Deported architect arrives back from Israel

An architect from Dublin who was deported by Israel after his arrest at a pro-Palestine demonstration in the occupied West Bank flew into Dublin last night. He insisted he had been unjustly expelled from the Middle East.

Relatives and members of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign cheered and waved banners as Mr Salah Afifi (25) arrived at Dublin Airport shortly after 9 p.m.

He had spent the past week in the Ramle detention centre near Tel Aviv. Israeli soldiers arrested Mr Afifi in the northern West Bank village of Huwarra, along with five French and three US nationals, during a protest at a checkpoint.

Mr Afifi told The Irish Times he had been well treated in prison but the circumstances surrounding his deportation remained unclear. The Israeli authorities had put him behind bars without explanation and informed him he would be sent home on the first available flight.

His ordeal, he said, had reaffirmed his belief Israel was waging an indiscriminate campaign of terror against the Palestinian people. "I was treated with a degree of humanity. The Israelis don't want to mess with the internationals. The five days in jail were easy. I was in with people who had spent a year in jail," he added.

During his time in the West Bank town of Nablus, Mr Afifi came under fire from Israeli snipers. However, he believes the soldiers were threatening him with warning shots and his life had not been in danger.

The presence of Westerners in Nablus had saved locals from certain death, he said. "We were put into a family home due to be demolished. It was spared while others around it were reduced to rubble by Israeli troops."

Apologising to his parents for "putting them through hell", he said he would not hesitate to return to the West Bank. He did not believe he would be allowed back into Israel for at least six years.

He is the second Irish national deported by Israel in the past six months. In May, Cork nurse Ms Mary Kelly was sent home when she was arrested at the end of the five-week siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Another Irish national, Mr Colm Breachnach (28), also from Dublin, has been staying, along with two US citizens, in a house marked for destruction in a densely populated refugee camp near Nablus.