence of the US government/media on
these
violations, the word is getting out.
Brooke deserves very strong embassy support. I needn't point
out to you all
that the US does on behalf of the Israeli government (UN
resolution vetoes,
ignoring ownership of weapons of mass destruction, ignoring
use of US
supplied weaponry against civilians in violation of US and
international
law, racism conference walkouts when Israel is labeled a
racist state,
billions in donations and loan guarantees, and so on, and
on, and on), even
when it is wrong to do so, and even when it works against
American security
and other interests. Perhaps it is time for the US
government to pause in
its support of Israel long enough to support a US citizen!
Please find out and advise me about the status of Brooke
Atherton. Brooke
deserves a hearing and should be allowed into the Israel.
The detention
facility where she was being held can be reached as
follows: tel.
+972-3-9795461
Thanking you sincerely,
Claiborne M. Clark
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