Ewa Jasiewicz Still in Israeli Detention { audio + photos }
international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report 
Sunday August 22, 2004 12:19
by redjade
{ photos by redjade }
.
Speakers Square, Dublin 21 June 2004
Comments (17 of 17)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17Chronology of Ewa Jasiewicz Arrest and Detention in Israel:
Ewa Jasiewicz arrested at Tel Aviv Airport
14.08.2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296237.html
Journalist Ewa Jasiewicz arrested at Tel Aviv Airport and denied access to Israel and Palestine for alledgedly "not being objective" in her previous coverage.
Ewa was supposed to be deported yesterday morning, but is appealing the decision. A date for appeal will be set on Sunday.
She is apparantly in good health.
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Ewa Jasiewicz in Israeli detention centre for witnessing childs death
18.08.2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296491.html
Ewa Jasiewicz wants to stress that the reason she has been detained by Israeli security in a detention facility at Ben Gurion airport is because she witnessed the death of Baha Al-Bahesh in Nablus, Palestine, on the 22nd of September 2002.
Following the death of 13 year old Baha Ewa went on national television to bear witness to his murder, thereby identifying herself as a Palestinian solidarity worker and complicating her return to the country. Baha was killed by a bullet through his chest, shot by an Israeli soldier while Baha himself was unarmed. By denying Ewa entry to the country and imprisoning her Israel's security forces are trying to silence the fact of Baha's death, and all other victims of the occupation in Palestine.
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Ewa Jasiewicz Update
19.08.2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296545.html
The National Union of Journalists has got behind Ewa's case, writing a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. I was not clear, but it sounded as if the Israeli NUJ (possibly the National Federation of Israeli Journalists) has also got involved, which is obviously excellent.
Apparently there has been much diplomatic squabbling between the Israeli Embassy in London and the NUJ.
Ewa was due to hear this morning whether she would be allowed to stay or not.
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Ewa Jasiewicz released!
19.08.2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296561.html
Secret evidence was presented to the judge by the Israeli secret service that, according to her attorney, Yael Barda, "had deemed her a terrorist." However, the credibility of the evidence provided by the secret service is in question if the judge has decided to allow the journalist to be released.
From the detention center in Ben Gurion, Ewa declared that the judges' decision was "a partial victory," and that "real victory will be won when I am is allowed to travel where ever I feel it is necessary to carry out my work as a journalist."
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Detained British journalist wins entry to Israel
19.08.2004
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/467071.html
A British journalist linked to a pro-Palestinian group will be freed from detention and allowed to enter Israel, but not the West Bank, her lawyer said yesterday.
Eva Jasiewicz was detained at Ben-Gurion International Airport and refused entry on Aug. 11. The authorities say she is an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group that leads protests in the West Bank and Gaza. Its members often position themselves in front of IDF troops to interfere with military operations.
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UK writer gets limited entry
19.08.2004
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1092884508907&p=1006688055060
The National Federation of Israeli Journalists sent a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon arguing that, "The arrest of foreign journalists and the limiting of their journalistic work causes damage to the good name of Israel. This damage is 10 times greater than biased or even hostile reporting.... Israel takes pride in being the only democracy in the Middle East and for its freedom of the press. It needs to allow this freedom also for foreign journalists."
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Ewa Jasciewicz - still locked up.
20.08.2004
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/08/296617.html
Judge orders member’s release, but she stays in jail A JUDGE in Tel Aviv ordered the release of London Freelance Branch member Ewa Jasiewicz on Thursday 19 April - but the following day, just an hour after her bail was posted, the State appealed to the Supreme Court - so that Ewa would stay in jail over the weekend at least.
{ audio by redjade }
Ewa Jasiewicz Speech
http://SpeakersSquare.org
Full Speech 30mins / 27megs
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/spsq9-eva-june21.04.mp3
Excerpt from Speech 3mins / 1.4megs
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/eva-excerpt-june21.04.mp3
I suppose the fact she travels on a false passport has no bearing on the matter!
Detained British reporter's case heard
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Izenberg, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 23, 2004
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A British journalist who has been detained at Ben Gurion Airport since her arrival on August 11 said on Monday she came here to write about the Israeli peace movement so that the world would see something other than photos of Israeli soldiers.
The journalist, Ewa Jasiewicz, spoke during her appeal against the government's decision to bar her from entering Israel on the grounds that she posed a security threat. Her lawyer, Yael Berda, charged that the accusation was baseless and that Jasiewicz had simply angered Israeli authorities during a visit in 2002 by demanding that the army investigate an incident in which a 14-year-old Palestinian was shot and wounded by soldiers in Nablus.
