A YOUNG peace activist from Kent has been arrested by the Israeli military after staging a peaceful protest in the Middle East.

Matthew Hale, 22, of Avereng Road, Folkestone, was among a group of 40 detained on Tuesday afternoon as they attempted to slow bulldozers working on the security wall in the West Bank.

They were gathered at the home of a Palestinian family they said would be isolated by the structure near the town of Qalqilya. Mr Hale, who was taking photographs, was punched and dragged into a police van, accused of entering a closed military zone.

The Kentish Express spoke briefly to Mr Hale from inside an Israeli military compound. He says has agreed to stay out of the West Bank to avoid deportation and now hopes to meet up with other peace groups in Jerusalem to continue his work.

Mr Hale's mother Monica, a former French teacher at Folkestone School for Girls, said: "Matthew has been upset by the powerlessness of the Palestinian people to protect their land.

"He is a pacifist whose aim is to defend the human rights of the Palestinian people. He believes you cannot be an innocent bystander and is demonstrating about the injustices."

Mr Hale travelled to the area three weeks ago as part of the International Solidarity Movement and was camping in an olive grove close to the Palestinian village of Tulkarem.

He had been helping the community with their cauliflower crop and playing football with their children as well as staging peaceful protests, including a silent vigil outside a prison.

He left a card for his mother, father Michael and 24-year-old sister Thomasin to open after he has gone. It read: "I don't know what use I will be, but I hope the action and convictions of a few and then of many to witness and talk about the evils taking place across the world can have an effect."

Mrs Hale said: "This is something we have had to come to terms with. The young activists are prepared to expose themselves to danger. An American girl died last year after standing in the way of a bulldozer.

"Matthew is very popular with the girls, he loves his mountain biking. He has got everything to lose. But it is a very important cause, and as his sister says, it is a noble and admirable action."

Mr Hale, a former pupil at Ashford's Norton Knatchbull school, is part way through a French and theatre studies degree at the University of Aberyswyth in Wales.

He is due to fly to Reunion, a small French-speaking island off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, in October for a year as an English assistant.