Czech pro-Palestine activist expelled from Israel returns home

The Israeli security forces detained Novakova in Ramallah on the Palestinian territories on the West Bank in the night of Monday.

Czech consul Dusan Kralik, from the embassy in Tel Aviv, said of Monday Novakova had stayed in the country longer than her visa permitted.

However, Novakova's defence counsel Omer Schatz said the visa expiration had not been the reason for the activist's detention, the French AFP agency has reported.

"Some 20 fully armed soldiers and immigration police came to my flat at 3:00 in early morning hours," Novakova told reporters after her arrival in Prague.

The official reason for her detention was that she was staying in the country without a valid visa, she said.

"My visa expired sometimes in September," she added.

"It is true that I was staying in Israel illegally, but Israel is illegally occupying the Palestinian territories and I was arrested there illegally," she said.

According to Novakova, the Israeli immigration police wield no power on the Palestinian-administered territories where Ramallah is situated.

Novakova also complained that the Israeli security forces had allowed her to speak to a lawyer only when she had signed an agreement that she would fly from the country as soon as possible.

She was not able to contact her acquaintances on the Palestinian territories either after her detention, she added.

"I was not able to let anybody know what was happening with me," Novakova said.

Novakova has worked on the Palestinian territories as a media coordinator for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). She was to inform the world on events in the area, she told reporters after her arrival.

Her colleague in the ISM says Israel took steps against Novakova over her political involvement, and that the operation in Ramallah was not unusual.

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz