Don't deport Paul

At the moment, a 60-year-old diabetic piano tuner from Northern California is being held in a detention center at Ben Gurion airport in Israel. 

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.

Israel, predictable as the sunrise, labels Paul a security threat, claiming he is on a "Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency)-compiled list of foreign far-left activists suspected of involvement in dangerous anti-Israel activity."  This is because of his involvement with the International Solidarity Movement.

"Dangerous" to Israel's Thought Police must classify as tuning pianos that belong to Arabs, or perhaps believing that Palestinians shouldn't live under military occupation.  Really, if he was such a threat, how could he have gotten into Israel four times already?  Even Israel's Ministry of the Interior states that belonging to ISM is not grounds for deportation.

I'm proud to call Paul a friend of mine - he even came to my wedding.  The man doesn't have a violent bone, thought, or inclination in his body.  He is a kind, soft-spoken, intelligent individual, who, in his own words, is trying to do "something small...to make life under occupation just a little more bearable for people." 

Paul Larudee should not be deported.

Comments

[Aussie Dave]

"We believe in the application of international law. Although we are totally dedicated to nonviolence, we recognize not everyone in the Palestinian community is dedicated to nonviolence and under international law we recognize that violence is necessary and it is permissible for oppressed and occupied people to use armed resistance and we recognize their right to do so."
- Paul Larudee

Looks like a violent bone in his body after all.

He made his bed..now he should sleep in it.

He should count himself lucky he is only deported, and not arrested for supporting terrorists.

[scott]

Dave, the quote from FrontPage that you gloatingly use is inaccurate - like virtually everything else at FrontPage by Lee Kaplan. You can even ask Paul, you have his email.

And sleeping in a bed, regardless of who it belonged to, in order to prevent a house being destroyed in an Israeli act of collective punishment, does not qualify as support for terrorists. Just because you think entire families should pay for the act of one of their members doesn't mean that everyone else and everything else, including international law, agrees with you.

Don't you think Israel would arrest him if he actually, really supported terrorists? Do you think he'd even be able to get on a flight to Ben Gurion? Again, if this 60-year-old was really such a danger to poor, defenseless Israel, why did they let him in four times previously?

Israel is detaining and deporting Paul for his political views.

[Klinky]

Any idea, then, on why Paul was traveling with a passport under a different name?

[Aussie Dave]

Scott, how about showing me proof that Frontpage got it wrong. Because Larudee said so doesn't count - especially considering his propensity to lie for "the cause"(as the ISM encourages).

Here's a little secret, Scott. A cousin of my wife's used to be part of the ISM, before she became ashamed of her actions. She spilled the beans to me, so I know EXACTLY what their game is.

[adwred]

Scott:

I've met Paul and he's a good man, although I certainly don't know him well. You wrote above "Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency)-compiled list of foreign far-left activists suspected of involvement in dangerous anti-Israel activity." A couple years ago they weren't admitting this, is this a new development?

And Aussie Dave, my wife's cousin saw you furiously wasting your time smearing people on the Internet. She said you are an asshole, and probably need to get some friends.

[Aussie Dave]

Nasty stuff, Adwred. Why the ad hominem attacks? I would prefer to hear you debate the issues and provide facts, rather than sprout garbage.

[scott]

Dave, you don't believe Paul, I don't believe you nor Lee Kaplan, nor FrontPage mag, so how about explaining how Paul supports terrorists by agreeing with international law and practicing nonviolence?

If you don't like him or his views, that's fine, but "I would prefer to hear you debate the issues and provide facts, rather than sprout garbage."

adwred, I'm not sure when Shin Bet started admitting their blacklist of thought criminals existed. Probably when people started getting fiesty enough to take them to court over it.

[Klinky]

Any thoughts on my Post above? And how is he doing? I noticed some sites had posted the phone # of the detention center -- I hope that doesn't backfire on him and end up with him losing phone privileges altogether...

[scott]

Klinky, you're the only person I have heard make that claim, so I can't really comment on it.

[Klinky]

Check with Paul when he is once again communicado (I heard they had indeed limited his phone privileges -- try calling the number). If it's true, it may be what made them suspicious. Or, maybe they would have done it anyway. Worth asking him, maybe. Ciao.

[Anti-LGF]

Indeedy Aussie Dave is an asshole and smells like one.

[Aussie Dave]

Wow, I love the spirit of tolerance and openness of ideas on this blog. You lambast the Right, but there is far more vitriol and hatred on here. And shame on you Scott for allowing it.

