Nativity Church deportees flee Gaza, stranded at Jordan's airport

Date: 01 / 07 / 2009 Time: 16:02
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Nativity Church deportees who left Gaza last week were detained at Jordan’s Queen Alia International Airport after Egyptian authorities refused to allow the men to return to their port of origin.

The two men, Nadir Abdul Aziz and Issa Abu A’ahour, were deported from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip in 2002 following the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity and its negotiated end which saw the thirteen men dispersed to locations in Gaza and Europe with promises not to return to the West Bank.

Abdul Aziz and Abu A’ahour left Gaza on Tuesday using Jordanian passports via the Rafah crossing, and flew to Jordan where they had arranged to live with their wives and children, from whom they have been estranged since their deportation.

As West Bankers supported in part by the Palestinian Authority, who negotiated their release, the men said previously that they felt at risk in their non-native Gaza, particularly following the Hamas takeover and waves of internecine fighting.

The men were denied entry into Jordan and when authorities called Egypt to notify airport officials that they were being deported to their port of origin, Egyptian authorities said they would not receive the men. They remain in custody at Queen Alia International Airport.

The families of both men have appealed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to convince either the Egyptians or the Jordanians to host them, so far without success.

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Two Free Gaza members released, others await deportation

Date: 02 / 07 / 2009 Time: 16:47
Bethlehem - Ma’an -

Two of the 21 Free Gaza ship crew members were released without charges Wednesday, both Palestinian citizens of Israel, following interrogation by intelligence officers.

Nineteen other crew members, including a former US congresswoman, Cynthia McKenny, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, remain in prison cells at Israel’s Ashdod jail facility awaiting deportation.

The group was overwhelmed by eight Israeli naval warships as they steered a small ferry carrying reporters and humanitarian supplies toward the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. According to the capturing officers the ship was in violation of the Israeli blockade of the area, which was a closed military area as a consequence.

Free Gaza members on the Spirit of Humanity were threatened with live fire on two occasions, they said, and have pledged to continue their efforts to secure the safe release of the 19 remaining imprisoned crew members, and to continue efforts to break the Israeli siege on the coastal strip.

The two members released from prison Wednesday were Lubna Masarwa and Huwaida Arraf, both organisers of the Free Gaza Movement.

In an interview with the Israeli news agency Ynet, Arraf, who is also a citizen of Israel, said that authorities "put us in a warehouse, where we slept on a cockroach-infested cement floor, as armed soldiers were monitoring us.

"They didn't say a word to us. They confiscated all our personal belongings and phones, and they didn't let us contact anyone. A day later they left us at the Ashdod central bus station without any money or belongings," Ynet quoted her as saying.

"What they did to us is unforgivable, but we're not the story here," she added. "The fact they threatened us with violence because we wanted to transfer medical supplies and drawing equipment for children is simply absurd."

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