Israeli Peace Activist, Jeff Halper, Arrested by Israeli Forces for Entering Gaza in Free Gaza Boat

ICAHD founder, Jeff Halper, to be released from Israeli custody

Date: 27 / 08 / 2008 Time: 13:56
Bethlehem – Ma'an –

Prominent Israeli activist Jeff Halper is expected to be released from jail later on Wednesday after spending the night in Israeli police custody for violating a military order banning Israelis from entering the Gaza Strip.

Halper has been charged with breaking a general's order, and causing a public nuisance, said Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, spokesperson of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), the organization Halper founded.

Godfrey-Goldstein said Halper that as a condition of his expected release, he would have to sign a pledge not to enter Gaza again and provide a financial guarantee.

Halper was one of over forty human rights advocates who sailed to the Gaza seaport on Saturday as a challenge to Israel's military blockade of the Strip. He was arrested at the Erez border crossing on Tuesday evening while attempting to re-enter Israel over land.

The remaining members of the Free Gaza movement are still in Gaza and plan to sail again to Cyprus on Thursday. They have spend three days meeting Palestinian officials and observing the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

UN official: Arrival of boats to Gaza great symbolic victory

[ 27/08/2008 - 09:35 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Richard Falk, the UN rapporteur of human rights in occupied Palestine, said that the two boats that arrived in Gaza a few days ago carrying international sympathizers constituted an important symbolic victory.

He said in press statements on Tuesday that the peaceful initiative of the "Free Gaza" movement drew the world's attention to the fact that one and a half million Palestinians in Gaza were reeling under such collective punishment for more than a year.

Falk charged that the siege was a form of collective punishment, which constituted a violation of article 33 of the fourth Geneva Convention.

Siege, sea closure, constant flying of Israeli planes bear witness to the fact that despite Israel's declared withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 it was still occupying Gaza and it was still responsible for protecting human rights of civilians in the Strip.

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