During that same visit, Jasiewicz participated in activities of the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group fighting against the Israeli presence in the West Bank and Gaza in non-violent ways. Jasiewicz participated in IMS activities aimed at preventing the IDF from demolishing Palestinian houses, building the security fence and blocking off Palestinian access to roads in the West Bank.
Berda also charged that the Interior Ministry, which was the government institution which officially denied Jasiewicz entry, was acting blindly on the instructions of the Shin Bet.
This is Jasiewicz's third visit to Israel and the territories. Last year, she came here on a passport bearing a different name for fear that the authorities might stop her from entering because of her actions the previous year. When she came this year, she at first denied to interrogators at the airport that she had entered Israel in 2003.
During the hearing, Berda questioned a Shin Bet representative known as "Tomer," who told the court that "the IMS has not been declared a terrorist organization but we are concerned that activists of the organization, because of their very close ties with terrorist activities, consciously or unconsciously help terrorist actions."
Jasiewicz told the court she had interviewed terrorists as part of her journalistic work, but maintained that she had not been duped into helping them. "I am a professional journalist and I know when people are being manipulated and no on can do that to me," she said. "I know myself. My agenda is no secret. I am against racism and fascism and in favor of peace."
The court will decide on Jasiewicz's appeal on Wednesday. Last week, the court allowed the British journalist to leave the Ben Gurion Airport detention area while the hearing was proceeding. This time, however Judge Drora Pilpel refused a similar request by Berda, and Jasiewicz returned to the Ben Gurion detention area until the decision is handed down.
The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounced Israel and imposed diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport.
The plot, which involved obtaining a passport in the name of a tetraplegic man who had not spoken in years, provoked a furious reaction yesterday.
"The breach of New Zealand laws and sovereignty by agents of the Israeli government has seriously strained our relationship with Israel," said the prime minister, Helen Clark.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1262362,00.html
But the New Zealand scam highlighted a wider international strategy by Mossad. In 1997, Israel was forced to apologize to Canada after two Mossad agents, using fake Canadian passports, failed in a bid to assassinate the Hamas leader Khalid Meshal in Amman, the Jordanian capital. They used a nerve agent in an aerosol can and sprayed it at Meshal but only managed to use half its content. As they fled, they were arrested.
Meshal was rushed to a hospital and placed on a respirator while the two Israeli agents—Barry Beads and John Kendall—were interrogated. Later that day, King Hussein of Jordan, the late father of the present king, phoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/israeli_agents.html
but it's the same method that secret agents all over the world use. Not only Mossad. Something like "copying in a test is allowed, don't dare to get caught". You can't be really secret agent with an Israeli passport. Usually you won't use ur true name as well. If you are a secret agent in a mission, a fake foreign passport is what you'll take.
If its agents get cought, well - its the damn right of New-Zealand to judge them.
Using false passport, or passport at other name than yours, makes you look suspicious. No wonder that she was put in detention.
I belive she'll be released soon.
Anyone else with any information on how this is going please, please post it up.
according to Guardian media section (subscription).
i don't know if she appeal or not.
Ewa changed her name by deed poll - perfectly legal and above board - as she believed (and rightly, it turns out) that travelling using her real passport would be problematic.
In my passport, there is a special place for former name - it has to appear in the passport, even if I changed it. legally.
Isn't it the same with British passport?
How could she carry a passport with a different name?
The Israeli Ministry of the Interior has decided that I may not speak to the media. This attempt to silence me is not new; deportation and imprisonment for political reasons are the highest form of censorship. In this particular case the attempt to cut off my voice is part of a long term Israeli state attack on three vital narratives.
The first narrative is composed of the international activists -- the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and others who act against the Occupation.
[....]
The second narrative is that of the Israeli peace movement and the refusniks -- those who take the most direct action against the Occupation by refusing to serve in it.
[....]
The third narrative is that of the Palestinian people, and the daily terror that they face. The two other stories are based on this fact. Thousands of Palestinians are in prison, many arrested under the same 'secret evidence' that is being used against me; evidence that the accused can never see, and thus can never challenge. This 'evidence' is shorthand for politically directed aggression aimed at suppressing social movements.
The International Federation of Journalists today accused Israel’s legal process of creating a “camouflage of democracy” after a British journalist was forced to quit the country after spending three weeks under airport detention in Tel Aviv.
The IFJ says that legal rulings in the case of Ewa Jasiewicz, a writer for a left-wing journal in the UK, were “inconsistent and dangerous.” Conflicting court judgments finally led yesterday to a conclusion from the Israeli Supreme Court that would allow Ms. Jasiewicz to enter Israel, but not to visit the Palestinian territories, the original purpose of her visit. In the circumstances she decided to pack her bags and go home.
“This case has been a roller-coaster journey through the Israeli legal system demonstrating just how much legal camouflage surrounds Israeli democracy,” said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. “This smacks of political discrimination not justice. We have witnessed unfair discrimination with judges reaching a verdict on the professional capacity of a journalist even before she had the opportunity to ask a single question or write a single word.”
From 29 August to 1 September, the Israeli Interior Ministry had banned Ewa Jasiewicz from contact with the media.
more at....
In one hand, you write she was "forced to quit the country after spending three weeks under airport detention in Tel Aviv".
In the other hand you write "Israeli Supreme Court that would allow Ms. Jasiewicz to enter Israel, but not to visit the Palestinian territories, the original purpose of her visit. In the circumstances she decided to pack her bags and go home".
i.e - she wasn't forced - she decided to leave.
In court Ms. Jasiewicz claimed she came to write about Israeli left and anti-occupation movements. That mission could have done very well in Israel, without entering Palestine.
Dear British service person in Iraq.
I met some of you in Basra this year, guarding the Republican Palace/Occupation HQ. You were told not to speak to me but you did so anyway. You were open and frank about your conditions, how you felt local people were interacting with you; you felt frustrated by the hostility some were feeling towards you. But you also felt pride about having helped remove a dictator from power.
[....]
According to the Manual of Law of Armed Conflict for the British Military, 'Orders to commit crimes against humanity are considered to be manifestly unalwful. Orders from a superior,in this context, include orders from a government or superior military or civilian law or national regulation. The serviceman is under duty to Not obey a manifestly unalwful order'.
You are within your rights to refuse orders which are in breach of international humanitarian law.
read more at....
Thames Magistrates’ Court, Bow Road E3, 9.30 am, Wednesday 14 September:
Two activists (Eva & Steven) who occupied the offices of Windrush Communications – the organizer of a string of Iraq-related business conferences – will challenge the legality of privatization measures imposed on Iraq by the US and UK at their trial next Wednesday.
They were arrested for ‘Aggravated Trespass’ – during an occupation of
Windrush’s offices last December – will argue that they were attempting to prevent a crime, namely the illegal sell-off of Iraqi assets. This case represents the first ever
legal challenge to the economic reforms imposed on Iraq. A motley collection of pirates, carrying a banner saying ‘STOP THE CORPORATE PLUNDER OF IRAQ’ will be outside the court
from 9.30am to help draw attention to the case.
In September 2003 the US occupation authorities passed a law permitting the sale of Iraq’s non-oil industries to foreign buyers [A] – exactly the sort of “major structural economic reform” that the UK Attorney-General had stated would “not be authorized under international law” [B]. Since then Windrush Communications has organised a series of ‘Iraq Procurement’ conferences, bringing together major Western
corporations such as Shell and Bayer, and representatives from the US, British and Iraqi governments [C].
Ewa Jasiewicz - who spent nine months living in occupied Iraq and works closely with the Iraqi trade union the General Union of Oil Employees [D], which is resisting the privatisation of Iraq’s oil - said: “Modern day pillage looks like this. Occupiers do not have the right to restructure a country’s economy in this manner. What was illegal in September 2003 is still illegal now. This case will finally see the economic occupation of Iraq on trial.”
The defendants are seeking disclosure of all advice given to the British Government by the Attorney General. A refusal may see Lord Goldsmith summoned. Expert evidence from academics and Journalist Naomi Klein is also expected to be heard at the trial.
Contact:
Ewa Jasiewicz 07749 421 576 or freelance@mailworks.org
NOTES
[A] See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1046868,00.html
[B] See
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1062049,00.html
[C] See http://www.iraqdevelopmentprogram.org
[D] See http://www.basraoilunion.org
Iain
e-mail: stopthepillage@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://www.radicalactivist.net/corporateiraq.shtml
Why did she not talk to the activists in Israel. Which Israeli Left was she interested in, if she couldn't be bothered interviewing them when she was there. She travelled in on a false passport last year, so any nation would be suspicious of her. She should be in jail for having travelled on a false passport. The Palestinian supporting causus will believe anything and are willing to accept anything from the enemies of Israel.
Ewa Jasiewicz hits Monbiot with this:
and then George Monbiot fires back....
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