British student deported...social media posts 'posed a security threat'

British student Gary Spedding was deported from Israel on Friday because his social media activity allegedly posed a "security threat."

Spedding is an activist against anti-Semitism and in favor of finding a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to Sky News, Spedding arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday on a flight from London's Luton Airport. At immigration, he was taken to an interview room where he was subjected to a full body search and interrogation.

Immigration officers took Spedding's phone and went through its contents for four-to-five hours, copying content from it, according to Spedding, who kept his social media followers up to date with live updates.

"Just noticed Israeli security went through the email address I use for Alliance Party matters - they read our party proposals (confidential for party only) to the Haass talks," he wrote on Facebook.

He also said on Twitter that he has been repeatedly threatened by airport security with nine days in detention and a permanent ban from Israel.

He said he will be "seeking legal recourse through [the] Israeli court system" against the ban.

Spedding, an active youth member of Northern Ireland's Alliance Party and a Huffington Post columnist, traveled to Israel in order to meet with Israeli politicians and NGOs.

He founded and served as Vice President of the Palestine Solidarity Society at Queen's University in Belfast, and joined the Holy Land Trust - an NGO that "aspires to strengthen and empower the peoples of the Holy Land (in particular Israelis and Palestinians) to engage in spiritual, pragmatic and strategic paths that will end all forms of oppression."

Spedding said the incident will not deter him from continuing his nonviolent activist work.

Here’s their mission statement. So far, he’s so full of crap it’s coming out his ears.

The Queen’s University Belfast Palestine Solidarity Society is a student society in Northern Ireland promoting a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict based on the principles of democracy, international law, human rights and justice. The goals of the organization include emboldening students in Northern Ireland to actively build up a diverse range of views and opinions on the conflict in Israel – Palestine for the purposes of standing in solidarity with Palestinians, whilst developing a better understanding of the situation on the ground. The organization supports a moderate form of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and applies this by advocating in favor of a strategic and targeted approach to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

And here from the wiki article is the homepage of his organization:

http://blogs.qub.ac.uk/palestinesolidarity/

I must prepare for Shabbat, and will happily see what goodies have been dug up tomorrow night. If I were at Ben Gurion security, I’d have a dossier on this guy ready to hand, too.

From the Palestine Solidarity Society web site:

In a recent DUP press release, mendaciously labelling the Cooperative group’s human rights and ethical trading policy as an “Israeli boycott”, I noticed a statement from you claiming that the Co-op “by continuing this divisive boycott” would only “further hurt the livelihoods of people working in the West Bank” (Palestinians) and you then further implied that if businesses had to “relocate away from that area” it might affect the “job security” that those settler businesses “currently provide for many Palestinian employees”. Such claims are of course fallacious, demonstrating deliberate omittance on your part to draw upon documented and verifiable research such as the ‘Palestinian Workers in Settlements’ position paper from Israeli NGO Who Profits’ which refutes claims, such as yours, as being a “blatant attempt to distract public attention from the Israeli occupation and the daily hardships suffered by Palestinians, who are compelled to seek their livelihood in Israeli industries, usually in settlements.” Reports, like the above mentioned often document the working conditions in the Settlements and postulate that the settlement industry can be likened to sweatshops which exploit a cheap labour force. Indeed the political reality of the occupation doesn’t really allow Palestinian workers to make a free and informed choice regarding their own livelihoods. Another report from an Israeli organisation, Kav Laoved, entitled ‘Employment of Palestinians in Israel and the Settlements: Restrictive Policies and Abuse of Rights’ documents the obstacles and forms of exploitation faced by Palestinians. Let us also not overlook your complete failure to even acknowledge, let alone highlight, the illegality of Israel’s settlements in occupied territory – settlement of occupied territory is illegal as per the 4th Geneva Convention and The Hague regulations. Could it be that DUP representatives are shedding crocodile tears for Palestinian workers, people in truth they couldn’t care less about, in shameless efforts to obscure activities that the international community deem illegal? Surely if the DUP did care then they would be outspoken about the formation of direct trade links between Northern Ireland and ethical Palestinian companies and business, thus helping to develop the Palestinian economy as opposed to propping up illegal settlements? Why do the DUP uncritically support the right-wing policies of the State of Israel, as opposed to people of Israel, most of whom (58%) support a two-state solution? These self-righteous and sanctimonious claims unveil the true agenda of these occupation apologists – one consistently against a just peace and in favour of a permanent continuation of oppressive military occupation.

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