Pagine Esteri, 6 September 2023 – Last 31 August the young Italian-Palestinian researcher Khaled El Qaisi was arrested by the Israeli authorities at the Allenby crossing, between the West Bank….
Pagine Esteri, 6 September 2023 – Last 31 August the young Italian-Palestinian researcher Khaled El Qaisi was arrested by the Israeli authorities at the Allenby crossing, between the West Bank and Jordan. The researcher’s wife Francesca Antinucci and mother Lucia Marchetti gave the news.
El Qaisi, a dual national, Italian and Palestinian, was crossing the Allenby crossing with his wife and son last week on his way to Amman after spending the holidays with his family in Bethlehem. At the baggage and document check he was handcuffed under the gaze of his 4 year old son and his wife.
Antinucci explains that the requests for clarification on the reasons for the detention were not followed by any response from the Israeli border agents. Instead, she was subjected to questions and then expelled with her son to Jordanian territory, without a telephone, neither cash or contacts, in a foreign country. Only in the late afternoon did the wife and child manage to reach the Italian Embassy in Amman thanks to the help of some people.
Khaled El Qaisi, add his mother and wife, has not yet been able to meet his lawyer. We only learned that he will face a hearing before Israeli judges tomorrow, September 7, at the Rishon Lezion court.
Translator and student of Oriental Languages and Civilizations at La Sapienza University of Rome, esteemed for his commitment to the collection, dissemination and translation of historical material, he is among the founders of the Palestinian Documentation Center, an association that aims to promote Palestinian culture in Italy .
In support of Khaled El Qaisi, the parliamentary intergroup for Peace between Palestine and Israel sent a letter-appeal to the Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, to request an intervention by the Italian government authorities on the Israeli ones.
“In what is still passed off as the ‘only Middle Eastern democracy’, an Italian-Palestinian citizen, an esteemed university researcher in Italy, guilty of supporting the rights of his people, has been detained since August 31st” denounces Maurizio Acerbo, national secretary of Rifondazione Comunista, coordination of the Popular Union, which on behalf of its political formation asks that “Italy withdraw the ambassador if the Israeli government does not release our compatriot. Just as we mobilized – he adds – for the release of the student Patrick Zaki with the same determination we must do so so that Khaled can soon return to his work and his loved ones”.
THE ARREST OF KHALED EL QAISI EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 14
Khaled El Qaisi is “pretty well”. This is how the few people authorized to attend the hearing yesterday at the Rishon Lezion court described the conditions of the Italian-Palestinian researcher arrested on 31 August by the Israeli border police at the Allenby crossing while he was with his wife and son. The judges extended Khaled’s arrest until September 14 but the reasons for his arrest remain unclear and kept under strict confidentiality, as explained by the young man’s lawyer.