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Israel restricts foreigners gaza { May 10 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/10/international0706EDT0503.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/10/international0706EDT0503.DTL
Israel tightens restrictions on foreigners in Gaza, drawing protest from rights groups
LISA J. ADAMS, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, May 10, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(05-10) 04:06 PDT JERUSALEM (AP) --
Israel is demanding new restrictions on foreigners entering the Gaza strip -- a move that could hinder the work of journalists, aid workers and those trying to monitor the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.
An Australian human rights monitor and a pro-Palestinian activist from Chicago were arrested Friday on charges they were in a West Bank town without permission. The two were ordered deported.
Secretary of State Colin Powell was to arrive in the Mideast later Saturday for weekend talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on getting started on a peace plan presented last week by international mediators.
He has two meetings planned with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem, one Saturday night and the other Sunday. Powell also will confer with Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Sharon has made an end to violence a condition for peacemaking with the Palestinians. He also has indicated the security situation could improve with Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian prime minister and Mohammed Dahlan as the Palestinian interior minister.
Powell intends to push the two leaders into unambiguous approval of the "road map," or blueprint, for peacemaking that is keyed to commitments by both Israel and the Palestinians to end 31 months of fighting and to establish a Palestinian state by 2005.
Under Israel's new rules, foreigners entering Gaza must sign a document that they agree not to enter military areas along the Israeli-Egyptian border and "other areas of combat," the military said
The statement said the aim was to keep out foreigners trying to interfere with the military and specifically mentioned the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), which sends volunteers to the West Bank and Gaza to serve as buffers between soldiers and Palestinians.
But the regulations appear also to give the military considerable discretion in keeping away other foreign nationals, including journalists, from areas of friction between Israeli troops and Palestinians.
In the past, the military did occasionally declare temporary "closed military zones" in certain areas, but enforcement was sporadic and violators were not severely punished.
The new policy also suggested an effort to release the army of responsibility when foreigners are hurt.
The London-based human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement saying it was concerned that "one aim of these new and drastic restrictions is to prevent outside monitoring and scrutiny of the conduct of the Israeli army."
The military's statement insisted that "there is no intention to limit or encumber the passage" of diplomats, aid workers and journalists.
The restrictions were imposed after an American volunteer with ISM and a British filmmaker were killed in recent weeks while observing Israeli soldiers. Another British activist was critically wounded by troops in Rafah last month, and remains in a coma.
Feingold claimed the restrictions also were aimed at keeping foreign nationals with ties to terror groups from entering Gaza.
Two British men who visited Gaza on April 25 were later involved in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv pub. One blew himself up April 30, killing a waitress and two musicians, and the second escaped.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw criticized the Israeli demand that foreigners sign a safety waiver, saying it was unacceptable. Straw said he would take it up with the Israeli government.
In the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, the military raided an office and arrested Christine Razowsky, 28, of Chicago, an ISM member, and Miranda Sissons, an employee of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman said the two were being held pending deportation on charges they illegally entered a restricted military zone.
Also arrested was Palestinian Fida Gharib, 22, a secretary for the organization, Kleiman said.
Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said his group will appeal Sisson's deportation and called for her immediate release.
"Human rights monitoring should be part and parcel of the road map to peace," Mungoven said. "And this arrest sends completely the wrong symbol, particularly on the eve of Colin Powell's visit."
©2003 Associated Press
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