Frank Barat, coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine joins Israel’s blacklist of human rights activists banned from entry.
On Wednesday 24th of April after 4 hours of interrogation by Shabak (Israel’s internal secret service) and 23 hours in jail Barat was deported to Brussels where he is currently based.
Frank Barat was going to visit Israel/Palestine on a personal capacity but also had been scheduled to take part in a conference about Palestinian political prisoners in Ramallah. During his interrogation he was asked to provide security officers access to his email account, a security practice under a new law. It is not uncommon for activists working in the West Bank to be deported from Israel, even without ever exiting the airport.
Frank Barat has written numerous articles about Palestine and co-edited books with Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pape and Asa Winstanley.
ECCP (European Coordination of Committeess and Associations for Palestine) condemns Israel for illegal detention and deportation of Frank Barat – coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine as well as for the new practices that allows Shin Bet Security Service proceed to access emails of tourists landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. Allowing security agents to take such invasive measures at their own discretion demonstrates that Israel is not a democratic state. Such a law constitutes a violation of the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights (Art 8) and endangers solidarity movements as a whole.
ECCP joins RToP call of worldwide solidarity with the Palestinian People until they achieve their right to self determination.