Israel keeps more people out of occupied Palestine

. Israel Bars American Working With Lutheran World Federation in Bethlehem

Faith Rowold, a U.S. volunteer for Lutheran World Federation, was denied re-entry into Israel January 14 when she attempted to return from a vacation. Faith had been working as a volunteer on a religious worker visa in Bethlehem.
A number of U.S. citizens have been denied entry or face deportation recently. An American journalist Jared Malsin, who works for the Palestinian news agency Maan, also was detained and denied entry into Israel last week.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli "Interior Ministry has stopped granting work permits to foreign nationals working in most international nongovernmental organizations operating in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem." Now the ministry is granting NGO employees tourist visas only, which bar them from working.
A Washington Post article reports that "Since the summer, dozens of Palestinian and Israeli activists have been picked up…"

--this news item from Churches for Middle East Peace email today, Jan. 22,2010