British Quaker arrested by Israeli authorities
Eighty-three-year-old arrested trying to visit Bethlehem
An eighty-three-year-old British Quaker has been arrested by Israeli authorities while trying to visit Bethlehem. John Lynes, a Hastings-based Quaker, is one of sixty-nine international visitors who were arrested while attempting to enter the West Bank in response to invitations from local residents. The charges against them remain unclear. John Lynes, who was born to a Jewish family, has travelled to Palestine several times and visited other areas of conflict with Christian Peacemaker Teams.
Before leaving Britain last week, he explained that supporters of Palestinians’ rights are usually deported when trying to cross from Israel into the West Bank. ‘We will refuse to be deported,’ he explained, ‘The Israelis must either imprison us, or let us proceed.’
Tina Leonard of Oxford Meeting, who has campaigned alongside John Lynes, encouraged Friends ‘to keep him in their thoughts and prayers’. She told the Friend that he is ‘self-effacing and amazing’.
The Foreign Office said that embassy staff in Israel would seek to make contact with the twelve British nationals among the detainees.
Before his departure, John Lynes said: ‘I have chosen this step without bitterness or antagonism. I wish for the Israelis what I wish for my own children – a life free from fear and hatred.’
On Tuesday morning, the Friend was told that John Lynes has been deported from Israel and is on his way home.
Comments
A small anecdote about John Lynes. John is one of the world’s leading experts on daylight in buildings. Such expertise led him to be employed by a major lighting company. That company was also involved with the weapons industry. By his non-confrontational and Quakerly approach, John managed to persuade his employer to allow him to fix anti-war posters onto the company notice boards and he demonstrated outside his place of work against the firm’s connections to the weapons industry.
By John H on 14th July 2011 - 10:55
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