An Irish activist, Mr Michael McGrath, has been deported from Tel Aviv, following what the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign says was a peaceful demonstration in the West Bank.
Mr McGrath was accompanying a group of about 200 Palestinian civilians on the second day of a protest against the construction of an eight-metre wall by Israeli forces through the West Bank village of Jayyous.
"I can fully vouch that it was a peaceful protest", the artist from Kilkenny said yesterday.
"We were protesting against the building of what the Israelis call a 'security fence', along the green line, between Israel and the West Bank. They are confiscating farmland and destroying olive trees."
A spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces claimed that the protesters had tried to disrupt the building of the fence.
"They interfered with the workers," he said.
"They pushed over equipment and prevented the workers from doing their work. So they were treated like anyone else in Israel who disturbs the peace.
"They were arrested by the soldiers and taken to a base," he said.
From there, the spokesman said, the protesters were collected by police and taken to a police station.
He said he had no knowledge of whether members of the group had been deported and that this was a matter dealt with by the police and not the military.
The village of Jayyous is 6 km inside the green line and has a population of 3,000.
"The occupation forces are taking away 80 per cent of the farmland from this Palestinian village, and along with the destruction of olive trees and orange groves, they are taking water wells," said Mr McGrath.
"They fired tear gas directly into the crowd. We were all very dehydrated so it had a particularly bad effect.
"The people on the front line could only run in the direction of the soldiers". Live ammunition was fired in the direction of the villagers, according to Mr McGrath.
"Some of the soldiers were completely out of control. I was physically assaulted and kicked by Israeli soldiers."
Mr McGrath was held for seven hours at an army base and at Ariel police station. He already had a flight booked to return to Ireland on Saturday, after a five-week stay.
"They took full advantage of this coincidence," said Mr McGrath, who was led on to the plane in shackles by two policemen.