ACTION ALERT! US citizen to be deported

ACTION ALERT! US citizen to be deported

Thursday June 17, 2004 0200 Palestine Time For Immediate Release

ACTION ALERT

American citizen Brooke Atherton threatened with deportation Thursday, June 17 - 2:30 a.m GMT [7:30 p.m. Wed. June 16, PDT]

[Tel Aviv, ISRAEL] American citizen Brooke Atherton has been told that she will be deported on the next Alitalia flight from Ben-Gurion Airport, at 5:30 a.m. local time, Thursday, June 17 (7:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 16 Pacific Daylight Time). She was enrolled in an Arabic language course being offered by Holy Land Trust in Bethlehem but is being denied permission to attend. Israeli authorities have refused to give any reason for her deportation and Israeli courts have refused to issue an injunction to allow her to remain in the country pending a court hearing, according to her lawyer, Yael Berga.

In the absence of any official explanation or justification, one can only speculate that the Israeli actions are aimed at undermining a legitimate educational activity of a Palestinian organization that is dedicated to peace, nonviolence and understanding, and at preventing visitors from witnessing the repression and ethnic cleansing activities of the Israeli military in Palestinian areas. More than 10,000 visitors have been denied entry to Israel since January, 2001.

Please call and write ASAP to the following. Tell them that Brooke deserves a hearing, that Israel is undermining its own "democracy" and that paranoia makes for bad policy. Tell them that such deportations give the world a taste of how illegal barriers prevent Palestinians from living their lives. Tell them that when there is no distinction under the law between Jews, Palestinians and other non-Jews, then we can expect justice. However, as long as discrimination, apartheid and genocide persist, we will continue to remind them of the shame in which they are living.

Please remember that the time difference is GMT + 3 hours. The international code from the U.S. is 011 and the country code for Israel is 972. When calling from inside Israel, add a zero to the beginning of the local number.

Detention facility where Brooke is being held: tel. +972-3-9795461

U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv tel. +972-3-6197575 Email: amctelaviv@state.gov

U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20520 tel. 202-647-4000

Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (fax: +972-2-5666376)(fax: 972-2-6701628)(fax: 972-2-6701585) Email: sar@moin.gov.il

Enav Golomb Justice Ministry State Attorney's Office Fax: 011-972-2-646-6655

Silvan Shalom Foreign Minister Fax: 011-972-2-530-3367 Email: sar@mfa.gov.il

url for nearest Israeli Embassy: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/israel.htm

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