Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 1992, pages 28, 84

Walking Through Israeli Jails for Peace

Their plan was to walk for five days from June 6 to June 10 from Haifa in Israel through the occupied West Bank to Jerusalem, to express their support for Palestinians under occupation. However, the 200 international peace activists and their Palestinian and Israeli hosts were subjected to intimidation from the moment they assembled in a Lutheran church and school compound in Beit Sahour June 4 for non-violence training. As rifle-toting Israeli police peered down at them from surrounding rooftops and Israeli jets swooped over them, unleashing explosion-like sonic booms, Israeli police announced by loudspeaker that the West Bank Christian village was a "closed military area." When the activists refused to leave their Palestinian hosts to what they believed would be harsh retaliation, a curfew was clamped on the village and the activists were told that if they ventured from the compound into the street, they would be shot on sight. The next day the peace activists traveled to Jerusalem, where they participated with Israeli peace activists in the regular Friday "Women in Black" demonstration in Jerusalem. They then assembled for a vigil in the East Jerusalem Silwan neighborhood where Israelis are evicting Arabs from their homes and replacing them with jewish "settlers." The vigil culminated in a march by 500 people which was turned back by police, who tore up their signs, saying the demonstrators had crossed the Green Line without permission.

On June 6, the group assembled on a hilltop above the Atlit prison near Haifa, where Israeli soldiers who refuse to serve in the occupied territories are incarcerated, to participate in the regular Saturday demonstration by members of the Yesh Gvul organization and families of the prisoners. Then, the international contingent joined a peace group for a rally in Haifa.

On June 7, with the addition of some residents of Israel, they began their Walk for a Peaceful Future in the Middle East. They held a rally at Meggido prison, where political prisoners are jailed, then proceeded to Israel's Green Line boundary with the West Bank, en route to scheduled events in Jenin, Nablus and Ramallah.

The peace marchers were halted at the Green Line by Israeli mounted police. After futile negotiations, 113 of the walkers (including 44 U.S. and 12 Israeli citizens) were arrested at 5 p.m. For the next 48 hours, those arrested were held at Kishon, and other prisons, while those not arrested traveled by various means to scheduled events conducted by Palestinian host groups.

Despite the obstacles, and a ban on further demonstrations, one group of four walkers completed the scheduled march on foot from Ramallah to Jerusalem. There all of the group assembled at St. George's Cathedral on June 10 before disbanding.