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U.S. Humanitarian Aid Worker Detained in Israel Returns Home
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American aid worker Riad Abdelkarim |
By
Neveen A. Salem, Staff Writer, IOL Washington D.C.
WASHINGTON
D.C., May 21 (IslamOnline) – An American humanitarian aid worker
detained in an Israeli prison without charge for nearly two weeks
returned to family and friends in California Monday.
Dr.
Riad Abdelkarim, a humanitarian aid worker, who two weeks ago traveled
to the Occupied Territories to administer medical aid and document
atrocities committed by the Israeli army against the Palestinians, was
arrested and detained in Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv
as awaiting his flight home.
Abdelkarim,
arriving at the Santa Ana airport in Southern California, said simply
that he was glad to be home with family and friends and thanked
Representative Christopher Cox (R-CA) and California Senator Dianne
Feinstein (D) for working to help secure his release.
However,
the Washington D.C.-based American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ), where
Abdelkarim serves as a board member, had harsher words for the U.S.
government, saying, “Our government has shown disregard for the fate
of these Americans and has turned a blind eye as Israel prevents
critical humanitarian aid from reaching the Palestinians,” said AMJ
Executive Director Khalid Turaani at the press conference at the
Orange County airport where Abdelkarim arrived.
“We
demand that our government treat these cases more seriously. We give
Israel more than three billion of our dollars every year. They need to
treat our citizens better than this,” he continued.
Abdelkarim
was on a humanitarian mission for the Los Angeles-based relief
organization the International Medical Corps when arrested at the
airport for what Israel claims as “terrorist activity.”
Abdelkarim
had visited the Jenin refugee camp, which according to reports and
human rights organizations was the site of a brutal massacre wherein
Israeli troops destroyed the camp and killed hundreds of unarmed men,
women and children during their latest invasions into the West Bank a
few weeks earlier.
Israel,
despite wide evidence, photos and reports has denied that any such
“massacre” had taken place and took steps to deny media and
humanitarian personnel into the devastated camp for almost two weeks
in an attempt to buy time and hide evidence.
Abdelkarim,
reportedly sent out widely distributed e-mails over the Internet
citing what he witnessed after visiting the camp. Israel, already
suffering a public image crisis, caught wind of the reports and
accused him of “terrorist activity.”
He
was held for almost two weeks in an Israeli prison before finally
being freed on Monday. Arrested along with him was Dallal Mohammed, a
relief worker with the Texas-based children’s organization
Kinder-U.S.A. She was released last week without charge.
According
to sources in Washington D.C., at least five American solidarity
workers remain detained in Israeli jails without charge or due
process.
Israel’s
treatment of prisoners has been widely criticized by the international
community, citing that Israel openly sanctions torture. Israel’s
notorious torture practices have often resulted in deaths of
prisoners.
The
Los Angeles Times reported Monday that humanitarian aid workers are
often targeted by Israel when trying to administer aid.
"Several
organizations, from the International Red Cross to United Nations
agencies, have complained about Israeli detention, harassment and even
shooting of aid workers who attempted to bring food and medical
supplies into the Palestinian territories,” the daily stated.
Israel
was also widely criticized last month after a CNN journalist reported
on air that Israeli forces were shooting at media personnel attempting
to cover the Israeli besiege of the West Bank, and specifically of
Ramallah, in Israel’s most aggressive attack yet in the almost
20-month long Palestinian Intifada, or uprising against illegal
Israeli occupation. Over 2,000 people, over 90% of whom are
Palestinian, have been killed since the beginning of the uprising. The
majority of those killed have been unarmed men, women and children who
posed no threat to Israeli forces, human rights organizations report.
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