JERUSALEM
(Reuters) - Israeli police said on Thursday they had
arrested nine foreign activists during a protest against military
curfews in Palestinian cities in the West Bank and efforts were
under way to deport at least some of them.
"There
were nine foreigners arrested near Hawara (in the West Bank).
The Interior Ministry is taking care of preparing deportation
orders," a police spokesman said.
An
army spokesman said the foreigners were among scores of demonstrators
who blocked a road out of Hawara near the city of Nablus and refused
to leave the site, spurring a violent confrontation with troops
who had orders to remove them.
Fellow
activists who were at the protest said the army used force to
disperse them, including tear gas and stun grenades.
The
foreign activists included three Americans, five French nationals
and an Irish citizen. They are members of the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM), which has staged regular protests against an Israeli
military crackdown on a 22-month-old Palestinian uprising. One
of the detainees is U.S. citizen Adam Shapiro, who drew international
attention when he entered Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
( news - web sites)'s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah
last April while it was under siege.
"To
the best of my knowledge the deportation orders have been issued.
They took them to the airport and revoked their visas," said
ISM activist Huwaida Arraf, who is Shapiro's wife.
"We've
tried appealing deportation cases before and it hasn't worked,"
she said. "We will continue to protest this suppression,
keeping internationals out from seeing abuses of international
law."
