Israel frees Aussie seized in West Bank

An Australian pro-Palestine activist says she was arrested at gunpoint, falsely
imprisoned and denied food and phone contact for 15 hours over what Israeli
authorities say is a visa irregularity.
Bridget Chappell of Canberra was one of two foreign activists arrested by Israel's
military in a pre-dawn raid on Sunday on the apartment she shared with a Spanish
woman Ariadna Jove Marti in the Palestinian West Bank town of Ramallah.
Israel's Supreme Court on Monday freed the two activists on bail, declaring their
arrests illegal because Israeli officials had no jurisdiction in Palestinian
territory.
But the two are banned from re-entering the occupied territories.
Ms Chappell said she and her Spanish companion were arrested by immigration police
armed with rifles and travelling in armoured personnel carriers.
They were taken to a police station, then a military camp and ordered to sign a form
declaring they agreed to be deported from Israel within 48 hours, or they would be
jailed for six months.
They refused, and were taken to a prison.
"From 2am until about 5pm we were not given any food or access to our phones so that
we could call our friends and our lawyer and tell them what had happened," Ms
Chappell told AAP.
Ms Chappell said her visa had expired in November but she had arranged to meet with
immigration officials on March 1 to have it extended.
Because of that appointment, she said she was legally entitled to stay at least
until then.
"Our arrest was not about our visas. The Israelis are trying to take away anyone who
works for the Palestinian struggle," she said.
"Anyone involved with the Palestinian struggle is being arrested because there is a
large crackdown on activists at the moment.
"A lot of Palestinian activists have been arrested at gunpoint in raids in the
middle of the night."
Ms Chappell said she intended to stay in Palestinian territory and her legal team
has five days to appeal against her deportation.
Activist spokesman Omer Shatz told AFP that Israeli forces raided the Ramallah
offices of the Stop the Wall campaign, a group that helps organise weekly
demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier.
He said Israel had also arrested 17 foreign activists in the past month and deported
six of them, including a Czech activist seized last month in a military raid in
Ramallah.
Weekly protests held in a handful of West Bank villages are billed as non-violent
but frequently result in clashes between stone-throwing Palestinians and Israeli
troops armed with tear-gas and rubber bullets.