By Judy Lash Balint

Jerusalem----November 27.....International Solidarity Movement member Radhika Sainath is getting ready to leave Israel in a few days. But before she goes she's decided to slap Israel with a $4,000 lawsuit.

The tactics of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and its supporters get more bizarre and brazen every day.

On Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27, Sainath filed suit in Tel Aviv against the State of Israel for alleged unlawful imprisonment, negligence and breach of obligations. The $4,000 is for "mental trauma and agony" she claims to have suffered at the hands of Israeli authorities during her 30 hour detention.

The legal action arises out of the arrest of Radhika and eight of her buddies when they joined a group of Palestinian Arabs protesting the construction of Israel's anti-terrorist wall last November near the Arab settlement of Jayyous.

Sainath had only recently arrived in the country on a tourist visa when she was arrested. Since then, she's been in and out of Israel four times as each three month tourist visa expires.

Sainath says she suffered no particular harassment at Ben Gurion airport on any of her re-entries after her arrest (try entering the US on a foreign passport after you've spent time in a US jail).
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) is a loose confederation of people brought together by a radical, anarchic agenda and a commitment to "end the Israeli occupation." Many ISM members are part of the anti-globalization movement visible at demonstrations around the world.

The ISM first gained publicity in 2001, when a Brooklyn-born Jewish student named Adam Shapiro, joined forces with Huwaida Arraf, an American-born Arab woman, to defend Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah compound.

ISMers routinely get in the way of Israeli efforts to rout out terrorists. Rachel Corrie, for instance, was protesting IDF action to find tunnels in Rafah used to smuggle arms from Egypt when she stumbled off the pile of rubble she was standing on and was killed by an Israeli bulldozer working in the area.

For her trouble, Yasser Arafat sent his condolences to Corrie's family. He informed them that the Palestine Authority decided to grant her a posthumous "Bethlehem Star 2000" medal for her dedication to the cause of the Palestinian people. The medal is one of the highest Palestinian honors and is bestowed on individuals who have carried out "remarkable services for the Palestinian cause."

For ISMers like Joe Smith, 21, from Kansas City, their protected status covers the standard far-left guilt trip: "I saw ISM as a way that I could directly use my white, Western, American male privilege to directly serve underprivileged people of color," he says.

The ISM is in fact a Palestinian-led movement founded by one Ghassan Aduni, formerly leader of an outfit named Alternative Tourism-another effort at bringing foreigners to Israel to expose them to the Arab point of view. Once the tourism dried up, Aduni turned his attention to a more activist program. According to the Palestinian weekly, the Jerusalem Times (January 9, 2003), the ISM was also "spearheaded" by Palestinian activist Mustafa Barghouti, brother of Marwan Barghouti, tried by Israel for terrorist activities.

While the ISM is portrayed in the US and Europe as an independent human rights group, ISMers themselves openly state that the agenda is set by local Arabs.

Sainath told me that each ISM region has a Palestinian coordinator. "We work closely with representatives from local Palestinian groups who form a committee to help us plan what to do."

When they arrive in Jerusalem, ISM activists are told to contact George Rashmawi, an Arab liaison, who arranges for them to get to Beit Sahour for training. Rashmawi has spent time at German universities studying Marxism-Leninism.

One of the reasons Israeli authorities had clamped down on the group earlier this year is their deceptive method of entering the country. On the ISM website (draped in a Palestinian flag) potential ISMers are told: "We believe that it's less suspicious if you come through Israel (as opposed to entering through Amman) but you have to have a really good story about why you are coming and must not mention anything about the ISM or knowing, liking or planning to visit Palestinians. You must play it as though your visit to Israel is for other Israel-based reasons, like tourism, religion or visiting an Israeli friend…"

Officially, ISM claims to be non-violent: "We utilize nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies," notes their mission statement.

But, they add, "We recognize the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and occupation via legitimate armed struggle." In other words, if our Palestinian colleagues want to blow themselves up and take innocent people with them, we'll understand.

Sainath, an Orange County, California resident and former union organizer, keeps coming back here to get into trouble. On September 5 at Faroun, Sainath and her comrades tried to shake down the gate in the anti-terror fence. Last May she was arrested in Tulkarm for interfering with Israeli Army pursuit of terrorists in the town.

