Darlene Wallach, a human rights observer from San Jose, California, is among eighteen persons abducted off the coast of Gaza on November 18, 2008. The others are fellow human rights observers Andrew Muncie of Scotland and Vittorio Arrigoni of Italy, as well as fifteen Palestinian fishermen. All eighteen were fishing in Gaza waters in zones authorized for Palestinian fisherman by the Oslo agreements of 1993 and 1994. They were abducted at gunpoint by Israeli frogmen and taken to Israel, along with the fishing boats.
The fishermen were released and returned to Gaza, although their boats, which are their means of livelihood, are still being held. Israel is charging the three human rights observers with illegally entering Israel, and is making arrangements to deport them to their home countries.
The observers counter that they were forcibly taken to Israel and should be returned to Gaza. “We were never in Israel, and all of us were taken against our will and contrary to all agreements that Israel has signed,” says Wallach, 57, who was also arrested and deported from Israel in 2002 for participating in human rights advocacy in the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank region. “Israel claims that it no longer occupies Gaza, so what is it doing in Gaza waters, especially when there is no security threat at all?”
On August 23, 2008, Wallach, Muncie and Arrigoni were among 44 participants in the Free Gaza Movement who were aboard the first boats in forty-one years to enter Gaza by sea, breaking the Israeli blockade. They remained in Gaza to participate in human rights activities with the International Solidarity Movement. They are conducting a hunger strike in prison until Israel meets their demands to return them to Gaza and release the fishing boats.
Further information is available at www.freegaza.org and www.palsolidarity.org. Wallach, Muncie and Arrigoni can sometimes by reached by telephone in prison for press interviews. Interested parties are invited to contact the persons listed in this message.
CONTACT:
Caoimhe (Gaza) + 972 598 273 960
Donna (Gaza) + 972 598 836 420
Fida (Gaza - Arabic) – + 972 599 681 669
ISM Media Office - + 972 2-2971824
Paul (USA) +1 510-236-5338
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