wfn.org | United Methodist pastor remains under arrest in Israel

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Nov. 18, 2002	News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York    
10-21-71B{531}

By United Methodist News Service

A United Methodist pastor from Washington state was still being held Nov. 18
at the Massyahu Prison in Ramle, Israel, after being arrested during a
protest in a Palestinian village.

The Rev. Gordon "Gordy" Hutchins, pastor of Highland United Methodist Church
in Tieton, Wash., was arrested Nov. 15 in Jayyous, near the border with
Israel, with eight other international protestors and one Israeli protestor.
The group had joined Palestinians who were trying to stop Israeli bulldozers
from proceeding with the building of a "separation wall" that they say will
illegally annex much of their fertile farmland into Israel.

Jenny Brav, a former employee of the United Methodist Board of Church and
Society, also was a part of the protest but was not arrested. Brav is in
Israel and the Palestinian territories as a volunteer with the International
Solidarity Movement. 

Hutchins was wearing his clergy collar at the time of the incident, Brav
said.

"My impression was he was really there to make sure no one was going to get
hurt," she told United Methodist News Service in a Nov. 18 telephone
interview. "I was really impressed with him."

Hutchins reportedly had traveled to the Middle East with a Lutheran group
from Minnesota to help Palestinians with the olive harvest. The Rev. Sandra
Olewine, a United Methodist missionary based there, said U.S. Embassy
personnel visited Hutchins in the prison on Nov. 18.

The Israeli demonstrator and an Irish citizen, who was put on a plane out of
Israel, were released Nov. 16. However, four women and four men, including
Hutchins, had been held under the charge of being in a closed military zone
and given the status of "pending deportation." A hearing for the men is set
for Nov. 19 in Jerusalem, Olewine reported. The other men are Cary Gibbons,
United Kingdom; Thomas Linner, Canada; and Ole Martin, Sweden.

A hearing for the four women took place Nov. 18, according to Brav. The women
- Susan Barney of Massachusetts, Rodhika Sainath of California, Esther Serra
of Spain and Charlotte Carson of Ireland - were released but required to post
bail. The Supreme Court in Jerusalem ruled that they could stay in Israel
until their visas expired but could not return to the Occupied Territories,
she added.

On Nov. 15, after his arrest, Hutchins had a phone conversation with United
Methodist Bishop Elias Galvan of Seattle and reported that he was OK except
for bruises from his handling by Israeli soldiers. But two days later,
Olewine said, Hutchins called from the prison in Ramle to say that the four
men "were experiencing food and sleep deprivation as well as beating."

The issue in Jayyous, according to Brav, is Israel's construction of a wall
the government says is necessary for security purposes. Once completed,
villagers would need permits to enter and exit the area. The farmers are
protesting because the wall is not being built on the Green Line, the
internationally recognized border between Israel and the West Bank, but in an
area that will separate the village from much of its fertile farmland, she
explained.

The loss of the land would affect 550 families in the village itself as well
as some 50,000 others in the West Bank who depend upon the produce from their
land, she added.

During the Nov. 15 protest in Jayyous, the international demonstrators had
spent several hours with Palestinians who were trying to stop bulldozers from
proceeding at a particular site. Brav said she noticed a row of demonstrators
sitting down about noon, and then the Israeli army started to use "sound
bombs," which hurt the ears, along with tear gas and rubber bullets on the
crowd. As Brav and other protestors started to leave, she turned and saw the
demonstrators in front being grabbed by Israeli soldiers.

When Olewine first spoke to Hutchins after his arrest, he said the
international demonstrators were not trying to resist the action of the
Israeli soldiers but wanted to protect the Palestinian group, which included
many women and children. For example, Hutchins said soldiers had shot tear
gas directly at the elderly woman standing next to him, and he had pushed her
aside "to block her from getting the worst of it."

# # #

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org