In a May 11, 2003 Palestine Solidarity report of that incident, Sainath makes wild unsubstantiated accusations against Israeli soldiers. They "used a father and his small children as human shields," she relates. Sainath was threatened with deportation after that arrest but Israeli attorney Shammai Leibowitz came to the rescue and successfully prevented her from having to leave the country.

Leibowitz is also handling Sainath's current suit against the Israeli government.
He, by the way, was the member of terrorist Marwan Barghouti's defense team who likened his client to Moses and the Israeli State Prosecution to Pharoah.

In an interview last May, Sainath told me that one of her main goals was to help people detained by the Israeli Army get through checkpoints. When I asked how the ISM knew who they were enabling to pass through the checkpoints, she looked stunned and said she didn't know. "In Tulkarm people who are wanted by the army aren't going to attempt to walk through a checkpoint. Anyway, it's not our job to check to see if someone's carrying explosives or not."

Sainath says her US passport was stolen here last year and she had to go to the US embassy in Tel Aviv to get it renewed. "I encountered a lot of difficulties because almost everyone who works there is an Israeli-American. They're all Israelis with US passports. It didn't seem like they'd be helpful..." To someone with her political views, she implied.

Still, she did get her passport and she did gain entry several times into Israel. And she did spend by her own admission, more than ten months out of the past year here in Israel trying to prevent Israel from carrying out its anti-terror mission.

She's lucky she got off with 30 hours in an Israeli jail.

It's bad enough that Israeli authorities kept on letting her back in the country to take part in activities that endanger all Israelis, let's hope that the Israeli government doesn't now give her a farewell present of $4,000 as well.

Judy Lash Balint is a Jerusalem based writer and author of Jerusalem Diaries: In Tense Times www.jerusalemdiaries.com

© Judy Lash Balint. 2003

May. 5, 2003
Foreign 'peace activists' had tea with Tel Aviv bombers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Foreign volunteers in the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement said Monday they had tea with two Britons later involved in a Tel Aviv suicide bombing, but said they had no idea at the time of the assailants' intentions.

One of the Britons, Asif Hanif, 21, blew himself up in a Tel Aviv bar last week, killing a waitress and two musicians. The second man, Omar Khan Sharif, 27, fled when his bomb failed to detonate and remains at large. Both were British citizens.

Israel's defense minister said that in the wake of the bombing, Israel would have to tighten checks on foreigners visiting Palestinian territory.

On April 25, five days before the Tel Aviv bombing, Sharif and Hanif toured the Gaza Strip, including the Rafah refugee camp. At one point, they met with members of the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group that sends volunteer to serve as buffers between Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians.

The two Britons, along with 15 other people, came to an apartment rented by the ISM in Rafah, said Raphael Cohen, an ISM member from Britain. "Our group ... offered all of them tea," Cohen told a news conference Monday.

Cohen said he asked the two Britons who they were and to which organization they belonged. "They answered that they weren't with any particular organization," said Cohen who described the men as quiet. He said that among the visitors also were four other Britons who wanted to establish a summer camp in Gaza.

After 15 minutes of drinking tea, the group attended a memorial service for Rachel Corrie, an ISM volunteer crushed to death last month as she stood in the path of an Israeli bulldozer to try to prevent a house demolition in Rafah.

Cohen said the group spent only a few minutes at the spot where Corrie was killed, and that the different groups then went their separate ways.

Cohen said said that once he saw pictures of the bombers published in the media he realized who they were. "I was shocked," he said.

Cohen said he has not been in touch with Israeli police.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz revealed that the two British bombers entered Israel several weeks ago from Jordan with the explosive devices hidden inside a copy of the Quran, the Muslim holy book. They crossed to the West Bank and then to Israel. Mofaz told the Cabinet that after entering Israel, the two moved into the Gaza Strip for talks with local Palestinian militants.

Mofaz said that the two men apparently were recruited by a Syrian-based terror group while they were studying Arabic in Damascus.

It was the first suicide attack carried out by a foreigner during 31 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The ISM is a Palestinian-led group that says it aims to oppose Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip through nonviolent means

An ISM spokeswoman, Huwaida Arraf, said that Hanif and Sharif never had any other contact with the group and never attended the training program all volunteers have to go through before being sent into the Palestinian territories.

Arraf ridiculed suggestions that the bombers entered Israel by posing as peace activists. "Doing so would have ensured that they would have been turned away," she said referring to Israel's policy of barring openly pro-Palestinians activists from entering Israel. Dozens of activists have been deported.

In recent days, Israeli officials have said they intend to be even stricter about letting these activists into the country.

"We are at a time of war and they are going into enemy territory," said Tova Ellinson a spokesperson for the Israeli Interior Ministry, noting that this policy has been in effect for over a year and that dozens of people have been deported "for breaking the law."

* TAKEN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT WEBSITE

Don't stand by and watch BE AN ISM FREEDOM FIGHTER RESIST THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION HERE IS WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT

- by Danielle Smith and NYC ISM

Media Training: Role-play thinking on your feet, powerful sound bites, how to negotiate with reporters and editors, how to write to get into press, etc..

Some actions you might take part in:

• dismantling earthen roadblocks
• observing and intervening at checkpoints
• taking over a checkpoint
• solidarity visits to Palestinian homes
• wheat-pasting a tank
• protesting the Israeli take-over of the Orient House, and more.
• helping to record testimonies of survivors of the invasion in Jenin Refugee Camp and Nablus
• providing ongoing medical assistance
• helping rebuild homes and buildings bulldozed and blown up by the Israeli army
• speaking to (live from Palestine) and writing about the situation

Mid-March to end of April: Right to Education campaign

Training dates:

Friday / Saturday April 11/12
Tuesday/Wed April 15/16
Tuesday/Wed April 22/23
Before You Leave
FAQ
How To Get Here
Where to stay, expected expenses, training, more
Tips for Travelers on a Budget
Training Pack
Contact Goverment Officials
Donate Equipment to ISM
Donate Funds to ISM
Learn More & Share Your Knowledge

The International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement of Palestinian and International activists working to raise awareness of the struggle for Palestinian freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. We utilize nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies.

As enshrined in international law and UN resolutions, we recognize the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and occupation via legitimate armed struggle.

STEP 5: Training Before you go.

When you get to Palestine there will likely be a day or two of intensive
training and role-playing. However, ISM expects you to get at least some
of the formal training described here:

1) Nonviolence Training: Philosophy, History, Strategy, Role-Playing (a peace organization in your community likely can provide this)
2) Media Training: Role-play thinking on your feet, powerful soundbites,
how to negotiate with reporters and editors, how to write to get into press,
etc..
3) Medical and Psychological Preparation: Going to a place where American
F-16s and helicopters gunships are regularly used to bomb and terrorize
people means being prepared to face that terror. There may be a doctor or
EMT in your area that is familiar with street-medic training or basic
emergency functions to know. Also, talking with a psychologist before and
after you go could be helpful in processing difficult stresses and traumas.
4) Try to speak with someone who has been there. Our group can provide
some help with this and we can refer you to people possibly near you who
have been there as well.

There are three ways to come to Palestine -- via the Ben Gurion airport - Tel Aviv, via Amman, Jordan or via Egypt. Many people are afraid to come via Tel Aviv because Palestinian sympathizers are being denied entry into the country.

We believe that it's less suspicious if you come through Israel but you have to have a really good story about why you are coming, and must not mention anything about ISM or knowing, liking or planning to visit Palestinians.
You must play it as though your visit is for other, Israel-based reasons, like tourism, religion, visiting an Israeli friend, etc. So do a little bit of research and put together a story that you'll be able to answer questions about.
For example, if you say you are visiting a friend in Jerusalem, you should have the name and phone number of a real Israeli person. If you are coming for religious purposes, have a book or two on religion and travel in Israel; have an itinerary, etc.

