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Israel Tunes Out: Denies entrance to Bay Area piano tuner
El Cerrito's Paul Larudee is the latest of over 10,000 visitors denied entry to Israel, including human rights workers, journalists, nonviolent activisist and aid workers
ISM MEDIA GROUP - "This is something small I can do to make life under occupation just a little more bearable for people, so I do it."
Paul Larudee, Ph.D, a 60-year-old piano tuner from El Cerrito, California travels with the tools of his trade and had twenty piano-tuning engagements scheduled around the occupied West Bank.
However, when he got off the plane in Tel Aviv Sunday night, Israeli authorities pulled him from the line, interrogated him about his political beliefs, not about his ability to tune pianos, and took him to an immigration detention center at Ben Gurion Airport. They intend to put him back on a plane today.
Dr. Larudee has visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories four times and has lived in the region. He has a PhD in linguistics from Georgetown University. Although never arrested or detained in the past, Israeli authorities have now decided to deport him based on his outspoken support for the work of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Palestinians' right to nonviolently resist occupation.
Israeli attorney Gabi Lasky stated: "The policy of blacklisting a nonviolent peace activist as persona non grata, then denying them access to the Occupied Territories because of their nonviolent activities raises questions regarding Israel's intentions to resolve the conflict through dialogue and nonviolent means".
While airport officials routinely forbid entry to anyone involved with ISM, such denials run counter to Israeli policy. The Ministry of the Interior openly states that it does not seek to stop those involved with ISM from entering the country.
Dr. Larudee will refuse to get on a plane to be deported against his will, while attorney Lasky is appealing the deportation order on his behalf. His family and friends are concerned for his health while he’s in detention, since he is diabetic and has specific dietary and medical needs.
The International Solidarity Movement calls on Israel's Department of the Interior to honor its stated policies and not discriminate against peaceful individuals such as Sr. Larudee on the basis of their beliefs.
For more information, please contact
ISM Media representative, Greta Berlin, Los Angeles 310-422-7242
Neta Golan at the ISM Media Office: 011-972-2-297-1824
Attorney Gabi Lasky: 011-972-544-418-988
Paul Larudee, Ph.D, a 60-year-old piano tuner from El Cerrito, California travels with the tools of his trade and had twenty piano-tuning engagements scheduled around the occupied West Bank.
However, when he got off the plane in Tel Aviv Sunday night, Israeli authorities pulled him from the line, interrogated him about his political beliefs, not about his ability to tune pianos, and took him to an immigration detention center at Ben Gurion Airport. They intend to put him back on a plane today.
Dr. Larudee has visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories four times and has lived in the region. He has a PhD in linguistics from Georgetown University. Although never arrested or detained in the past, Israeli authorities have now decided to deport him based on his outspoken support for the work of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and the Palestinians' right to nonviolently resist occupation.
Israeli attorney Gabi Lasky stated: "The policy of blacklisting a nonviolent peace activist as persona non grata, then denying them access to the Occupied Territories because of their nonviolent activities raises questions regarding Israel's intentions to resolve the conflict through dialogue and nonviolent means".
While airport officials routinely forbid entry to anyone involved with ISM, such denials run counter to Israeli policy. The Ministry of the Interior openly states that it does not seek to stop those involved with ISM from entering the country.
Dr. Larudee will refuse to get on a plane to be deported against his will, while attorney Lasky is appealing the deportation order on his behalf. His family and friends are concerned for his health while he’s in detention, since he is diabetic and has specific dietary and medical needs.
The International Solidarity Movement calls on Israel's Department of the Interior to honor its stated policies and not discriminate against peaceful individuals such as Sr. Larudee on the basis of their beliefs.
For more information, please contact
ISM Media representative, Greta Berlin, Los Angeles 310-422-7242
Neta Golan at the ISM Media Office: 011-972-2-297-1824
Attorney Gabi Lasky: 011-972-544-418-988
For more information:
http://www.palsolidarity.org
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New York piano tuner defies U.S. in Cuba
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 08:33:25 -0600
By Esteban Israel Tue May 16, 4:44 PM ET
HAVANA (Reuters) - Benjamin Treuhaft believes pianos are not a threat to U.S. national security even if they are played in Cuba.
Risking fines and jail for "trading with the enemy," the New York piano tuner has shipped 237 pianos to Communist-run Cuba since 1995 to replace old
Soviet-made pianos damaged by tropical humidity and termites.
This week he returned to Havana with 200 lbs (100 kg) of tools and a dozen music lovers to help tune the second-hand pianos donated by Americans
through his non-profit "Send a Piano to Havana" program.
The 58-year-old bandana-clad activist opposes U.S. trade sanctions against Cuba on humanitarian grounds and has been to Cuba 16 times defying a travel ban for Americans.
"I was hoping to break the embargo when I first came," Treuhaft said on Tuesday as he tuned a 1934 Story & Clark Baby Grand piano donated by a woman in Concord, California.
"There was a horrible situation for pianos. The climate, the conditions, the blockade against commerce and parts," he said.
In the mid-1990s Treuhaft was fined $3,500 for going to Cuba. That did not stop him. He refused to pay.
But things have got more complicated after the Bush administration began
tightening restrictions on Cuba in 2002.
In March Treuhaft received a warning from the
<http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Treasury%0ADepartment>Treasury
Department that he would face criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison
and $1 million in fines if he went ahead with a plan to set up a copper bass
string factory in Cuba.
Treuhaft does not care that his venture violates U.S. laws designed to undermine Cuban leader Fidel Castro's
47-year rule and bring about political change in Cuba.
He plans to call the factory the Helms-Treuhaft Piano Bass String Company,
in reference to former Republican Senator Jesse Helms who sponsored a 1996
law strengthening the embargo.
"This is a holiday trip. I like to tune pianos on my holidays," Treuhaft said.
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