Israeli Newspaper Maariv reported on Thursday that the Israeli security services are preparing for a campaign to bar international peace activists from entering the occupied West Bank this summer to participate in the “Summer Peace camp” organized by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
The Israeli Police forces and army units are preparing to the wide-scaled campaign that aims at barring the peace activists from entering Israel and the occupied territories, in addition to expelling those who are already in the country.
International peace activists are active in the peaceful protests against Israel’s Annexation Wall and the protests against the Israeli policy of settlement construction and expansion, in addition to the Israeli policy of house demolishing in the occupied territories.
Maariv reported that the army will also issue an order to close the Palestinian territories for internationals in an attempt to bat the entry of internationals there. Israel claims that the activists will be expelled under the pretext of supporting “illegal organizations”.
Also, Israel will try to arrest and expel Palestinians who carry international nationalities “if they fail to explain why they are visiting the country”.
The campaign will also include expelling foreign workers, including Palestinians, who entered Israel without obtaining work permits from the Israeli authorities.
It is worth mentioning that Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old American peace activist, was killed on March 16, 2003 when she was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to bar the army from demolishing a Palestinian home in Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
On April 11 2003, Tom Hurndall, British photographer and a member of the International Solidarity Movement, was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper and suffered irreversible brain damage, dying from his wound a year later.
Hurndall was trying to save Palestinian children subjected to Israeli military fire. The children fled. But three, aged between four and seven, were paralyzed by fear.
Tom Hurndall was in a coma for nine months and died January 13, 2004, in a London hospital due to complications with pneumonia. He had spent the past nine months in a vegetative state.
