Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April/May 1999, pages 118-119

Human Rights

American Citizen Discusses His Torture in Israeli Prison

Partners For Peace held a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on March 11 to discuss the torture of U.S. citizen Anwar Mohamed in Israel. (See excerpts from his testimony on p. 68 of this issue.) Later, Partners For Peace President Jerri Bird took up the case with the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. Bird, the wife of retired U.S. foreign service officer Eugene Bird, said the meeting “left more questions than it answered.”

The two meetings marked the latest steps in the campaign of Partners For Peace, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization working to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to bring the Israeli government to account for repeated allegations that it has tortured American citizens.

Anwar Mohamed, a 27-year-old Florida resident of Palestinian origin, who was traveling between the West Bank home of his sister and the home of a cousin in Jordan when he was arrested by Israeli police at the border, appealed to Partners For Peace to protest what he characterized as the indifference of the U.S. government to the torture to which he was subjected during 40 days of Israeli detention without charge.

U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs spokeswoman Maria Rudenski said Mohamed must submit “information regarding the actions, abuses, mistreatment and torture” before the office can “bring the matter to the attention of the host [Israeli] government.” Mohamed is working on a 10,000-word account of his experience, according to Bird.

Rankled that the State Department office scheduled the interview after Mohamed’s eight-day Washington stay had ended, Bird attended the meeting on Mr. Mohamed’s behalf. She asked officials why he was not assisted by U.S. consular offices, who visited him twice during his detainment and saw “he had clearly been beaten.”

According to Rudenski, however, U.S. consular officers said Mohamed had declined their help for fear it would escalate the torture activities of his Israeli jailers. In fact, Mohamed’s brother had expressed “appreciation for all the State Department had done” after his release, Rudenski said.

The consular affairs office has pared the issue down to “the consul’s word against his word,” according to Bird, which may augur badly for Mohamed.

Dozens of American citizens have claimed torture in Israel, according to Rudenski. She said that in most such cases spokesmen “deny the accusations, reply that certain practices are standard or supply certain reasons,” she said. Rudenski said the Israeli government claimed that Mohamed was arrested “on suspicion of nationalistic activities.”

At his National Press Club appearance in Washington, Mohamed said he was “not interested in politics.” He expressed astonishment that Israeli interrogators knew details of his personal life in the United States, such as attendance at weekly prayers at a Miami mosque and his associations with customers at the Miami pizza parlor he manages.

Before he left Israel, Mohamed said Israeli authorities forced him to obtain a Palestinian passport in accordance with special rules applicable only to visitors of Arab ancestry.

“I think we Americans of Palestinian origins have been abandoned by our country,” Mohamed told reporters.

Bird has also brought the case to the attention of the U.S. ambassador to the Human Rights Commission, who was “very receptive but sure I had the case wrong,” Bird said.

President Clinton said in a Jan. 12 letter to Bird that the administration is “concerned about Mr. Mohammed’s [sic] allegations, though he has not requested that the consulate take any specific action.”

“Respect for human rights…is and will remain a cornerstone of our foreign policy,” President Clinton’s letter continued. “We will continue to raise our concerns with the Israeli government for as long as this remains an issue.”

According to a State Department report released Feb. 26, Israel violates myriad human rights conventions in its treatment of the Palestinian community.

—Salina Khan

Rev. Emil Salayta and Rev. Majdi Siryani Discuss Jerusalem

On Feb. 8 at the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, Rev. Emil Salatya and Rev. Majdi Siryani, respectively the Director of the Educational Department and Director of the Legal Department of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, provided Roman Catholic perspectives on the issue of Jerusalem and the deteriorating state of religious freedom there.

Rev. Siryani described four motivations for the position of the Roman Catholic church on Jerusalem. They are the welfare of Christians in the Middle East, humanitarian concerns, commitment to the implementation of human rights and freedom, and stewardship for Jerusalem.

The immediate concern lies with religious issues, Siryani said. The church is only interested in the moral aspects of political issues. “Since 1967, East Jerusalem has been occupied and unjustly annexed,” he said. The church sees the Judaization process of Jerusalem as a main concern and asks that Jerusalem be respected for its spiritual and religious identity. “Any unilateral solution brought about by force is not acceptable,” he affirmed.

The main struggle, according to Siryani, is not sovereignty, but finding a way to harmonize various interests in the city. “Exclusive claims cannot be backed,” he said. He stressed the need for multilateral negotiations between the three major monotheistic religions in order to ensure freedom of worship and religion for everyone. The church does not want to be involved in political negotiations, but instead wants a parallel negotiating table for religious representatives to address religious concerns. “Political resolutions must take into account religious needs,” he said.

Finally, Rev. Siryani expressed concern with the decreasing number of Christians in the Holy Land. Less than 2 percent of the population today is Christian, and the number is decreasing. According to Siryani, during the British occupation of Palestine in 1922, there were just under 15,000 Christians. In 1978, after a decade of Israeli occupation, there were fewer than 10,000. Today that number has diminished to fewer than 5,000 Christians. He attributes the decrease to continuing political instability and economic problems.

Rev. Emil Salatya indicated frustration with the misrepresentation (and the under-representation) of the Palestinian perspective. The Palestinian people have suffered from the destruction of their self-identity at the hands of Israeli occupation, Salatya said. He urged Christians in the United States to look for information in order to find the truth. “We need to question what we hear,” he continued.

Salayta criticized right-wing Christians who use the Bible as a political tool. “There is no Christian who doesn’t stand by justice and truth,” he said. Those Christians who misuse the Bible to support Israel, however, are supporting injustice. He implored Christians to “understand our faith in the right way.”

The two Catholic clerics offered distinctions without a difference regarding the issue of declaring a Palestinian state. When asked about the declaration of statehood Rev. Salayta said, “It is a must and should be declared as soon as possible.” According to Rev. Siryani, “It already exists.”

—Samia El-Mahdi