Israel holds veteran French activist
BBC, 2 April, 2002
Tuesday, 2 April, 2002, 06:05 GMT 07:05 UK
Israel holds veteran French activist
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1905000/images/_1906274_bove-afp-300.jpg
Bove is one of the world's best-known activists
French anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove faces deportation from
Israel after making a dramatic show of solidarity with Yasser Arafat.
The radical farmers' leader had joined pacifists
and foreign pro-Palestinian activists in visiting the besieged Palestinian
leader in Ramallah on Sunday.
Five foreign activists were injured on Monday during
a demonstration against Israel's military presence near Jerusalem.
As the Israeli army tightens the ring around Palestinian
leaders, it has ordered activists to keep out of its way.
Three French activists arrested along with Mr Bove
arrived back in Paris on Monday evening after being expelled from Israel.
Mr Bove himself was being held with French colleagues
at a detention centre at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport and, according to
one report, is due to be put on a Turkish Airlines flight on Tuesday.
Unbearable to behold'
The veteran campaigner, who has backed political causes as far away
as Mexico, said he had seen some "unbearable" sights in recent days, especially
at a detention centre for Palestinians where he was held briefly .
"There we saw hundreds of men sitting on the ground,
under canvas and behind barbed wire, surveyed by watchtowers," he said.
"We saw 300 people kneeling down and blindfolded,
waiting to be interrogated in the cold and the night. It was unbearable
to behold."
On Monday, a crowd of 100 foreign, mainly European,
protesters confronted Israeli tanks at Beit Jala, near Bethlehem.
Eyewitnesses said that an Israeli machine-gunner
fired a burst at the ground as they approached the armour and five activists
were injured along with a Palestinian cameraman.
None were seriously injured although one British
woman received a live bullet in her abdomen.
senden