JERUSALEM: Israel will deport on Monday a British activist who was “kidnapped by settlers and assaulted” in the occupied West Bank over the weekend and subsequently transferred to police custody, his lawyer told AFP.
Finn Joughin was in the southern West Bank village of Umm Al-Khair on Saturday doing protective presence — a tactic used to deter Israeli settler violence against Palestinians — his lawyer, Inbar Shaked Vardi, said.
She said children from settler families had entered the Palestinian village’s sports center before attempting to dismantle fences that had been put up to protect residents from settler attacks.
“Finn only stood there holding on to the fence in an attempt to stop the break-in, at that point settlers began yelling at him accusations in Hebrew that he did not understand,” Vardi said.
“Settlers started accusing him of sexually harassing one of the children which is not something that happened,” she said, adding that armed settlers then took Joughin by force to a nearby settlement.
