DEPORTATION OF PROMINENT BRITISH HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Angie Zelter, a prominent nonviolent peace and human rights activist from Norfolk, is tonight awaiting deportation in a cell at Ben Gurion airport, Israel.
Having arrived at Ben Gurion airport on Monday, , was bundled up in a blanket by Israeli authorities and forced on to a plane, which refused to take her. She has today lost her fight against deportation in the Tel Aviv District Court, where she was supported by numerous Israeli and international citizens, among them Arik Asherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, who were threatened with arrest for trying to prevent her forcible removal.
Zelter wants to stay and fight the deportation ruling. In the next few hours, another attempt may be made to force Zelter onto a plane. The courtroom was overrun by police, who sought to oust Zelter’s Israeli supporters, and prevent access to knowledge about what will happen to Zelter.
Zelter is a longtime British peace and justice activist. She is renowned as a founder of Trident Ploughshares, a prominent anti-nuclear organization. Her newest project is the International Women’s Peace Service-Palestine, a nonviolent human rights monitoring and intervention organization based in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. Zelter’s long-time peace work is the subject of a documentary currently being produced for British television. Like Uri Avnery and Felicia Langer, Zelter was a recipient in 2001 of the Right Livelihood award, often called the “Alternative Nobel Prize”.
Upon her arrival at the airport on Monday, Zelter was detained as a ‘security risk’. She was placed in a holding cell at the airport police station and told that she would be immediately put on a flight back to Britain. The UK intervened to stop the deportation temporarily. Police attempted to physically put her on a plane back to London, but Zelter argued so profusely that the flight crew refused to have her on board.
The reasons for Zelter’s impending deportation must be made public. If Zelter is forced against her will to return to Britain without legitimate reason, it will reveal that Israel does not adhere to the rule of law in its policies towards nonviolent internationals who support justice for Palestinians.

For more information:
www.womenspeacepalestine.org
www.tridentploughshares.org
www.rightlivelihood.se