June/July 2002, pages 12-13

Special Report

Family, Friends Pull Out All Stops to Free Dr. Riad Abdelkarim From Israeli Prison

By Pat McDonnell Twair

Jesse Jackson volunteered to travel to Israel to negotiate the release of California physician Riad Abdelkarim—but, after two weeks of detention on unspecified charges, Israel freed him on May 19.

Candlelight vigils, demonstrations in front of the offices of Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and round-the-clock media interviews were just some of the efforts made by Dr. Abdelkarim’s supporters, family members and colleagues after his May 5 arrest at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport.

The tall, articulate doctor went to the West Bank April 27 at the invitation of the International Medical Corps to evaluate the medical needs of the Palestinian population after four weeks of invasion and siege by the Israeli army. Although the Santa Monica-born physician has made similar missions to the region, this time, after seeing the carnage and destruction at Jenin, he sent an achingly descriptive e-mail to the U.S. (see box).

Washington Report readers know Dr. Riad Abdelkarim as the magazine’s “Islam in America” columnist who has honestly and patriotically tackled such subjects as: “Why Do They Hate Us? The Question That Won’t Go Away,” and Islamaphobia in America. The gentle and soft-spoken doctor, who also has written first-hand accounts of Israel’s devastating occupation, was planning to write a searing report on Jenin for this issue. When Israeli authorities detained him, they immediately confiscated his digital camera and his video recorder.

In addition to his work as a physician and a writer, Dr. Abdelkarim is president of KinderUSA, an organization he co-founded in March to provide relief to Palestinian families. Following the Dec. 4 closing of the Holy Land Foundation by U.S. authorities—shortly after a visit to Washington, DC by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon—American humanitarian aid to the Palestinians was virtually cut off. KinderUSA was established to fill the need for an agency to assist the sick and needy and to provide special programs for children.

On Saturday, May 4, Abdelkarim had met with Dalell Mohmed, executive director of KinderUSA, to prioritize emergency assistance for West Bank Palestinians. They spent time with Beit Jala’s hospital director to outline plans for psycho-social trauma centers for the children of Nablus, Bethlehem and Jenin.

Hours later, as he prepared to fly home to California, Dr. Abdelkarim was arrested at the airport. Also taken into custody was Dr. Rushdie Abdel Cader of San Luis Obispo, who was freed after 16 hours in detention, where he witnessed Israeli police pushing and threatening Abdelkarim.

The following morning, Mohmed was arrested at her East Jerusalem hotel.

“It was surreal,” the charity worker recalled in Los Angeles May 15, barely 48 hours after her release by the Israelis.

“I was drinking mint tea at 8:30 a.m.,” she said, “and admiring the view of the Dome of the Rock from the Seven Arches Hotel….I heard a commotion, but didn’t turn to see what it was about. Then two soldiers with guns and three Shabak men stood over me and demanded to see my passport.

“They ordered me to come with them. I refused and asked to see their identification.”

Mohmed’s demands to call the U.S. consulate were refused. Instead, the men marched her to her room and ordered her to pack all her belongings. As she was escorted out of the hotel, a receptionist handed her a slip of paper with the phone number of the U.S. consulate.

Incredibly, the Shabak did not confiscate her cell phone. Although the U.S. consulate did not answer her call that Sunday morning, attorney Allegra Pacheco in Bethlehem did.

Warning her not to name anyone, lest they be arrested as well, the American-Israeli lawyer asked Mohmed to identify the areas through which the car was driving. Then, referring to International Solidarity Movement volunteers who had flown to Israel to act as protective “shields” for Palestinians, Pacheco commented, “They’ve detained so many Americans at this point, they don’t know what to do with them.”

What is it like to be arrested in Israel?

Mohmed did not have her rights read to her. Instead she was told that the charges against her were a security issue, and she therefore had no right to an attorney or access to her consul.

She was left alone in a cell. ”The blanket on the bed was dirty and smelly,” Mohmed said. “I slept in and wore the same pants and T shirt for nine-and-a-half days. I refused all food, but drank a lot of water.”

Each day the American detainee was shackled and hand-cuffed before being driven to an interrogation building, where the same questions were asked:

“Why are you here?”

“Have you been to Israel before?”

“What is your family name?”

“Do you have any brothers?”

‘What did you do for the Holy Land Foundation?”

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and New York City, the Israelis persuaded U.S. officials to close the Holy Land Foundation on the grounds that it was sending money to terrorist organizations—a charge vehemently denied by HLF officials.

Mohmed had worked for the HLF as a project coordinator from the summer of 1999 until its closure Dec. 4. Dr. Abdelkarim had been an HLF board member since February 2001. Neither was named in the Treasury Department indictment, and allegations of suspected activity between HLF and Hamas predate the involvement of both Americans in the charitable organization.

Initially, Mohmed said, her interrogators did not inform her that Abdelkarim had been arrested as well.

“They treated me like a terrorist,” she said. “They used old clichés such as ‘this is an open and shut case,’ or ‘come clean, confess,’” Mohmed recalled. “I told them they needed to see some new movies and update their style.”

When she finally was told of Abdelkarim’s arrest, her interrogators tried a new approach, saying, “He’s not as tough as you are. He’s cracked, he’s confessed.”

On May 7, Mohmed appeared before an Israeli judge, who asked why she was on a hunger strike. She replied that she was protesting her treatment and the fact that she hadn’t seen a U.S. consular officer. Forbidden to look at her attorney, Lea Tsemel, Mohmed was told to face a wall when addressing Tsemel.

