Apartheid Israeli Government Forcibly Returns University Student Berlanty Azzam to Gaza

Deported BU student to test Israeli movement restrictions

Published today (updated) 05/11/2009 11:57

Bethlehem - Ma'an -

An early-evening court appearance on Tuesday saw Israeli prosecutors deliver a statement declaring 21-year-old student Berlanty Azzam illegally residing in the West Bank.

Berlanty, a fourth-year Business Administration student at Bethlehem University three credits shy of graduation, was seized from a mini-bus on her way back to Bethlehem from a job interview in Ramallah on 29 October. She was kept at an Israeli military checkpoint inside the West Bank for five hours then blindfolded and transported to the Gaza Strip, where her family lives.

Lawyers from the Israeli human rights group Gisha were denied permission to visit Berlanty before she was forcibly removed from the West Bank and transferred into Gaza.

According to a spokesperson at Bethlehem University, the Israeli court set a hearing date of 12 November, which she called "good news" since a slow court process would make it unlikely for Berlanty to be able to travel back to Bethlehem to finish her degree.

The spokesperson said Israeli lawyers had indicated their intent to defend Berlanty's deportation as legal, since she did not have a permit to live in the West Bank.

Gisha, the firm defending Berlanty, will argue that the young woman left Gaza legally, with a permit to visit Jerusalem in 2005, and returned to a Palestinian Area. They will argue that Israel has no jurisdiction to determine which Palestinian areas Palestinians can live and travel in. Their stance is that as a Palestinian Berlanty does not need a permit to live in Bethlehem, an area under Palestinian Authority control.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.