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Tribute To A U.S., Jewish Peace Activist
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Jewish
peace activists demand an immediate end to the Israeli occupation
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RAFAH,
Gaza Strip, May 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - For the
past six weeks Jewish-American Laura Gordon has joined a small army of
pro-Palestinian peace activists determined to stop Israeli bulldozers
from leveling Palestinian homes in the Palestinian territories.
Their
noble and heroic actions made Gordon and other peace activists the
"bete-noir" of the Israeli occupation army, which announced
Friday, May 9, tough new curbs on foreign peace activists in the Gaza
Strip, particularly members of the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM), Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Sunday, May 11.
Among
the measures, foreigners are requested to sign a waiver pledging to
"undertake not to disrupt Israeli occupation army operations in
any way and declare ... no association with the organization known as
ISM."
They
are barred from flashpoint areas and have to sign a document absolving
the army from blame if they are killed or wounded as a result of
military activity, an Israeli military spokesman said.
"It
is very clear that we've lost our status as privileged internationals.
We're now just as likely to be shot as Palestinians. I think they've
stopped differentiating between us," said Gordon, from
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of four ISM peace activists operating in
Rafah.
Working
For Peace
Despite
the Israeli occupation army's crackdown, Gordon carries on her work
with fervor.
"Jews
have a history of social action. It's written into our religion and
our culture," she said. "We are obligated when there is
oppression and when there is pain to go to that place and to try to
ease the pain. It's called 'tikun ha-olam' (make the world a better
place," she said.
Gordon
hopes that the Israeli authorities "could understand that I feel
that I'm working for peace. And there won't be occupation and there
won't be suicide bombings. Equally."
"There
are a lot of things that I won't do anymore that I would have done two
months ago.
"I
would have stood in front of the bulldozers and the tanks much more
and I would have walked around maybe later at night. Now we are taking
much more of a community focus, much more of a media focus,"
Gordan told AFP at the ISM office in Rafah, in the southern Gaza
Strip.
Gordon
came to Israel in December as part of an official program to help Jews
from the Diaspora learn about the Jewish State and encourage them to
settle in Israel.
Since
then many people have told her she has "betrayed the
program", Gordon said.
As
part of the program Gordon initially visited a young Israeli who was
seriously wounded in a Palestinian resistance operation -- before she
became interested in the pain experienced on the Palestinian side.
Now
with her ISM comrades, Gordon's job is to report on the Israeli army's
destruction of Palestinian homes, when they cannot simply prevent the
demolitions from happening.
Set
up two years ago in the region of Bethlehem, up to 20 percent of the
movement's members are Jews, according to one of the group's founders,
Ghassan Andoni.
Back
then, the ISM boasted 100 members in the Palestinian territories but
now it has shrunk to 20, he said.
Over
the last two months, peace activists paid dearly with their lives for
their pro-Palestinian praise-worthy support.
On
March 17, peace activist Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old woman from
Washington D.C., died when a military bulldozer ran
over her in the town of Rafah.
On
April 11, Thomas Hurndall, a 21-year-old British activist, was shot
dead in the head by an Israeli soldier in Rafah refugee camp
in the southern Gaza Strip.
U.S.
Activist Expelled
In
a related development, the Israeli interior ministry ordered Saturday,
May 10, that a U.S. peace activist be expelled following her arrest
the day before near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, a ministry
spokesman told AFP.
"This
American, Christiane Lonron is going to be expelled from Israel within
a few hours," the spokesman said.
"This
measure was taken because she was in a sector that had been declared a
closed military zone and where she had no business.
"She
is also accused of interfering with Israeli army operations."
An
Australian peace activist arrested by the army at the same time as
Lonron had been released, the spokesman said.
On
Friday, Israeli occupation forces gate-crashed
the main office of the ISM and arrested Lonron, another female peace
activist and a Palestinian employee in addition to confiscating
equipment and six computers.
On
Saturday, Israeli troops also arrested two activists, claiming that
"they had ignored an order forbidding Israelis and foreigners
without a special authorization from entering autonomous Palestinian
territories."
The
spokesman, however, did not give their nationalities or say if they
also risked expulsion.
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