Italian father and son arrested in the West Bank, to be deported

(ANSA) - ROME, 21 OTT - An Italian father and son ding humanitarian work in the West Bank have been arrested on terrorist charges and are to be deported from Israel, a northern Italian new site reported Wednesday. The two men from Bolzano—Manuel Tartarotti, 35, and his father, Alberto, 67—who were in the West Bank for humanitarian reasons, were held by Israeli police for over 24 hours on suspicion of terrorism and have since been ordered to leave the country, said the South Tyrolean news portal Salto.bz. "The Israeli police asked for our documents, then they took me and my father, blindfolded us, and loaded us into a military van. "They didn't tell us where they were taking us; I was grabbed and beaten in the back of the vehicle. I didn't know what was going to happen, and I was afraid," Manuel told the website. The father and son had been in the West Bank since October 18 to deliver funds raised in Italy to Youth of Sumud, a volunteer organization that won the Alex Langer Award in 2024. "We were interrogated, registered—with our fingerprints and DNA taken—and kept handcuffed until late at night," Tartarotti recounted to Salto.bz. "I was in a filthy cell with my father; at least I was with him, so we remained calm." Manuel explains that the accusations are based on their presence in an area declared illegal ("even though there were no signs indicating this") and, above all, their affiliation with Youth of Sumud—"which they label as a terrorist group, which is obviously not true." Both have been issued a ten-year ban on entering Israel. According to a statement from the Israeli police, published by The Times of Israel and cited by Salto.bz, the father and son allegedly took part in an unauthorized olive harvest, and the activists reportedly fled into a military training zone upon the arrival of the officers. (ANSA).
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