<nettime> Two U.S. Students in Israeli prison

[jaromil <jaromil@dyne.org>]

FYI

from http://www.birzeit.edu/news/2002/passtudents.html 
Birzeit university, Palestine


May10 , 2002

The Israeli occupation forces detained two American Birzeit University
students from Bethlehem on Thursday, May2 ,2002 , and transferred them
to the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, where they were detained for
five days before transferring them to Ramleh prison.

The two US citizens, Nathan Musselman, who enrolled in the Palestine and
Arabic Studies Program at Birzeit University in the Fall of2001 /2002,
and Nathan Mauger, who enrolled in the Spring of2002 , are studying
Arabic. They were among several foreigners from the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM) who went to Bethlehem on May2 , and posed as
decoys to allow another group to get into the Church of the Nativity and
deliver food and medical supplies to the people besieged inside the
Church. As the original group was entering the Church, the Israeli
occupation forces surrounded the decoy groups and forcefully arrested
the members.

Allegra Pacheco, the detainees' lawyer, said that both Musselman and
Mauger were denied access to legal council, and were given deportation
orders but no deportation hearings. The occupation forces refused to
divulge any information to the detainees, and kept moving them from one
place to the other without telling them where they were being moved.
According to Pacheco, when one of the detainees asked a policeman where
they were taking them, the policemen replied: "You are going to Heaven!"

What Pacheco is trying to do is to reverse the deportation order, and
allow both Musselman and Mauger to leave voluntarily from the country.
This though, does not mean that they will be able to ever come back to
the country, Pacheco explained, even if they leave on their own accord
and not through a deportation order. "There are no legal grounds for the
deportation order," Pacheco said. Tony Aschettino, an ISM member working
from Bethlehem, said that Mussleman and Mauger were moved to Ramleh
prison on Monday, May6 , and have both been on a hunger strike ever
since.

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