Israel Arrests 3 Activists in Raid on Group’s Office

The Israeli military arrested two members of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement, including an American, along with an Australian employee of Human Rights Watch in a Friday raid on a solidarity movement office in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, police and an activist said.

Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said ISM member Christine Razowsky, 28, of Chicago and HRW employee Miranda Sissons were being held pending deportation on charges that they illegally entered a restricted military zone.

The third person arrested was Palestinian Fida Gharib, 22, a secretary for ISM, Kleiman said. Gharib was later released.

Soldiers also confiscated computers, said ISM spokeswoman Laura Gordon.

Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director for HRW, said Sissons was “making a routine visit to pick up some documentation” when she was arrested.

HRW will appeal Sisson’s deportation and is calling for her immediate release, Mungoven said.

“Human rights monitoring should be part and parcel of the road map to peace,” Mungoven said.

Israel on Friday also tightened restrictions on foreigners entering the Gaza Strip, prompting charges that it is trying to keep out those monitoring the actions of Israeli soldiers in hot spots.

Foreigners entering Gaza must sign a document that they agree not to enter military areas along the Israeli-Egyptian border and “other areas of combat,” the military said in a statement. The statement said the aim was to keep out foreigners trying to interfere with the military and mentioned ISM.