‘They put him in a chokehold’: Israel deports British activist ‘kidnapped by settlers’
Finn Joughin, 22, was detained in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair, near Hebron, on Saturday
A British activist detained in the West Bank is being deported from Israel after he was put in a chokehold, had his arms twisted behind his back and was locked in a shed by armed Israeli settlers, his lawyer has told LBC.
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Finn Joughin, 22, was detained in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Khair, near Hebron, on Saturday.
Speaking exclusively to LBC, Inbar Shaked Vardi said: “Armed settlers who were not in uniform and therefore had no authority to act against him kidnapped him at gunpoint and through use of force.
“They put him in a chokehold. They twisted his arms behind his back. And they dragged him forcibly to a shed inside the outpost of Carmel.”
Mr Joughin has been deported from Israel and is expected to be returning to the UK, Ms Shaked Vardi said.
“Finn left Israel on a plane a few hours ago, so he’s either in the air or already in the UK,” she told
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The Foreign Office has confirmed it raised Mr Joughin’s detention with Israeli authorities.
Ms Shaked Vardi said Mr Joughin arrived in Israel in mid-August and had been working with the Excellence Centre, an organisation operating in the West Bank.
“He also came to do protective presence,” she told LBC, describing it as “the practice of joining Palestinian communities who are under attack to document and to assist them in any way an activist can when they are harassed by both settlers and law enforcement”.
She said Mr Joughin was at Umm al-Khair when children and adults from a nearby outpost allegedly entered private village land and tried to dismantle fences.
“Finn stood in their way. He held on to the fence in order to keep it in place,” she said.
Footage circulating on social media appears to show Mr Joughin beside a fence, using his body to protect it as a child pushes against him.
Ms Shaked Vardi said the accusations against Mr Joughin began while he was attempting to stop the fence from being destroyed.
“They began throwing accusations at him that were unfounded and that were in Hebrew, so he did not even understand them,” she said.
She said Mr Joughin was held in the shed for around 30 minutes, before being filmed without his consent.
“They also filmed him without his consent and posted the videos online with accusations that were unfounded,” Ms Shaked Vardi said.
Israeli police said a foreign national had been detained after allegedly “disrupting public order”.
They said security personnel from a settler community suspected him of an indecent act against a minor and other offences, before transferring him to police for questioning.
Ms Shaked Vardi said: “We absolutely deny all the allegations.”
She said an allegation of assault was initially made against Mr Joughin before an allegation of an indecent act was added to case paperwork.
Activists who were with Mr Joughin have also denied there was any inappropriate behaviour.
The lawyer told LBC that the settlers involved did not identify themselves as law enforcement officers.
“They were certainly not on duty,” she said.
“They did not identify themselves that way, and they were not on duty and did not show ID, as law enforcement are required to do.”
Ms Shaked Vardi said Umm al-Khair, a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, was surrounded by settlements and outposts and had been repeatedly targeted by settler violence.
“This village is really a target for a lot of violence,” she said.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are regarded as illegal under international law, a position disputed by Israel.
Outposts are also illegal under Israeli law, though some receive state services and funding.
The confrontation follows a rise in reported settler attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.
Ms Shaked Vardi defended Mr Joughin’s work in the area, saying: “The presence of activists there, both to try to physically prevent it, but mostly to document and to show, to share the story with their own countries and with the world, is incredibly important.
“Finn has certainly paid a higher price than should be expected of him.”
She said he could appeal against his deportation, but added: “Right now, he really just wanted to go home, so he did not pursue more legal proceedings in Israel.”