Israelis Arrest Two Americans, One from Cali

Israelis Arrest Two Americans

By Associated Press

May 6, 2002, 5:10 PM EDT


WASHINGTON -- Israeli authorities have arrested two Americans affiliated with relief organizations, including a Muslim commentator who recently described by telephone and in e-mails the destruction he saw in Jenin, a supporter said Monday.

Riad Abdelkarim, a physician from the Los Angeles area, was detained Sunday at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport while trying to return to the United States, said Khalid Turaani of the Washington-based American Muslims for Jerusalem. Israeli authorities called his wife in California on Sunday and urged her to hire an attorney, Turaani said.

Abdelkarim, who has written opinion pieces on Muslim issues for major U.S. newspapers, serves on the board of American Muslims for Jerusalem and chairman of a new charity, Kinder-USA, organized to provide aid to Palestinian children. Abdelkarim also is the Western region communications director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The other person arrested during the weekend was Dallal Muhammad of Dallas, Texas, Turaani said. Ms. Muhammad is president of the Kinder-USA organization, he said.

The U.S. State Department could not confirm the arrests, an official said. But a U.S. diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrests and said consular officials in Israel were being given proper access.

Turaani said Abdelkarim was touring damaged areas in Jenin with International Medical Corps, a relief organization based in Los Angeles. Abdelkarim's family traces its history to a village near Ramallah, where Israeli troops kept Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in isolation for weeks during their incursion into Palestinian areas.

Abdelkarim was in the Palestinians' territory for the past 10 days, Turaani said. Abdelkarim called colleagues April 28 at a fund-raising dinner to describe the destruction he saw while visiting areas of Jenin. He e-mailed similar descriptions.

"He reported basically the destruction and smell of death under the rubble," said Turaani, who was at the dinner. "I remember him saying that, `Words cannot describe the atmosphere. You can smell death wherever you walk.' He was very emotional."

Abdelkarim wrote a widely distributed opinion piece Sept. 25 about his questioning by the FBI in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks about his political views and affiliations with Muslim advocacy groups.

"What I do not appreciate is being singled out for questioning merely because of my faith, my ethnicity or my legitimate political activism," he wrote. He wrote that he believed the FBI was "groping wildly for straws in the dark."

Copyright © 2002, The Associated Press