Issue No.588
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30 May - 5 June 2002 Issue No.588 Region |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Humanitarianism under attack
What began as a humanitarian mission to Palestine for an Arab-American physician from southern California, ended with his incarceration in an Israeli prison. Anayat Durrani reports
Dr Riad Abdel-Karim, a 34-year-old American-born Palestinian, left for Palestine on 27 April on a fact-finding mission on behalf of International Medical Corps, a Los Angeles-based American medical relief and humanitarian organisation that provides services in 20 countries worldwide. Abdel-Karim, along with another colleague, went to Palestine to assess the medical and healthcare needs of Palestinians in the West Bank. Upon completing his fact-finding mission, Abdel-Karim attempted to board a flight home from Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on 5 May only to be detained by Israeli soldiers. Fellow doctor and International Medical Corps member Rushdi Cader was also taken into custody at the airport, but he was released after 16 hours of questioning. That same day, another American aid worker and colleague, Dalell Mohamed of Texas, executive director of Kinder USA, a newly established American Muslim charity, was also detained. Mohamed was released after eight days of near-solitary confinement.
Abdel-Karim was held at the airport police station for 18 hours where he was interrogated. He was then handcuffed, his legs shackled, and transported to a police station in nearby Petach Tikva. There he was detained in a small 4x3-metre cell that holds between 8 and 13 inmates and was interrogated 6 to 10 hours a day. After complaining about the inhumane prison conditions, he was moved to a 2x2.5-metre "dungeon" with no windows, poor ventilation, and was left to sleep on the ground next to a hole that served as a toilet. Abdel-Karim said he was not physically tortured but said he was deprived of sleep and verbally harassed by Israeli authorities.
"My interrogators used intense psychological pressure and the fact that I was very sleep-deprived to try to force me to confess to allegations that were simply not true," Abdel-Karim said.
The Israelis accused Abdel-Karim of transferring money to sponsor suicide bombings, but furnished no evidence to support their claims. Abdel-Karim, who repeatedly rejected their accusations, was never charged or indicted and was released after 15 days. He believes he was held as part of a deliberate campaign to block humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, particularly by American charity and relief organisations.
"They hoped to thwart the nascent efforts of two American organisations, International Medical Corps and Kinder USA, by detaining us. In recent months, the Israelis have really stepped up their efforts to block humanitarian aid for Palestinians as part of an overall strategy to apply increasing pressure -- economic, military, political -- on the Palestinian population," Abdel-Karim said.
Humanitarian aid workers have been routinely intimidated, harassed, deliberately shot at and detained by Israeli forces seeking to prevent food and medical supplies from reaching Palestinian civilians, under the guise of "fighting terrorism". The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Red Crescent Society and the UN, have all cited widespread violations of the Geneva Conventions following Israeli incursions in the West Bank. Abdel-Karim is one of many American aid workers that have been unlawfully detained by Israel in direct violation of their human rights and with little US intervention. Abdel-Karim said that though US consular officials visited several times to check on him and to try to obtain medication for him, he said they visited him to ensure that he was being treated "in accordance with Israeli law".
"The fact that Israeli law was very Draconian and un- American did not seem to make any difference to them," Abdel-Karim said. "If I were an American citizen detained wrongfully in any other country in the world, I would have found my government working to secure my release. But in Israel, where my country and my tax dollars provide so much assistance each year, my government is reduced to the role of begging my jailers to give me my medication. How very sad."
Abdel-Karim credits his release with the swift mobilisation of the American Muslim and Arab-American community who worked hard to publicise his case. He believes pressure from Arab and Muslim groups and individuals who wrote and telephoned the US government helped secure his release. Also among those who worked to free Abdel-Karim were Representative Christopher Cox, (R-Calif.) and California Senator Dianne Feinstein (D) as well as the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who offered to personally go to Israel to get Abdel-Karim released.
Abdel-Karim also believes he was detained in an effort to block reports of Israel's brutal aggression in the occupied territories. While in Palestine, Abdel-Karim surveyed the Jenin refugee camp where Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military that reduced the camp to rubble. He sent e-mails describing in graphic detail the conditions he witnessed while in Jenin, beginning one report, "After visiting the Jenin refugee camp yesterday, I feel ashamed to be part of a world that has allowed such a monstrous crime to occur." His reports circulated on the Internet and were carried on the Kinder USA Web site. Israel attacked the Jenin camp 3 April in an effort to "root out terrorists" allegedly responsible for Israelis killed in suicide bombings. The Israelis claim in Jenin they killed 52 people, mainly militants. The Palestinians allege that Israeli forces massacred the camp's residents and that war crimes were committed. Israel has repeatedly denied that a massacre took place, and has refused to allow United Nations investigators into the camp.
"I think the Israelis were intent on preventing the dissemination of the truth regarding Israel's military actions in the Palestinian areas, especially vis-à-vis the Jenin refugee camp massacre. I am sure they were aware of my e-mailed comments regarding Jenin. In fact, one of my interrogators told me that this was the one article of mine he had read. I am sure that the Israeli authorities knew from their spies here in the United States that I am active in the American Muslim community."
Abdel-Karim has frequently written opinion pieces on the Middle East and Muslim issues for major US newspapers. He serves as a board member for the American Muslims for Jerusalem, and is the Western region communications director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. Abdel-Karim helped found Kinder USA in March after the US government shut down the Holy Land Foundation and two other US Islamic charities. A father of four, Abdel- Karim is a physician at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Anaheim Hills.
Abdel-Karim said that though the experience of being detained by the Israelis has traumatised him, in the end the act served only to "backfire" on the Israelis.
"If the Israelis meant by my detention to intimidate and silence me, they were sadly mistaken," Abdel-Karim said. "It has made me more determined to speak out about Israel's apartheid policies against Palestinians. It has also made me more determined to pursue the essential humanitarian work on behalf of Palestinians through our organisation, Kinder USA, and to encourage other relief groups to step up their efforts as well."
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