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Dear all:<br><br>
I was released tonight at about 6:00 p.m. after some last minute
screwing<br>
around by the prison and the Ministry of Interior (surprise, surprise),
and<br>
incredible awesome superlative hard work and persistence by Dunya and
Susi.<br>
Thanks so much to all of you for your work, agitation, support,
love,<br>
messages, cosmic hugs and every other thing. It feels great to be
free, I<br>
had a lovely dinner with Dunya and Susi and am now getting ready to
sleep<br>
before going to bed so we can all be sane for tomorrow's Mikarov
session. I<br>
cannot say enough about the organizing efforts of Dunya, Susi, Karin,
Deeg,<br>
Tory and Naomi, and I know there are many others who are not on that
list<br>
who should be. The whole IWPS house team has done an outstanding
job as<br>
always, picking up my slack and also other work to leave Dunya more time
to<br>
work on my case. Anat, Jonathan, Francheska, Jeremy, Arik, Naama,
and a lot<br>
of other Israelis have pulled out all the stops for Frederick and
me. I<br>
know that in general, I have had the easy part, just sitting around
studying<br>
Arabic and sleeping 10 or 12 hours a day, while others worked day and
night.<br>
All of you are amazing people in my life, and I am privileged to know
and<br>
work with you.<br><br>
Now we look at the future, and there are three important
pieces.<br><br>
Legally, we will see about finding long-term legal assistance and filing
to<br>
stop the deportation and defend the right of internationals to witness
and<br>
accompany Palestinian resistance here. This must include but not be
limited<br>
to the right of Jewish visitors who do not support the policies of
the<br>
apartheid government to equal protection with those who do. I
am<br>
particularly interested in finding out if a trial will enable us to show
the<br>
tape that I shot and other documents of the army's assaut on
nonviolent<br>
demonstrators in Budrus. If it seems likely, I will do everything
possible<br>
to make sure that that trial happens, and that I can be here for
it. Right<br>
now, the terms of my release are that I must leave the country by
January<br>
17, and the trial will not take place before that. However, certain
things<br>
are required to be done for that date to be in effect.<br><br>
Second, we need to continue the campaign to Stop the Apartheid Wall, and
the<br>
other work we are doing to end the occupation and promote a more
just<br>
society in Palestine/Israel. For Dunya, Susy and me, that means
helping to<br>
coordinate the next days of Mikarov, which is the critical five-day stay
in<br>
the northern West Bank. Because I am barred from going to the
occupied<br>
territories, I probably will not be able to participate in the actual
group<br>
activities, but there are still logistics to arrange and I will help
with<br>
that. I also want to download the video from Budrus and some other
footage<br>
to make a short piece on women's resistance to the Wall, that can be
used<br>
both in and out of the country to mobilize and hopefully capitalize on
the<br>
publicity our case has received here, in Europe and the States.
Israeli and<br>
international activists are continuing to provide accompaniment and<br>
documenting in Budrus, and we will help to coordinate this as long
as<br>
needed. Also, I spoke with my friend Ayad in the village tonight
when I was<br>
released, and learned that his brother and another organizer were
arrested<br>
there a week ago. They are held in Ofer Prison. We will be
doing<br>
everything we can to get them released. When I get more
information,<br>
hopefully tomorrow, I will be sending you requests for urgent action
on<br>
their behalf, and I hope you will do everything for them that you did
for<br>
me.<br><br>
Finally, while in prison I have written a few things about the
experience<br>
and about the little-publicized underside of Israeli apartheid, which is
its<br>
attempt to rid itself of foreign workers, especially trafficked sex
workers,<br>
while importing new ones every day. Since I saw first-hand the
conditions<br>
under which women are held and the routine denial of human and civil
rights,<br>
because they do not have access to the media, to lawyers or to
international<br>
support, I want to get out the word on this and see if we can make a
change.<br>
I met an inspiring young woman from Liberia, who has been imprisoned
for<br>
nearly three months because the Ministry and the UN are dragging their
feet<br>
on her refugee status. At one point today, I wrote in my journal,
"I can't<br>
believe there are press conferences and demonstrations about me, and
not<br>
about her." I want especially to see what I can do to help her
situation.<br><br>
So I will be busy until I leave, and when I return to the States,
around<br>
February 12, I hope to be able to speak and show slides and video about
what<br>
I have witnessed and experienced. I will focus especially on IWPS's
two<br>
major projects: the campaign against the Apartheid Wall, and
Mikarov<br>
(Neighbor To Neighbor), our Israeli public education project. I
am<br>
especially interested in speaking to Jewish communities, women's
groups,<br>
church groups and schools, but would be happy to do anything that
anyone<br>
wants to organize. I expect to be in Washington, D.C., Richmond,
VA, San<br>
Francisco, Seattle and Boston, and possibly Montreal. Would be
happy to go<br>
anywhere else but probably couldn't pay for travel there.<br><br>
Feel free to give my email and phone number (972-(0)67-387-806) to<br>
responsible media and others who have legit reasons to contact me.
In the<br>
next days I will send out some more detailed pieces about the
demonstration<br>
in Budrus, my detention, arrest and incarceration, and the situation
in<br>
Khadera, which you can hopefully use or at least appreciate.<br><br>
Sorry for not using bcc, but for some reason my email isn't allowing
it<br>
tonight.<br><br>
Lots of love and Happy New Year,<br><br>
Kate<br><br>
<br><br>
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