The PA's upper echelon arranged for the escape from their custody of an Egyptian fugitive in Israel, journalist Youssef Samir, and the move was anticipated by Israeli authorities, an Israeli security source claimed, quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
According to the source, Samir was allowed to escape in order to relieve West Bank PA Intelligence chief Tawfiq Tirawi of responsibility for the Israeli-Arab journalist's detention and disappearance two months ago. Tirawi's superior, PA General Intelligence Service chief Col. Amin Al Hindi, authorized the move, the source said, to reward Tirawi for restoring calm in areas under his jurisdiction after the recent clashes.
Hindi had the approval of President Yasser Arafat, the source continued, as Arafat was concerned that, should Israel have determined that Tirawi had detained Samir, it would have demanded that the West Bank intelligence chief be brought to justice. Given Tirawi's success in enforcing the ceasefire, such a development would have greatly inconvenienced the PA, he added.
Asked if Israel was involved in effecting Samir's escape, the source said: "No doubt about it."
Other security officials theorized that in allowing Samir to return to Israel, the Palestinians were making a new overture in the hope of rapprochement.
Meanwhile, Tirawi and other Palestinian intelligence officers continue to insist they never had Samir in their custody, said the paper.
Also, three Arab Israelis alleged to be members of a group called Palestinian Hizbollah, which has claimed a number of anti-Israeli attacks, have been charged with conspiracy and treason, a press report said Friday.
Louis Sarhan, 22, from Yafia, near Nazareth in northern Israel, Said Said, 21, and Mohamed Auda, from Cana, were charged Thursday by a Nazareth court, the daily Maariv said.
They are accused of planning to steal weapons from an Israeli military base, the paper said, cited by AFP.
Anonymous callers saying they are from Palestinian Hizbollah have claimed responsibility on behalf of the group for a number of attacks, including the kidnapping Samir.
Samir had been missing since April 4 after entering the PA area of Bethlehem, then turned up late Wednesday night at an Israeli army checkpoint near the West Bank city.
Samir, 63, is an Egyptian native who received political asylum in Israel in 1968.
He said he had been "kidnapped" and held by one of the PA security services and had succeeded in escaping.
"I knew that if I did not escape, I would die," he was quoted as saying.
Israel Radio reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had asked German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who is on a visit to Israel, to raise the issue of Samir's fate with Arafat.
After arriving at the checkpoint, Samir told the soldiers who he was and he was taken to Jerusalem's Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
After fleeing from the Nasser regime in Egypt, Samir began working for Israel Radio, editing and presenting Arabic-language programs. He did not use his real name in his journalistic work until late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem in 1977.
Since the early 1990s, Samir has lived on the border of the Gilo settlement and Beit Jala. His house formerly belonged to a Christian family from Beit Jala, but was included in the municipal borders of Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967.
According to Palestinian sources, Samir was arrested as he was photographing houses near Rachel's Tomb, which had been bombarded by Israeli tanks after a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
