Israel frees foreign activists seized in West Bank raid

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel's Supreme Court on Monday ordered authorities to release two foreign activists seized in a Palestinian-controlled part of the West Bank, their lawyer said.

Israeli soldiers on patrol in the West Bank (© Hazem Bader - AFP/File)

The pro-Palestinian activists -- one Spanish and the other Australian -- were freed on a bail of 25,000 shekel (6,700 dollars) each, and the court banned them from re-entering the occupied territories, Omer Shatz told AFP.

The court "acknowledged the illegality of what happened," he said.

"They admitted that the immigration police are under the interior ministry and have no authority in the occupied territories," he said.

The interior ministry was not immediately available for comment.

The two women, Ariadna Jove Marti of Spain and Bridgette Chappell of Australia, were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on their apartment in the heart of Ramallah, a West Bank town under full Palestinian control.

The military said they were taken in for overstaying their visas and transferred them to the immigration police, but fellow activists accused Israel of targeting them because of their participation in pro-Palestinian West Bank demonstrations.

Israeli forces carried out another raid overnight Monday on the Ramallah offices of the "Stop the Wall" campaign, a group that helps organise weekly demonstrations against Israel's controversial separation barrier.

The group said soldiers seized computers, documents, compact discs, video cameras and cassettes.

"We feel that the Israeli army is starting to escalate military operations against those who engage in peaceful popular struggle," Salah Khawaja, a spokesman for the group, told AFP.

He said Israel had arrested a total of 17 foreign activists in the past month and deported six of them, including a Czech activist who was seized last month in a military raid in Ramallah.

The weekly demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier in a number of West Bank towns frequently turn violent, with Palestinian youths throwing stones and Israeli forces firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

During the past two years, scores of Palestinians and Israeli security forces have been wounded in the clashes, and a number of Palestinians have been killed.