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23-Dec-2004

Film maker faces Israeli prison for Christmas/activist fights deportation

by: IWPS/Undercurrents

Israel/Palestine: Excerpt from IWPS press release
Kate Raphael Bender a Jewish lesbian activist from the Bay Area filed an appeal in Israeli Court on 20 December requesting that the order to deport her be revoked.

Raphael Bender has spent 12 of the last 15 months in the occupied Palestinian territories volunteering with Palestinian and international human rights groups. She was arrested on December 14 at a protest against the construction of the Apartheid Wall in Belain village, Ramallah District.

Currently Raphael Bender is being held in Tsochar Prison near Israels border with Egypt and the Gaza strip. Kelly Minio-Paluetto, 23, of Madison Wisconsin is imprisoned in the same facility. The two women were arrested while filming the severe beating of a teenage Palestinian by a group of Israeli border police.

Both have been denied bail.

IWPS contact details

Email: iwps - at - palnet.com
Tel #: +972 (0) 9 2516 644

Undercurrents press relase

A film maker from Swansea, Kelly Minio-Paluello (23) faces spending Christmas in an Israeli prison since her arrest eght days ago. The young woman was arrested by Israeli Border Police while filming a peaceful demonstration near Ramallah in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Kelly and her husband spent this year raising funds in Britain to supply Palestinian refugees with a video camera enabling them to tell their own stories.

Speaking today from Tsochar prison, 10 km from the Gaza Strip, Kelly said
"During this week I have been moved 3 times. I have been interrogated by the Ministry of the Interior, Police, Shabak and finally a judge, employed full-time at the deportation prison. Repeatedly I asked for my charges, my rights, and access to a lawyer but each time I was met with a blank stare."

Kellys husband Mika remains in Palestine. Both Kelly and Mika spent this summer being trained by and working with the Undercurrents video production charity. On December 14th, eyewitness accounts say that while filming a peaceful demonstration over confiscated land, Israeli troops fired plastic-coated bullets, tear gas,sound bombs and used batons against the demonstrators. Five Palestinians were wounded, and three Internationals and four Israeli campaigners were beaten and arrested.

Speaking from her cell, Kelly added
"The kindness and strength of the women I have met in this prison system continues to amaze me. In a situation of dehumanization where we are called 'Mongolia', 'China', 'USA', 'English' instead of our names, where there are only a female prison is run only by male guards, where those same guards burst into our cells at any hour of day without knocking, where are cells have no doors to the shower or the rooms where we change, each the woman goes out of her way to help the others cope and survive."

Paul O'Connor, from award winning production company Undercurrents said
"It is imperitive that we learn of the situation from all sides in the Middle East. By arresting independent film makers, Israel is ensuring that only their side of the story is told. Minio-Paluellos arrest is illegal and the people of Britain should condemn this blatent form of censourship."

Contact
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+44 (0)1792 455900

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