Article on detained ISMer Kristin Razowsky
11 May 2003
Article on detained ISMer Kristin Razowsky
Larkin grad sits in Israeli jail: Her parents say they are proud of her activism
By Kara Spak Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted May 11, 2003
When Kristin Razowsky was a student at Larkin High School, she spoke out for both environmental and human rights.
More than 10 years after graduation, she now sits in an Israeli police jail, arrested for activities that were fueled by that same sense of activism.
Razowsky, 28, was arrested Friday by Israeli police in the West Bank where she was working with the pro-Palestinian group, International Solidarity Movement.
She was arrested purportedly for violating a military ban forbidding her from being in the area, though human rights groups like Amnesty International claim the arrests were part of a wider crackdown by the Israeli army to stop foreign observers from reporting human rights activity in the area.
The International Solidarity Movement gained worldwide recognition earlier this year when a volunteer acting as a “human shield” was run over and killed by an Israeli tank.
On Saturday, Razowsky’s parents, Barbara and Ron, expressed pride for raising a daughter who stands by her convictions, regardless of personal cost and apprehension about her safety.
“In the beginning I was very concerned that she was going to someplace dangerous,” Barbara said. “But she is very reasonable and she is an adult. And I think she is doing an important thing. People need to stand up for human rights.”
The Razowskys live on Elgin’s west side. Ron is retired; Barbara teaches at Lowrie Elementary School. Kristin’s older sister, Erin, lives with her family in Bartlett.
The Razowskys have not spoken to Kristin, but said the State Department representative they spoke with Friday said she is “just fine,” Ron said.
Kristin’s journey to the West Bank started in Elgin, where her father said even as a young student she was always willing to “push the envelope.”
“She’s always been involved in any kind of human rights and environmental issues,” Barbara said. “And she’s always been someone who does everything 100 percent. Things have to be done to the hilt.”
Kristin was an environmental activist at Larkin High School, and after graduating in 1992 enrolled in Northland College in Wisconsin. Ron described Northland as a cultural throwback to the 1960s, a place where folk music and tie-dye shirts were still very much in vogue, with a national reputation for environmental science.
She left after two years, embarking on a life of travel and activism. She became involved in Native American rights issues, living at one point with an elderly Native American woman on a Navajo reservation in Arizona.
About five years ago, she moved to Minneapolis and continued speaking out against human rights abuses, participating in civil disobedience by blocking construction of a road the city wanted to build through a Native American burial ground.
In Minneapolis, friends in the activist community introduced Kristin to the International Solidarity Movement. Kristin left last summer for the West Bank to observe how Palestinians were living under Israeli rule, her first foray into the arena of international human rights.
As her activism became more intense, her parents’ worry lessened, they said.
“Once she left college and hit the road our level of anguish was pretty high,” Ron said. “But we realized she’s pretty streetwise. If I had my choice she wouldn’t be there, but it’s her choice.”
Kristin wrote about life on the West Bank for The Pulse, a small independent newspaper in Minneapolis and returned to the Midwest in the fall to lead a college speaking tour on life in the West Bank.
The Razowskys, who are Jewish, have never traveled to Israel and said they don’t plan to go. Kristin is upfront about her Jewish heritage, they said, and found that she felt welcome by Jews and Arabs alike in one of the most violent places in Israel.
“She was very vocal about the fact that she is Jewish but felt that someone needed to present the other side of the story,” Barbara said.
The Razowskys said they still do not know exactly why she was arrested, but they do know that Israeli military jeeps surrounded the ISM offices Friday, detaining Kristin and an Australian woman. One other woman arrested was released. Kristin had only been working in the office, in the town of Beit Sahour, for only two days before the raid.
Ron and Barbara were told their daughter will be deported, which Ron said will “take her out of harm’s way.”
“Looking at this purely as a parent you want your child to be safe,” Barbara said. “On the other hand we need people to do this.”
• The Associated Press contributed to this story.
