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Israel fighting prevents protester coming home for father's funeral
Ananova 2nd April 2002


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Ananova :

Israel fighting prevents protester coming home for father's funeral

A British protester injured in Bethlehem when Israeli soldiers fired on a peace march has been stopped from flying home to attend his father's funeral.
    Kunle Ibidun, 30, from Bristol, one of four Britons injured in the march, was said to be trapped in his hotel because a consulate car will not be allowed to accompany him through the fighting to the airport.
    A Foreign Office spokeswoman said consular officials had spent several hours in armoured vehicles outside Bethlehem, waiting for permission to enter the town and take out any of the trapped Britons who wanted to leave.
    She said that although the issue had been raised at civil and military levels with the Israelis, the message had not got through to those on the ground and the vehicles had been unable to enter the town. She added officials would keep trying to get permission.
    Mr Ibidun, originally from Glasgow, was said by his sister Billie to be devastated by news of their father's sudden death yesterday from a stroke.
    Mr Ibidun was hit by shrapnel in the chin, elbow and arm after troops fired near the group of around 200 protesters from the International Solidarity Movement as they made their way from Bethlehem to the nearby town of Beit Jala.
    His sister said that he had been through a terrifying experience which had left him shocked, but that his priority now was to get home and be with his family.
    She said: "He is just really devastated about what has happened in our family and desperate to come home. He said he is very glad that he went out and that he will be going back but at the moment he is just thinking about coming home to be with the rest of us and to help me organise the funeral."
    Miss Ibidun said that her father James, 60, from Manchester, had been proud of his son and what he was doing and called on the authorities in Israel to allow their family to be together.
    She said: "It is not humane. People there know what loss is like. My brother needs to be home. He needs to bury his father."

Story filed: 17:25 Tuesday 2nd April 2002

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