Relatives Mystified by Israeli Refusal To Release Body of Slain Palestinian

by Samir Twair

Traditionally, Israeli authorities turn over the corpses of Palestinian men killed by Israeli soldiers or police to the families of the victims after midnight, and instruct the families to complete the burial without fanfare by daybreak. However, relatives of Palestinian American Ahmed Abdel Hamida have no idea when they will receive his body. Members of Hamida's family say Israeli authorities refused to hand over his body to his California relatives after reading that they were considering "suing for millions in a wrongful death suit to be carried out by American attorneys."

Hamida was killed Feb. 26 by armed Israeli bystanders after his car crashed into a crowd at a Jerusalem bus stop. The Israeli government claims Hamida was carrying out a Hamas suicide attack. His relatives steadfastly call it an accident.

Israeli emotions were soaring to astronomical heights of paranoia following two suicide bomb attacks on buses in Jerusalem and Ashkalon that killed 27 people and injured 80 on Feb. 25. Only hours later, on Feb. 26, Hamida's rented car careened into a Jerusalem crowd, killing one Israeli and injuring 22 others. Israelis who shot and killed Hamida, an American citizen, on the spot were released after questioning by Israeli authorities.

Hours after CNN reported to viewers all over the world that the slain driver of the errant car was an Arab American from Los Angeles, Israeli police announced that skid marks showed the driver had tried to stop his Fiat Uno, but had lost control of it on the rain-slicked road.

By the next day, however, Israeli police had changed their story: the skid marks were not made by Hamida's car, they asserted. The Israelis claimed instead that Hamida was a drug addict and a militant Muslim radical. Jerusalem Police Chief Arik Amit said an Islamic Jihad leaflet had been found in the car.

The Islamic Center of Southern California has refuted this, saying the literature found in Hamida's rental car was religious in nature, but not militant. Also found in the car was a bagful of groceries,leading those who heard the report to ask why a terrorist would shop for food before going on a suicide mission.

There were other contradictory reports about the incident. CNN initially reported Hamida had been shot to death as he was struggling to get out of the car. On the same day Associated Press Jerusalem correspondent Said Ghazali filed a story stating that Hamida was shot dead by three Jewish settlers after he exited the car and tried to run away. The Los Angeles Times quoted Israeli police spokesman Eric Bar-Chen who said Hamida emerged from the car, but made no claim that he tried to flee.

The reports gave rise to new questions. If Hamida was slain vigilante-style by Jewish settlers, how many bullets did they pump into his body? And if he was a drug addict, did an autopsy show traces of drug ingestion? These questions may never be answered, however, if Israeli authorities persist in refusing to relinquish Hamida's body to his family.

An American Family

I met with Hamida's mother and his cousins on Feb. 27 in Hacienda Heights, a town east of Los Angeles. Still in shock from the news of his sudden, violent death the previous day, family members were in mourning in the comfortable home in which Ahmed Hamida lived with his mother, Azmia, 62, his younger brother, Ghalib, and Ghalib's wife and young son. As soon as they received news of Ahmed's death, Ghalib, 32, and his sister, Eptisam, departed for Jerusalem.

The Hamida clan numbers more than 150 members in Southern California. Ahmed, 36, emigrated 20 years ago from the family village of Mazraa al-Sharqia near Ramallah. He never finished high school, but earned a reputation as a hard worker. He managed a small California grocery store for his brother, Ghalib, until physicians recommended bed rest for a chronic colon problem. That was last July, a cousin explained, and Ahmed returned to the West Bank to treat his ailment and search for a bride. His first marriage to a non-Arab had ended in divorce, but his pride and joy was his 12-year-old daughter, Kathy, who lives with her mother.

Ahmed's father, Abdulhamid, died in California in 1982. Two of Ahmed's three sisters live on the West Bank. Ahmed had been visiting with them since last July. His health had improved in Palestine and he intended to return to California in April for a cousin's marriage.

"What is this about Ahmed having a drug problem?" his mother, Um Ahmed, lamented. "He was a good Muslim. He didn't drink alcohol and he had stopped smoking. He did not take drugs."

Said another cousin, Bilal Hamida, 26: "I got to know Ahmed very well over the past two years. Everyone who knew him loved him. If he was on drugs, don't you think we younger fellows would have known? He was no terrorist. There were no weapons in the car he had rented for one week, not one day, and he was carrying all his identity cards."

Another cousin, Kamel Hamida, added: "He was gentle and good-humored. He wouldn't harm a fly. He was a good family man."

Granted, Bilal commented, Ahmed had turned somewhat religious, but he was in no way a fanatic. And what's more, on the few occasions he joined in political discussions, he expressed approval of Yasser Arafat's efforts to make peace with the Israelis.

On Feb. 28, two days after the fatal incident, the Los Angeles Times reported Israeli police were unable to find a mechanical problem that might have caused Ahmed to lose control of the car.

Bilal disputed this. When I visited the family again he turned on a video copy of the Israeli re-enactment of the car running into the bus stop. Repeatedly, we watched the car slow down, but the driver clearly couldn't make a sharp stop because the brakes appeared to be faulty. In fact cars rented to Palestinians rarely are in good repair, a cousin pointed out.

On the West Bank, Ahmed's sister, Nawal, told the Los Angeles Times her brother had rented the car to take her and her three children on a family picnic. He had gone grocery shopping for her and was due to pick them up when the incident took place.

"The Israelis are lying, because they need an excuse for shooting him," the distraught Nawal charged. Repeatedly, she told Times reporter Summer Assad that Ahmed was not a religious zealot nor was he preoccupied with politics.

The California Hamidas were disturbed by Ghazali's Associated Press report. "Who is this Said Ghazali?" asked an irate cousin. "He writes that Ahmed bragged to villagers 'watch me on TV tonight!' Ahmed would never say this."

Hafez Bargouti, editor of Al Hayat, a Palestinian newspaper published in Ramallah, also supports Ghazali's account. Bargouti said Ahmed visited him at his office shortly after the two Feb. 25 bomb attacks and acted strangely, stating God had cured his illness and he planned to dedicate his life to God.

Does this incriminate him as a Hamas terrorist?

In California, relatives proudly showed me pictures of Ahmed, a handsome, gentle-looking individual. This was in stark contrast to the front page photo in the San Gabriel Tribune and in other newspapers around the world. Taken at the accident scene, it showed Ahmed's corpse lying face up, unattended, uncovered, on the street.

"How dare they disgrace him this way, leaving him in the street like a dead dog," complained another cousin.

The Hamidas have requested an investigation by the U.S. State Department and have filed letters of protest to California Senator Barbara Boxer and Southern California Congressman Jay Kim.

When we asked the Hamidas how they were notified of Ahmed's death, they replied that the American Consulate General in Jerusalem phoned to tell them Ahmed had been killed in an accident. Later, relatives began to call from the West Bank.

"Israel says Ahmed intentionally rammed the crowd," Bilal stated. "If you had known this man, you would know it was an accident. Whoever heard of a terrorist buying groceries before he set out on a suicide mission?"

Resentment is mounting among Hamida's friends and family. On March 1, several hundred Muslims gathered for Friday prayers and a special janaza service was conducted for Hamida at the Islamic Center of Southern California. At a press conference beforehand, the Muslim Public Affairs Council said its representative, Salam al-Marayati, was in Washington, DC to meet with State Department authorities.

"We expect due process of law and an explanation for the death of an American citizen in a foreign country. We are opposed to the negative stereotyping of a Muslim who is called a terrorist because he had religious literature in his rental car," stated Dr. Maher Hathout, director of the Islamic Center of Southern California.

On March 5, I again talked to Ahmed's mother, now heartsick over the danger her son Ghalib might be facing in Israel, where a lynching mentality is aimed toward Palestinians since a third and fourth suicide bombing raised the death toll to over 61 in nine days.

"I want to tell you this story," she said. Whatever happened was an accident. My son was very peaceful. He went back to Palestine on three visits and never had any trouble. He did not belong to Fatah, Hamas or any political group."

Mrs. Hamida said before the third suicide bombing, on March 3, the Israelis had hinted to Ghalib that he might be able to retrieve Ahmed's body in Tel Aviv on March 4.

"Now with all this anti-Arab hysteria, I don't want Ghalib to travel to Tel Aviv," Mrs. Hamida said. "After news of the fourth bombing, they will never release his body. Let the Red Cross take care of it. I don't want to lose another son."