By Munir K. Nasser
Washington, DC
The leading American news network, CNN, accused Israel of torturing and mistreating Palestinian Americans who visit their hometowns in the West Bank in a broadcast Sunday evening that was seen by millions of viewers in the United States and around the world.
The investigative news program focused on the case of Anwar Mohammed, a Palestinian American citizen who was detained in Israel for forty days in 1998. Upon his release he said that he was tortured by the Israeli security service and that the United States Consulate-General in Jerusalem, which is charged with the protection of American citizens in other countries, did nothing to prevent it.
CNN followed the story of Anwar Mohammed, who was twenty-seven at the time of his incarceration, from his home in Orlando, Florida, to the Russian Compound in Jerusalem, where Israeli security authorities held him from October 28 to December 7, 1998. The CNN reporting team also went to his family's village of Silwad near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank to speak to his family, with whom he was staying before and after his detention.
Anwar Mohammed told CNN he felt his country had betrayed him. During the interview, he said, "the American Consulate is located a few blocks from where I was there and tortured for forty days. And my country was powerless to do anything." He added that the stamp on his handcuffs said, "Made in USA." He accused American consular officials of ignoring the physical evidence of his mistreatment and of not attending the Israeli military court at Beth El that authorized the security services to hold him for further questioning.
The State Department in Washington declined to comment on camera about the detention of Arab-Americans in Israel, and the Consul-General in Jerusalem refused to speak about it on the record. Three former US Consuls, who were based in Jerusalem, admitted off the record that the State Department does not defend Arab-Americans in Israel as it does US citizens in most other countries.
The interrogation methods described by Anwar Mohammed included what is called the "Shabah," which involved being tied to a low chair tilted forward for many hours with a urine-soaked sack over his head. He says he was beaten and forced to endure extreme cold. Anwar Mohammed was held for forty days without being charged with any crime. When he was released, his family and former consul Eugene Bird, who visited him, said he had lost forty pounds. He was not allowed to return to the US immediately, because the Israeli authorities refused to recognize his US passport. Anwar Mohammed had to wait two further weeks in the West Bank for his Palestinian document before going home to Florida.
CNN said Israeli police sources will not say why Anwar Mohammed was detained, but Mohammed said his interrogators questioned him about his donations to an American-registered charity, the Holy Land Foundation, to support a Palestinian orphan, and the use of a restaurant he had managed in Miami, Florida, for an American Black Muslim dinner to raise money for construction of a mosque.
Jonathan Kuttab, a Palestinian-American lawyer who has represented security detainees, including American citizens, told CNN, "Under the first Geneva Convention, every state has an obligation to insure compliance by the other signatories to that treaty, otherwise the treaty is meaningless. Unfortunately the United States has not taken that duty very seriously as far as the Palestinians are concerned… So, Israel is somehow allowed to use torture, to use any means necessary, including abusing the rights of US citizens as long as they can provide the security justification."
A Likud Member of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, who introduced a bill to legalize torture during interrogation under certain circumstances told CNN, "There is no way for me to fight terrorism unless I use special methods. You can call them tortures. Okay, I agree, because I don't want to be a hypocrite. Those are probably tortures.”
CNN said Anwar Mohammed is one of at least ten American citizens of Arab origin who have lodged the same complaint against the State Department for treating them differently from other American citizens. The Washington-based charity Partners for Peace has documented the cases of the ten, all United States citizens who were detained by Israeli security services between 1997 and 1999. Three of them, including Mohammed, have presented signed affidavits to the State Department alleging mistreatment by Israel.
Partners for Peace said that United States consular service did not live up to its legal obligations to protect Americans in foreign custody. Jerri Bird, who heads the organization, told CNN, "The [State Department] reaction is, 'This is a problem between you and the Israeli government.' The Human Rights Report, which the State Department is required to provide every year, gives a detailed account of exactly the standard procedure for interrogation." Mrs. Bird, whose husband Eugene is a retired consul himself, added, "In the ten cases that I know of, they [the State Department] have not intervened." – Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
