Activist 'assaulted' in West Bank

Mr Hale was among activists trying to slow bulldozers at the wall

A peace activist has claimed he was detained and assaulted by Israeli security forces while taking part in a protest in Jerusalem.

Matthew Hale, 22, from Folkestone, was one of 40 protesters held on Tuesday while trying to slow bulldozers working on a controversial West Bank security wall.

The student was taking photographs when he was seized by Israeli security forces.

The group had been demonstrating near the town of Qalqilya against the 150-mile long concrete and steel barrier, designed to separate Palestinians and Israelis.

I was held in chokes and kicked by the Israeli army and dragged off and thrown against a police van Matthew Hale

Mr Hale, who travelled to the region three weeks ago, has since been released and spoke to the BBC from Jerusalem on Thursday.

He said: "I was trying to film because the army and the police were using excessive force on the people who were lying down in front of the house," he said.

"Then I was held in chokes and kicked and dragged off by the Israeli army and thrown against a police van."

Mr Hale, of Avereng Road in Folkestone, said to avoid being deported he had now agreed to stay out of the West Bank.

The concrete and steel wall will stretch 150 miles when finished

He is studying for a degree in French and theatre studies at Aberystwyth University.

His mother Monica, a former French teacher at Folkestone School for Girls, said she accepted the risks her son was taking for the Palestinian people.

She said: "I've had a very good son for 22 years in fact and other people haven't had that privilege and so I can say in a rather detached way that I have had my son for that length of time and we have a very happy family.

"And although we'd all miss him, we would know that he had suffered an extreme fate in the pursuit of a real humanitarian ideal.

"I could come to terms with that."

Mr Hale went to the Middle East as part of the International Solidarity Movement and was staying near the Palestinian village of Tulkarm.