Update: ISRAEL TARGETS INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS

UPDATES ON KATE AND KELLY
Yesterday was the deadline for the state to respond to Kate Raphael
Bender's appeal of deportation, but she has heard nothing. In the
coming days she expects to find out if and when there will be a hearing.

Kelly Minio-Paleullo was deported on Friday morning after deciding not
to fight her deportation order in the Israeli court system.

SPANISH ACTIVIST DENIED ENTRY
Alberto Arce, a journalist and activist from Barcelona (Catalonia,
Spain) was denied entry after being declared a "security threat" at
Ben Gurion International Airport Wednesday, December 22. Alberto Arce
works with the Xarxa d'Enllaç amb Palestina, (Palestinian Net) a
Catalan movement promoting cooperation among organizations and
individuals to work for Palestinian rights. Last summer he joined
ISM's Freedom Summer Campaign and participated in the March against
the Wall. His documentary film on ISM's work in Nablus has been
selected and screened in a number of Spanish Film Festivals.

ISRAEL TARGETS HUMANITARIAN WORKERS (from 12/20/04)
With the arrests of Kate Raphael Bender and Kelly Minio-Paleullo,
Israel continues it's policy of restricting humanitarian workers in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Both women sit in the Hadera detention
center awaiting deportation.

In early November Charlotte Carson, an activist from Ireland, was
arrested by plainclothes officers while participating in a nonviolent
demonstration in the village of Kafr Thulth near Qalqilya. She too was
held at Hadera before being deported.

Throughout this year's Freedom Summer campaign international
humanitarian activists were harassed at entry points to Israel. Many
were refused entry because of their commitment to support nonviolent
Palestinian resistance to the continuing military occupation. It has
become clear that Israel maintains a policy of refusing entry to
international citizens based on their political beliefs.

The Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, requires states
maintaining a military occupation to facilitate the travel of
humanitarian workers to areas under that occupation. Clearly, the
arrests and deportations of these and other internationals violate
that legal responsibility.