Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

UK peace activist faces deportation by Israeli occupation authorities

International Solidarity Movement | 04.03.2013 12:40 | Smash EDO | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Policing | South Coast | World

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UK peace activist faces deportation by Israeli occupation authorities and is set to be detained by Special Branch under anti-terror powers upon return

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UK peace activist faces deportation by Israeli occupation authorities and is set to be detained by Special Branch under anti-terror powers upon return

Tom Woodhead, a British activist, is currently facing deportation by Israeli authorities after being arrested last Friday by border police at a demonstration in Kafr Qaddum, a village in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Woodhead, (born July 1984 in Sheffield), was a volunteer in the West Bank with the International Solidarity Movement since early-October last autumn. On 1 March, Woodhead was amongst several international and Israeli activists attending one of Kafr Quddom´s weekly Friday protests, with the aim of monitoring and to provide an international presence to restrain violence by the Israeli occupation forces. The regular demonstrations, which began in July 2011, are part of a local strategy by the village´s popular struggle committee to regain access to the road which leads to Nablus, the nearest city. It has been obstructed by a roadblock since 2003 and all travel to Nablus henceforth has been elongated by 14km one-way going the next shortest route.

Last Friday´s demonstration, as customary, began with approximately 150 walking up the road towards the colonial-settlement Qedumim, where the earthmound sits further along. The protestors were forced back into Kafr Qaddum with stun grenades, teargas and rubber-coated steel bullets. Afterwards, the protesters managed to gather themselves again and moved towards the village exit, where they became apprehensive at the apparent disappearance of the border police, who were accompanied by soldiers. However, when two jeeps, tailed by police on foot, sped toward the protestors, they ran back towards the village centre. At which point several border police officers burst out of a vacant building where they had been hiding and grabbed who they could of the surprised protesters running past them. Along with two Palestinians, Belal Fathi Jomaa (22) and Nayif Khalel Jomaa (17), Woodhead was arrested by three officers during which he was hit with a rifle butt, whilst one of the Palestinians was photographed being hit in the back of the head with a rock by one officer. During his arrest Tom was blindfolded and punched twice in his face. Border police 'played' with their guns making noises while he was blindfolded to scare him

The teenager is being held in Megiddo prison, where Arafat Jaradat was lethally tortured during interrogation a few days ago. The other Palestinian is interned in Huwara military base; whilst Woodhead is currently being transferred to detention by the Israeli Interior Ministry as part of his deportation ordeal. No evidence has been presented of any wrong-doing and this, ISM maintains, is due to the Israeli government not wanting any outside scrutiny of the recent upsurge of violent oppression in the West Bank.

Woodhead, had previously been one of the six activists who broke into the Brighton factory of EDO-MBM Technology and, after barricading themselves in, proceeded to damage around £200,000 worth of manufacturing equipment. Following a month-long trial in Lewes in summer 2010, they were cleared of charges of criminal damage after satisfying the court that they had lawful excuse by preventing war crimes; due to the company´s proven supply of exclusively-made equipment used by the Israeli military in the December 2008 to January 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip. Prior to his time in Palestine, Woodhead had been a first aid trainer with the British Red Cross in his city of residence, Bristol.

Upon his return to the UK, Woodhead is reasonably expected to be detained for questioning by Special Branch under Schedule VII powers provided within the Anti-Terrorism Act 2000. This is in line with the recent experiences of two researchers from Corporate Watch, campaign affiliates of Woodhead through Smash EDO. They were quizzed on a variety of personal and non-violent campaigning-related matters with no relation to any ongoing criminal proceedings and no further action taken in either case. Woodhead met with the two, Therezia Cooper and Tom Anderson, in the Jordan Valley for a memorial day held for Simon Levin, a late member of the Smash EDO and Jordan Valley Solidarity direct-action campaign groups and co-defendant in the ´decomissioners´ trial. This tactic of misusing legislation that uniquely disallows a right to silence to glean background information on activists has been condemned in articles by both ISM and Corporate Watch. (see  http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4716 and  http://palsolidarity.org/2013/02/british-activists-being-detained-in-uk-airports-under-anti-terrorism-legislation-on-return-home-from-palestine/)

International Solidarity Movement
- Homepage: www.palsolidarity.org

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. Good info — Lean
  2. Tom detained at Heathrow — Smashy
  3. Tom release — Smashy
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech