Israel set to deport Irish protester

A Dublin architect arrested by the Israeli army during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the occupied West Bank is expected to…

A Dublin architect arrested by the Israeli army during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the occupied West Bank is expected to be deported today. Mr Salah Afifi, (25), from Ranelagh, is due to arrive in Ireland after 9 p.m.

A member of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), Mr Afifi is being held in the Ramle detention centre.

He was arrested a week ago in the northern West Bank village of Huwarra along with five French and three US nationals during a protest at a checkpoint.

It is Israel's policy not to pay deportees' air fares and Mr Afifi has been detained while the Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv attempted to book a commercial flight for him. He is expected to fly to Dublin via Budapest.

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Mr Afifi is said to be in good health and insisted he has no regrets about his actions.

He will be the second Irish national deported by Israel this year.

In May, Cork nurse Ms Mary Kelly was sent home when she was arrested after the end of the five-week siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

In a statement issued last night by the IPSC, Mr Afifi, whose father is Palestinian, accused Israel of indiscriminate brutality.

A second Irish national, Mr Colm Breathnach (38), also from Dublin, has been staying along with two US citizens in a house marked for destruction in the densely populated al-Farra refugee camp near Nablus.

The three-storey house belongs to the Ghul family, whose son died in a suicide bombing.