Jared Malsin – an update


January 23, 2010
Richard Kuper

maan22 January 2010, email


For those who don’t know yet, Jared Malsin was deported to New York by the Israeli authorities on Wednesday. Apologies for not updating you earlier, things were a bit crazy, and after it finally happened I got some much-needed sleep!

For Ma’an’s summary of what happened to Jared, with links to our earlier press releases etc.

For Jared’s own initial reactions when we were finally able to reach him. There’s now even more coverage on the web, though much of it contains inaccuracies or is problematic. For samples of some of the more accurate/balanced coverage, see this Washington Post article, this Reuters article, and this blog entry on the Huffington Post.

We at Ma’an remain deeply grateful for all the public and private support we have received during Jared’s incarceration. For a summary of statements of support by international media NGOs/associations, see here. We also still have several questions about this case, including Jared’s treatment by the Israeli authorities while in detention, and their demand that he sign a statement without his lawyer being present on Tuesday afternoon in order to leave, which seems to have been used by the Israeli authorities to have the legal case dropped (which is not what Jared intended). It is clear that, at a minimum, Israeli authorities gave Jared misleading information about what he was signing. We are continuing in our efforts to find out exactly what happened and see whether there is any way to reopen the legal case against Jared’s deportation.

The wider issue of the near-impossibility for internationals working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) to obtain work visas from the Israeli government also remains unresolved, which means that there are many others (including some at Ma’an, and many at other reputable organizations in the OPT) who could find themselves in Jared’s situation in the future. As Amira Hass recently reported in Ha’aretz, a new Israeli policy is making it much more difficult even for those with recognized international NGOs like Oxfam, Save the Children, and MSF to get work visas. We at Ma’an will continue to investigate possible ways to resolve this situation, and obviously, to report on the issue!

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