Activists Irene Cho and Trudi Frost have declared that they will resist the attempts of the occupying Israeli authorities to deport them, days after they were detained from the West Bank for supporting a Palestinian family last week.

Their detention review hearing is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, December 16, in Givon Prison in Ramla. They were arrested from Al Mughayyir village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on December 11.

Grassroots movements, such as the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) and Nodutdol, have termed their arrest illegal, claiming the authorities refused to follow the basic procedures during Cho and Frost’s arrest. They have launched a campaign demanding immediate intervention from the US government in the matter.

Both Cho and Frost are US citizens. Israeli authorities revoked their staying permits arbitrarily hours before their arrest. Since they have decided to resist their deportation, it is likely that their detention may be prolonged.

Nodutdol’s campaign calls on people in the US to write to their representatives in Congress, as well as US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, to demand:

1. Cho and Frost are provided with a translator to ensure a fair hearing
2. The immediate release of Cho and Frost, as their detention is unlawful
3. Cho and Frost must have access to their lawyers and medical care

Cho and Frost were staying with a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank who had been threatened with displacement by illegal settlers. Cho has claimed she was arrested after she refused to leave a pregnant Palestinian woman alone with over a dozen Israeli military and police personnel.

Frost, prior to her arrest, had stated that she decided to volunteer as a solidarity activist because she believes that the “ethnic cleansing happening in Palestine goes against international law and against humanity,” ISM wrote in a press release.

“I believe the Palestinian people have an undeniable right to live on their own land. The struggle in Palestine is one of the highest struggles for land and I reject the Israeli colonial project’s attempt to steal the land of a family that has been living here for generations,” Cho was quoted saying by Nodutdol in another press release.

Fight until the end of Israeli occupation

Activists are also demanding the protection of the Abu Hamam family facing imminent forced displacement. The family is facing repeated attacks and harassment by the illegal settlers living in an outpost, despite the Israeli military claiming it to be a closed area.

The illegal outpost was created in May after Israeli security forces and settlers unleashed violence against 150 Palestinian families living in the area, forcing them to leave.

Israel has built hundreds of settlements and outposts illegally inside occupied Palestinian territories, in defiance of international laws displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forcefully.

Settlers repeatedly attack Palestinians living near existing settlements in the region, burning olive trees, ransacking homes, destroying cars and other properties, and even beating people after forcefully entering their homes.

Israel’s security forces often do not take any step to stop such attacks. Instead, violent settlers are often aided during such attacks by the security forces. Activists have called it a process of ethnic cleansing through which Palestinian families, living there for generations, are forced to move out of their land.

The removal of Abu Hamam’s family will ensure a continuation of the illegal settlements from East Ramallah to South Nablus, stretching all the way to the Jordan Valley, Nodutdol said in a press release, indicating the possible motive behind the Israeli move against Cho and Frost.

What is happening to Cho and Frost is nothing new. Israel has often used violence and repression against international solidarity volunteers. US citizen Rachel Corrie and Turkish-American Ayşenur Eygi were killed in the occupied territories while trying to defend the basic human rights of the Palestinians in 2003 and 2024 respectively.

Several international activists, along with the members of the Abu Hamam family, have already been injured several times in almost daily attacks carried out by the illegal settlers and the occupation forces this month.

Miyeon Jang, of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development said, “Israel has a long history of brutality against Palestinians in the West Bank, and against international activists providing a protective presence in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

“As Israel steps up its efforts to ethnically cleanse the West Bank, the world must respond with firm denunciation and solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Jang demanded, claiming that “Irene Cho and other international volunteers set a clear example for the rest of the world.”

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“The West Bank is facing perhaps the most brutal conditions of illegal occupation in recent history” warned the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), saying that “we remain committed to ending the occupation and we have deep respect for Americans and internationals who, following the footsteps of Rachel Corrie, commit great sacrifices for their solidarity with the Palestinian cause.”

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