[Chris]

I know Paul, and he is a passionate practitioner in non-violence and a very good piano technician also. By his activism, he is trying to expose the violations by Israel of international law and the Geneva conventions through non-violent means. Israel is trying to stop him from entering a country over which it has no jurisdiction. It's no surprise that Paul is in the same organization as was Rachel Corrie, a courageous young US Citizen Heroine who, in the tradition of Martin Luther King and Cesar Chavez lay down her life to save a Palestinian Doctor's family home. It's time Americans wake up to the grossly out of proportion influence the Israel Lobby has on US politics and the US Congress.
You can catch Paul's statement from prison at this link http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=14529 (about 17th minute in).

[scott]

Thanks for sharing that, Chris.

Dave, cry me river. Every post of yours regarding the Palestinians is more foul and racist than what some random commenter says here. If it's shame we're talking about, it also belongs squarely on your shoulders.

I get nasty comments from the left and right, but quantitatively more from the right, by far. And I try my best not to delete any but the most extreme comments.

I don't care for what these people have said, but you and I have been called worse, I'm sure. You're a big boy, you can handle it.

[Aussie Dave]

Ah yes, the racist canard. Once again, I ask you to justify your accusations or STFU.

[scott]

Dave, every post you put up on the Palestinians is aimed at dehumanizing and mocking them and justifying their mistreatment. You essentialize them at every turn - the epitomy of racism. You blog exudes an orientalist, willfully ignorant, anti-anything-that-is-not-pro-Israel perspective, and if you really don't realize this, then you're the only one.

And on a side note, you and Abe Foxman use the word "canard" more than the rest of humanity put together.

As for "S-ing TFU", well my darling, this is my blog and I'll talk all I want.

Also, Anti-LGF, I'm deleting your comment above and another one and if you keep it up I will ban you.

[Aussie Dave]

"..every post you put up on the Palestinians is aimed at dehumanizing and mocking them and justifying their mistreatment."

Not good proof, Scotty. Show me one post. And good on you for being able to see inside me and know my intentions.

You are so way off the mark it is not funny. I use the words "not to paint all Arabs/palestinians with the same brush.." more than the word "canard". But I guess if you knew that, you wouldn't dare make such vile accusations.

The difference between you and me is simply that I abhore terrorism and you call it resistance. I acknowledge the Jew's right to self-determination in their historical homeland, and you totally ignore it at the expense of the palestinian's claims to the land.

If I am a racist, then you are even more so.

By the way, I am expected a retraction of your claims about the IDF's involvement in the Gaza beach incident if the investigation findings show it was a Hamas shell as suspected. Of course, I know you will say "there is no proof", but young Scotty, there is no proof that it was an IDF shell. Yet you very quickly began accusing Israel.

Your anti-Israel agenda is what drives you, and you don't allow facts to get in the way.

[Klinky]

What's the latest on Paul? No one seems to be posting on him -- has everyone forgotten his sacrifice -- i.e. sitting in an Israeli prison just for the right for ISM to enter Israel?

[scott]

Paul had a hearing this morning. I don't know anymore than that. I think Israel will allow him in with strict regulations on what he is permitted to do.

[Truth]

Paul's endorsement of violence is on record and recorded on radio. Your remarks to Aussie Dave are typical of the ISM. Claim to be nonviolent then smear, threaten and attack personally those who prove otherwise. It's a lesser form of the terrorism practiced by the armed wing of the PLO that the ISM fronts for by thier own admission ont heir website.

As for "international law", Paul tried to enter Israel by lying to Border Gaurads and having a fake ID. He also condones suicide bombers. Please stop invoking international law like some attorney then excusing murder and lying in the next. The ISM is not a peace group, it is a pro-PLO war group posing as a peace group. You will all lose eventually, because decent people will oppose you until the end. Arafat finally died, so too eventually will the ISM.

[scott]

Lee, do you consider yourself a "decent" person? You're the expert at smearing and making personal attacks - just as you do in your comment above. Funny how you comment here, but ignored the posts about Brian and his father.

[Truth]

Comment above not from Mr. Kaplan though I do work in his office as you can see from our website. The letter from Brian Malovany's father did not disavow a word that he said, only that it was made public.
His father said the ISM is a cult, and it is:
a terrorist supporting cult. His father was also advised the letter would be published.

[scott]

So you're not Lee Kaplan? Riiiight. Why don't you tell us your name then?

It doesn't matter what Brian's father did or did not say. What matters is the fact you abused the trust of a father who was only trying to take care of his son. You exploited his pain and concern because of your absurd fixation on ISM. As he wrote:

"I had every reason to believe that my communication was going to be private and confidential. I was betrayed. I was used."

and he stated that he became irrational:

"But I think I have carried this worrying to an irrational and unhealthy extent."

You're a sick, twisted man, Lee Kaplan.