Swansea woman arrested by Israel in Palestine
Emily Price
A woman from Swansea has been detained by Israeli police in Palestine, according to an activist group.
The 70 year old, known as Ms D Murphy, was arrested by Israeli authorities in the southern part of the occupied West Bank on Saturday (May 31), the International Solidarity Movement said.
The pensioner – originally from Cork in Ireland but who now lives near Swansea city centre – had been volunteering with the Palestinian anti-occupation group since May.
Before her arrest, she had joined other international activists in protecting the small Palestinian village of Khalet al-Daba’a which has been targeted by Israeli forces.
Deportation
Ms Murphy was arrested alongside a 48-year-old Swedish activist Susanne Björk after the pair were accused of being in a closed military zone.
On Monday (June 1), Israeli police made an unsuccessful attempt to deport Ms Murphy – but she refused to be put on a plane at Tel Aviv airport and called for a court trial instead.
Activists say she is now facing jail time in Israel.
Ms Murphy said: “When most governments all around the world are ignoring the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank, ordinary people like me are answering the Palestinians’ call to come and be a witness to these events being carried out by the Zionist Israeli entity.
“It’s not about politics, it’s about justice and freedom for all people.”
Detained
Ms Murphy has been in Palestine for three weeks after joining the International Solidarity Movement.
She was the founding member of Swansea Palestine Community Link and was previously detained in Israel in 2011 when she travelled there with a Welsh pro-Palestine group.
The pensioner worked for many years as a book keeper for the award winning Undercurrents media group in Swansea – an alternative news agency which produces videos on history, social justice and environmental action
Upon hearing of his mother’s arrest, Dale Ryan, who lives in Caswell, Gower said: “As far as I can see her only crime was observing crimes against Palestinian people.
“My mother has always had a strong sense of justice and I know she could not sit at home while she knew her friends in Masafer Yatta and all of Palestine were suffering unnecessarily.
“I am very proud of my mother for sticking up for the basic human rights of her friends and trying to raise awareness of the injustices the Palestinian people are experiencing.
“Of course I want her home safe with her family who love her, but I know a piece of her heart is in Palestine and she needs to be there, doing what she can.”
The village which Ms Murphy was arrested in near Masafer Yatta is inside an area that Israeli authorities designated as a military firing zone in the 1980s.
Activists say the 120 strong community is being illegally cleared by Israel.
On May 22nd, the Israeli government announced plans to establish twenty new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank – the largest expansion of Israeli settlements in decades.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Desperately trying to remember where I came across this list of dont’s:
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house
(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s) slaves, or his animals, or anything of thy neighbour
She is right, most governments are choosing to ignore the Genocide in Ghazza. Brave astounding lady, my heroine.
“freedom for all people”
Does Ms Murphy have a proposal to achieve this?
Stop fighting, start talking. For all its city razzing, the zionists have not found the remaining hostages. For all that the zionists have desamated and killed in Ghazza, Hammas have not backed down.
Da iawn! With thirty or so notable exceptions, D has more courage & humanity in her pinky finger than the whole of Westminster’s assorted menagerie. Never again shall I chide her for being late for a demo bus.
That woman has considerably more decency than most of the criminals in wastemonster.
Those of the Zionist persuasion in Israel should learn from history. The abused often become the abuser. Allowing genocide to occur in Gaza and the West Bank is a stain on humanity no amount of scrubbing or Whitewashing will ever remove. Apparently it’s a crime to care these days. Just wanting a ceasefire or merely showing support for Palestinian civilians being starved and slaughtered antisemitic. Benjamin Netanyahu reminds of cult leader Charles Manson and those within his family who he sends out to kill. What Israel is freely and openly allowed to do is truly shocking. Western governments are complicit… Read more »
There won’t be peace until everyone accepts Israel’s right to exist. That’s the only reason this wasn’t settled decades ago.