Once into the country, you can find a shuttle to Jerusalem right outside the airport doors, to the right. This is a service that waits until it fills up (10 passengers) and then heads to Jerusalem for 40 Israeli Shekels per person ($9) or if you are paying in dollars - $10. It'll drop each person off where he/she wants to go in Jerusalem. You should ask for Damascus Gate. Depending on which order you’re dropped off in, the ride to Jerusalem can take anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour. If you arrive in the middle of the night, you might have to wait 1-2 hours for the shuttle to fill up. The other option is to arrange for a Palestinian taxi driver through our logistics coordinator. To do this, contact George at pcr@p-ol.com or call +972-2-277-2018. This is a more expensive option. It will run you approximately $50 for the whole car. It's a good option if there are a few of you coming together.

5 PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS (Dec 2001)

Encounter with Ben Gurion Airport

Getting in and out the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv/Lydda can turn out to be anything between an almost entertaining absurd theatre and a most unpleasant experience. Below follows a small guide to the encounter with the Airport Security Service, ASS.

The Airport Security Service is an entity of its own and is not part of the GSS (General Security Service), better know as Shin Beth. GSS is around, but unless you become a ‘special case’, you’ll just deal with the Airport Security Service. Though ASS take their authority beyond the limit, they do have limited rights and authority. A good thing to keep in mind.

Arrival

All non-Israeli citizen must fill-in a visa formula upon arrival. Usually it’s of little trouble getting through the security check at the airport: A few basic questions at the booth and a few questions by the ASS ten meters past the booth. Besides the line at the booth everything normally take less than five minutes.

However, the Airport Security Service may choose to go into a brief interrogation asking you questions like: who invited you and do you have an invitation? Where will you stay? Why did you choose to come now? Unless you actually are invited by a partner organisation (ISM doesn’t count!) or have a home organisation to refer to, just say that you’re a tourist to visit the Holy Land. Do not enter any political discussion or make any statements. It’s not worth it.

It is very unlikely, but ASS could try to refuse you entry and ask you to take a plane back. If this happens you should refuse to leave the airport and demand to be allowed entry. Then follows perhaps a few hours of waiting and psychological game playing before they’ll let you in. It rarely happens that people actually do get sent back.

Departure

Contrary to what you may expect, getting out is a completely different story than getting in. Leaving is where things may get tough and unpleasant. Where it takes five minutes to get in, it may take hours to get out - odd as it may sound. But don’t panic - you’ll make it in the end! Most other countries do luggage and body scanning and that’s it for security. Israel has a procedure at the airport that is 10 percent security and 90 percent ‘bullying’. Always referred to as “for you own personal security.”

Briefly, this is the scenario: One or two Airport Security Service personnel will approach you asking for your ticket and passport. Then they’ll ask you a long range of questions, finally checking your luggage by hand. You don’t have to check-in, they’ll do that, and you go straight the transit area or gate.

The scenario in detail: The ASS personnel will always try to be friendly but reserved. They usually work in pairs, conferring with small clusters of other security staff. They’ll take your passport and ticket and will keep them until they’ve done the check-in or you’re done with the interrogation and luggage check.

Then they’ll ask you the security questions: What’s your destination, is the luggage all yours, who packed it, was it under your surveillance after being packed, did you receive any items from anybody. And that’s about it for the security questions, now follows the 90 percent irrelevant questions: Why do you fly with this company (e.g. BA or SAS), why do you (in the event) have a connected flight, what did you pay for the ticket, why did you visit Israel these days, if you have a co-operating organisation here why didn’t you just call them on the phone, how did you get to the airport, who did you meet with and why … etc. The questions can be everything from amusingly stupid to annoyingly offensive.

Before entering the airport you should decide by yourself what level of discussion you are prepared to enter. Boldly speaking: do you feel the need to make statements if the going gets tough - or do you feel just to ‘play the game’ and go easy. Or something in between.

By playing the game, you are just a tourist, who stayed at a hotel, who didn’t meet with Palestinians, who didn’t participate in anything … etc. Doing this, your chances of getting through the security check smoothly are higher - but never guaranteed.

ISM leaders Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf
Peace activists or terrorists?

By making statements, you do not hide that you, for example, stayed with Palestinian friends -- but you refuse to give their names. (Please note! The Airport Security Service personnel have NO right, whatsoever, to get personal informations about people living under the Palestinian Authority.) Or you don’t hide that you’ve met with various ‘anti-occupation organisations’. The tougher you get the tougher they get.

