Israeli Court to Hear Jewish-American's Case Against the Occupation of Palestine

Israeli Court to Hear Jewish-American’s Case Against the Occupation of Palestine: Bay Area Activist Continues to Resist Deportation.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ridwana (IWPS), 011-972546853225

Kate Bender-Raphael, 011-972547870198 (cell)

ISM Media Office: 011-97259676782

Lisa Belenky, 415-863-8604



December 30, 2004

An Israeli judge has agreed to a January 16 hearing on Jewish, lesbian activist Kate Bender-Raphael's appeal of her deportation from Israel. The judge's decision comes at the same time that Israel's Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra said that Israel will not prevent foreign Jews from entering Israel to resist the dismantling of illegal settlements in Gaza. Ezra said, "We will not prevent them (Jews) from entering even if we know they are coming to resist the (disengagement) plan. There are people coming for worse causes such as to break down the security fence and participate in ISM and radical left-wing activists."

Bender-Raphael says that: "Ezra's statement makes it clear that Israel is determined to continue to flagrantly violate international law. My appeal will challenge this double standard on decisions of who to accept and who expel from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories."

The December 28 court decision to hear her appeal came on Bender-Raphael's 15th day of incarceration. She was detained during a non-violent protest against Israel's Apartheid Wall in the West Bank village of Bil'in. Bender-Raphael, a San Francisco-based activist, has spent twelve of the last sixteen months in the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the International Women's Peace Service (IWPS).

Bender-Raphael expects that she will be held in Tsochar prison in Sde Nitsan until the January 16 hearing where she will be represent herself. She argues that it is illegal for the Israeli government to prevent her from helping to implement the decision the world's highest legal body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ ruled in June that Israel must cease construction and remove the Wall where it has been built on Palestinian land.

The Israeli Ministry of Interior based its deportation order on the charges that Bender-Raphael was participating in "a violent demonstration", and that she was arrested and ordered expelled from Israel one year ago. However, videotapes of the December 14 protest in Bil'in show that the Israeli army was the only party that used violence. Bender-Raphael also argues that the previous order to expel her is illegitimate because the Israeli army has no jurisdiction in the Palestinian Territories that it occupies illegally.

Bender-Raphael explained that, "I am a Jew protecting the Jewish people by insisting that those acting in our name respect international law. As a people we have worked hard to popularize the idea that individuals must resist unjust acts of governments."