Action Alert 17th August, 2003 Update

Action Alert 17th August, 2003 Update

Andrew Muncie, 29, from Inverness-shire in Scotland, and Andreas Koninek, 20, from Stockholm were yesterday taken handcuffed and blindfolded out of a house in Balata refugee camp, near Nablus in the early hours of Sunday morning. The two were a part of a team of five activists working to save the house of the Abu Salim family from destruction. Eyewitness accounts relate that the soldiers threatened to kill the activists chained to the second floor of the house.

Although this threat turned out to be empty, the two activists were forcibly removed before Israeli Occupying Forces destroyed the house, home to a family of nine, by a controlled explosion. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday ordered the deportation of the two men. The two men were said to be considering their legal options on Sunday evening.

The house demolition of the house the two men were staying in was in clear defiance of the latest peace initiative.

The so-called `Road Map for Peace' forbids house demolitions. The Israeli state is clearly in contravention of this clause.

We ask all UK and Swedish citizens to demand that their respective governments protest against the unjust deportation orders of Andrew and Andreas. Both men were in the house as invited guests and have done nothing to warrant their detention. Under international law, it is the Israeli state which is clearly in the wrong.

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