UPDATE May 12th: US/INTERNATIONAL ACTIVISTS HELD IN ISRAELI PRISON AFTER DELIVERING FOOD TO NATIVITY CHURCH; TREVOR HOPITALIZEDON 10TH DAY OF HUNGER STRIKE

American teacher, poet and community activist Trevor
Baumgartner is being held in Israel’s Ramle prison, and has been
hospitalized for three days on the tenth day of a hunger strike calling for
the Israeli Interior Ministry to keep their agreement and release him from
detention. He is one of eleven-internationl activist being held by Israeli
authorities. Baumgartner is one of four remaining U.S. humanitarian
workers detained after helping activists held after delivering food to the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on May 2. The other three have been
hunger striking for eight days and three stopped drinking water 4 days
ago. The other detained men are Nathan Musselman of Roanoke,
Virginia; Nathan Mauger of Spokane, Washington; and Thomas
Kaoutsoukos of Lake Forest (near Chicago), Illinois.

Huwaida Arraf, a US and Israeli citizen, was also hunger striking with the
four men. On May 7, she and her advocate, Leah Tsemel, made and
agreement with a representative of the Israeli Interior Ministry to allow
Arraf and the four men to leave voluntarily with a letter stating that they
would leave voluntarily, not be deported or banned. Both Arraf and the
Interior Ministry Representative signed the letter and Arraf was allowed
voluntarily back to the US with a signed letter. The four men continue to be
held and the Interior Ministry has reneged on their agreement to release
men.

Families and friends have mounted a U.S. nationwide human rights
campaign of letter writing, phone calls, vigils, protests, civil disobedience
and visits to congressional representatives, all calling for the US State
Department to stop remaining silent and call for the Israeli Interior Ministry
to honor their agreement. At least four members of US Congress have
contacted the US Embassy in Tel Aviv and numerous articles; TV and
Radio news programs have featured the story.

On May 2, a group of 23 international humanitarian
Activists carried out an emergency delivery of
food and supplies to those under siege in the
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Ten people made
it inside the Church, and the remaining 13
internationals were taken into custody by the Israeli
Defense Force. They were taken from Palestinian territory into Israel,
never arrested or charged with any crime, and have not had a hearing or
trial. Eight of the 13 were deported against their will.

On May 10, the ten international activists, including four
Americans, who have been inside Nativity Church since
May 2 were detained, handcuffed and taken by Israel from Palestinian
territory into Israel. Alister Hillman and Allan Lindgaard were
deported on May 11 and expelled from the country. Mary Kelly, Kristen
Schurre, Jacqueline Soohen, the three women, are detained in the police
station of Mahle Admin. Only yesterday, in the afternoon, 24 hours after
their arrest, they were able to call their lawyer. Larry Hales, Nauman Zaidi, Robert O’Neill, Stefan Coster e Erik Alger are now detained in the jail of Ramlle, the same jail with the 4 American men.

Trevor Baumgartner lived in Berkeley and taught with June Jordan’s
Poetry for the People Program in Berkeley High School and at UC
Berkeley. He volunteered with the Four Winds Cultural Club, an
incarcerated Native American women’s cultural association at Dublin
Federal Correctional Facility and volunteered with the Oakland-based
Prison Activist Resource Center. Last summer moved to Seattle, where
he is a childcare worker a journalist and poet. Trevor has recently been
travelling to Palestine both as a humanitarian worker and as an
independent journalist working to inform other Americans through his
writing and public talks.