Israel deports British activist who protected Palestinian children

Finn Joughin had gone to Umm al-Khair to help protect Palestinian communities from settler attacks. Instead, the 22-year-old British volunteer says he was taken at gunpoint after trying to shield children playing football.

Joughin worked with Proactive Presence, an international volunteer movement active in the southern West Bank. He said five or six settler teenagers arrived at the football pitch and tried to take it from the Palestinian children. Parents and settler families then surrounded the pitch, shouting at the Palestinians and encouraging the confrontation.

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I had just taken a seat on the side of the pitch when maybe five or six teenagers arrived and attempted to kind of take over the pitch from the Palestinian kids

Local and foreign activists intervened as young settlers tried to force open the gates of a resident’s home. Joughin said he attempted to stop the settlers from tearing down a fence, but the group kicked and shoved him. Adult settlers then put him in a chokehold and twisted his arm behind his back. Videos posted on social media showed him being taken to the illegal Carmel settler outpost at gunpoint.

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I was placed in what I’d call a concrete shed, which I was later told was a bomb shelter. They took my phone and wallet off me. They demanded to see my passport. They were kind of making accusations at me

He said the settlers took his phone and wallet and held him for about 30 minutes in what he later learned was a concrete bomb shelter. They demanded his passport and accused him of being an “anarchist”, while referring to his supposed “friends in Iran”.

When the Israeli army arrived, Joughin was taken to a police station in Kiryat Arba, in Hebron. He said that after telling soldiers he had been kidnapped, they insulted him, shouted at him and spat at him. “This was my first realisation that the Israeli police and military were going to be no less cordial or sympathetic to my situation than the settlers themselves,” he said. He was subsequently deported and faces a 10-year ban from Israel.

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This was my first realisation that the Israeli police and military were going to be no less cordial or sympathetic to my situation than the settlers themselves