For Immediate Release

JEWISH AMERICAN ACTIVIST WAITING FOR COURT HEARING AFTER DEPORTATION ORDER TEMPORARILY FROZEN American activist still held in Israeli detention center

[Beit Sahour, BETHLEHEM] On Friday, March 19, 2004, an appeal of deportation was submitted to the Jerusalem District Court regarding Kristin (Flo) Razowsky's deportation order. On Sunday March 21st, one week after Flo was 'officially' arrested, she was granted a temporary injunction on her deportation order until a court hearing can be scheduled. Yael Berda, Flo's lawyer has also submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Interior for Flo's release from Nazareth detention center where she has been kept for over a week now, until the yet-to-be-scheduled hearing.

Flo was arrested on Sunday March, 14 in the village of Deir Qaddis near Budrus, west of Ramallah while participating in a nonviolent action to prevent Israeli army bulldozers from continuing their work on the Apartheid Wall that will completely encircle Deir Qaddis and eight other villages in an enclave. On Wednesday, March 17, 2004, an Israeli court decision ordered the work to cease for a week in Deir Qaddis and Al-Midya's lands. Since then, the residents of these villages supported and participated in the demonstrations in the neighboring village of Kharbatha Bani Harith, where tens of Palestinians have been injured, some seriously, due to the use of excessive violence by the Israeli army against the demonstrators.

For more information, please call:

Lisa: +972 66 326 392

ISM Media Office: +972.22.77.46.02

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