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Greetings to you all,

Greg Rollins, a Canadian member of CPT is now in prison detention for his 12th day. NO CHARGES HAVE BEEN LAID AGAINST HIM! He was detained while watching Israeli soldiers detaining Palestinian men. He has been served with a deportation order even though no charges have been laid against him. His lawyer is contesting conditions of his release which include 1) 15000 shekels bail 2) must stay at a known address in Israel 3) must leave Israel by when his visa expires on June 5. EVEN MORE TROUBLING FOR OTTAWANS IS THE FACT THAT COLIN STUART APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN DETAINED AT THE TEL AVIV AIRPORT. He was on the flight that arrived here but after 5 hours he has not appeared. Israeli authorities refuse to give any details, claiming security reasons. As soon as we know what has happened to Colin we will inform you. As of now it is possible that he will be sent back to Canada. If this happens it will be a sad day for all. However when morning comes here Colin may be with us. We sincerely hope so. All Colin wanted to do was to come in a totally peaceful manner and learn of what is the reality of present day Israel-Palestine. If this is a crime worthy of deportation, then God help us all.

This is just part of an overall attempt to restrict and eventually eliminate the role of international peaceful observers in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli government says that they are doing this for our saftey since two international peacekeeepers have been shot by Israeli troops and Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer. However our Israeli peace worker colleagues have another explanation.

Not only are international peacekeepers being targeted but Israeli peace groups themselves are being targeted. Recently two completely Israeli groups have been called in for questioning by the Israeli Security Services branch. They are Rabbis for Human Rights and the Israeli Committe Against House Demolitions. They are having a press conference tomorrow in Jerusalem to expose this dangerous new trend. Since I am now in Jerusalem I will be attending this press conference. (By the way since I am in Jersualem I need to be reached by the above hotmail address.) Our Israeli colleagues say the real reason for all of these restrictions is to prevent people from really knowing what is happening in the occupied territories.

I know this must sound like strange news when you are probably reading about bold new peace initiatives here in the Middle East. The contradiction between public pronouncements and actions on the ground is really quite mindboggling.

By the way I was able to share some of this news during a radio broadcast with a radio station in Windsor. I want to thank all of you who contributed to the press conference in Ottawa recently. Bravo to you all!

Warm wishes of peace,

Eric