The bottom line is: answer all their questions with personal information as the ultimate limit. If you choose not to hide that you know Palestinians privately and met with them, the ASS will certainly ask for their personal information. When refusing this ASS will occasionally threaten you and say that you won’t reach your flight if you don’t cooperate. They may even bring a supervisor who yells at you that they’ll keep you if you don’t behave. These are empty threats; in the end you’ll win the power game and you’ll catch your plane. Just stay calm and cool.

They often swap teams so you get a new team of interrogation personnel or they’ll confer your information with each other and them come back asking the same question again or asking for an in-depth explanation.

After the interrogation the luggage check comes. Don’t get too optimistic if they start by scanning your luggage - they’ll hand-check it anyway. The hand-check can be described as follows: All your bags will be completely emptied, they will turn everything inside-out, all electronic devices will taken aside for a special check (unless you - against all odds - persuade them not to). So, within minutes you’ll se you personal belongings spread all over the place!

You’ll be asked to explain what things are if its not clear to them, and you may be asked to turn on your laptop to demonstrate that it’s a working PC and not a bomb that goes off (yes!). Keep batteries in your devices so they can see that it works as expected.

You may expect that the Israeli Airport Security Service (ASS) is well organised, well structured and with the big general view. But they are not. Rather, they are disorganised and disordered - sometimes with a strict procedure, sometimes behaving randomly (e.g. having a bag searched twice by the same person). First they get started checking your luggage, you should have one single focus: Get all your belongings back in your bags safe and unbroken!

Don’ts

Do NOT carry any private information about Palestinians you’ve met or know. Business cards and names of people at upper level positions at organisations are OK, but never any private address or phone number. The ASS have no right, whatsoever, to get personal informations about people living under the Palestinian Authority. Got new friends? Write yourself an e-mail before you leave back home with names and contact information and dispose your notes. And don’t forget to clean sweep your laptop or PDA.

Do NOT carry any sensitive paper. At least not when leaving. If you carry any paper or document you consider sensitive, one way or the other, then send them by fax or mail.

Do NOT accept personal harassment. The ASS personnel may do a body search on you. This is done by a person of your own gender and behind a curtain. This is by the book. However, from time to time it happens that they ask you to undress naked for the body search. This is not by the book; it is personal harassment and beyond their authority. So, never accept to undress naked or to do anything else that violates your personal integrity.

Do NOT accept their offer to have personal items “sent to you later”. It may happen that the Airport Security Service gets extra suspicious about some of your personal items and expresses the utmost need to do further security checks on the item (camera, laptop, shaver etc.) and that they will send it to you when you get back home. Never accept this: you may never see the item again and if you do it’ll be broken.

Pro-Palestinian terror or Pro-Peace?

Do’s

Confirm your ticket for departure whenever it’s an option.

Co-operate and answer all the questions - there’s no point in not answering the question, however stupid they are. But do not ever go beyond the limit of protecting personal information about Palestinians or sensitive information about organizations.

Be helpful when the ASS is searching your luggage - it they allow you to. It is annoying and beyond reason to have your luggage hand checked, but be helpful: this is your best chance of checking up on your personal items and their future condition.

Keep an eye on that ASS take away for extra check. They will try to take all your electronic devices aside for a separate check. Try to persuade them, if you can, not to take your most expensive or fragile items out of your sight. Offer to demonstrate on location that your disc player or camera are what they look like and not nuclear bombs.

Count and test your devices when they return. If they broke your disc player or laptop while checking, your only chance of complaining and filing is while you're still at the airport. Make sure everything works and has not been disassembled. And make sure that you don’t miss anything - the luggage check is chaotic and disorganized.

Help packing your luggage - your chance for a second check on your belongings.

Stay cool - and stick to your rights and personal limits. And you’ll win the power game, eventually.

Time for check-in

When to be at the airport upon departure? That’s good question. You’ll be requested to be at the airport two-three hours before departure. However, there seems to be a tendency that the Airport Security Service take the time they have - if they have three hours they’re likely to use three hours, if they have less it takes less. An hour and a half before departure seems to be a good compromise. Don’t count on the duty-free at Ben Gurion: you’ll probably be escorted by the ASS straight to the gate last minute, anyway.