That afternoon, a consular officer finally visited her. The officer said she was unable to answer questions about Abdelkarim’s situation or why Mohmed was under arrest. Her only obligation, she said, was to see if Mohmed was comfortable and had toiletries.

The next day, interrogators falsely told Mohmed that Abdelkarim had taken a polygraph test and passed it. If she would take one as well and passed it, they promised, the two would be released. Mohmed consented to the test and shortly afterward was told she had passed.

Hours later she saw Tsemel, who was shocked to learn Mohmed had taken a polygraph test, telling her she had advised Abdelkarim not to take one.

For the ensuing four days Mohmed was left in solitary confinement. Her jailers tried to tempt her with food, she said, but the smell made her nauseous. A previous prisoner had left a copy of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest in the cell, and prisoner Mohmed read it three times. She tried to exercise by running around the cell like a caged hamster on a wheel.

On Monday, May 13, she was taken to court and finally ordered released. Dr. Abdelkarim’s release was denied, however, as was a May 15 appeal of the ruling.

Unfortunately for Mohmed, her problems weren’t over. The Israelis refused to let her use her return ticket on Lufthansa because it made a stop in Frankfort. Instead she was ordered to return to the U.S. on a non-stop El-Al flight.

“Fine,” she replied, “if you want to pay for it.”

That, however, was easier said than done. Mohmed would have to remain in Israel for the 14 days it would take to process the payment for the El-Al ticket.

The desperate aid worker was obliged to charge $1,102 to her credit card for a one-way El-Al flight. At JFK Airport in New York, she had to pay an additional $1,058 for a one-way flight to Dallas.

After reuniting with her family in Dallas and tasting her first solid food in nine-and-a-half days, Mohmed flew to Los Angeles to be with Dr. Abdelkarim’s family.

“I won’t stop until Riad is released,” she vowed on May 15, at the Muslim Public Affairs Committee office.

“I’m really angry with my government,” she fumed. “How can it be so unresponsive to American citizens being unjustly imprisoned in a foreign country?

“I do know some people at the consulate were working silently in my behalf,” she added, “because my family was aware of what was happening to me.”

Mohmed praised Texas Republican Senators Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison, who had called for her release.

According to Dr. Laila al-Marayati, a co-founder of KinderUSA, the Israelis decided to make the arrests after Mohmed filed to register KinderUSA as a charitable organization on May 3 and opened a bank account in its name in Jerusalem.

“The Israelis made the arrests to prevent the purchase of food and water for Palestinians under siege,” Mohmed stated. “I had intended to buy butane-operated hotplates, wash tubs, soap.”

Perhaps to save face under mounting international protests, Israeli government sources were quoted in Ha’aretz as saying that they suspected Abdelkarim went to Israel to fund mass terrorist attacks.

“If the Israelis thought they can intimidate Riad,” commented Dr. Abdelkarim’s brother, Arafat, “they picked the wrong person.”

The arrested physician is one of six children born to Rasmieh and Zuhdi Abdelkarim, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1967 from the village of Turmos Ayya, near Ramallah. Incredibly, three of their American-born sons are physicians.

Basil, an internist who lives in Torrance, expressed gratitude for the community’s outpouring of concern. “It is not a crime to give aid to Palestinian civilians,” he stated. “If it were any other country but Israel, my brother would be free right now.”

More than 200 friends, including elementary school classmates of the 34-year-old physician, gathered May 11 for a candlelight vigil in front of the Orange City Hall.

Carrying a photo of her husband of 13 years, a grief-stricken Wijdan Abdelkarim, whom Riad had met and married during one of his earlier trips to the West Bank, pushed the youngest of their four children, Omar, 2, in a stroller.

Riad, the oldest of six children, grew up in Southern California, and was high school valedictorian before he attended UCLA as a Regents and Alumni Scholar. He earned a degree in psychobiology, then studied medicine at the University of California, San Diego and trained at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. He now practices medicine with Kaiser Permanente.

In addition to the Washington Report, his articles on Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Dallas Morning news, and Christian Science Monitor.

After Dr. Abdelkarim’s May 19 release, he arrived at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, the following afternoon. At a packed airport news conference, Abdelkarim said he was happy to be home and thanked all those who had worked for his release, including Representative Cox and Senator Feinstein. He also thanked supporters who had made hundreds of calls, and sent faxes and e-mails to government officials who helped facilitate his release.

The Washington Report looks forward to Abdelkarim’s next column for this magazine.

SIDEBAR 1

Excerpts From Dr. Abdelkarim’s E-Mail on Jenin

“A horrible, foul, spine-tingling odor struck me. It was the smell of death…Somehow I did not expect it to still be present one-and-a-half weeks after the Israeli pullout…Nobody knows how many are buried underneath, but there is no question that life was extinguished below this mound of rubble…

“Everywhere I went, there were stories of terror. Stories of executions. Stories of huge D-11 Caterpillar bulldozers that would knock down a home with a single push…with entire families still inside.

“I spent last night in the Jenin area. I slept about two hours, then could not sleep anymore. My head still hurts. My nose still recalls that horrible odor. My mind keeps replaying these images and these stories. And my heart continued to ache—mostly for the people of Jenin, but also for what we used to call humanity.”—R.A.

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.

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