How long will it be before Israeli immigration officers start asking every visitor whether they support Zionism?
Australia’s ABC News reports on the latest arrests in an expanding campaign against foreign activists:
The lawyer for an Australian woman arrested in the West Bank says her detention is part of a campaign by the Israeli government to silence pro-Palestinian foreigners.
Israeli soldiers arrested Bridgette Chappell, 22, in a pre-dawn raid and was held in an immigration jail in Israel. A court has since agreed to release her on bail provided she does not return to the West Bank.
The Israeli government says Ms Chappell, who was studying Arabic and politics at Birzeit University in the West Bank, was arrested for overstaying her visa.
But she was also active in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) – a pro-Palestinian organisation committed to resisting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
Ms Chappell was sharing an ISM apartment with two other activists – a Spanish woman and an American man, Ryan Olander.
Mr Olander says about 12 soldiers broke down the door during the night and burst in with M16 rifles.
What on earth do you expect? The neo-cons call jihadists islamofascists
in keeping with that terminology we may expect to be able to label the Israelis Hebrewfascists.
I’m sure their forebears who suffered so much at the hands of similair extremism must be rolling in their graves!