Foreign Service Article Documents Torture of American Citizens
10 June 2002
Foreign Service Article Documents Torture of American Citizens
FOREIGN SERVICE ARTICLE DOCUMENTS TORTURE OF AMERICAN CITIZENS BY ISRAELI AUTHORITIES & STATE DEPARTMENT’S “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP” WITH ISRAEL
A stinging critique of Israel’s use of torture against American citizens of Palestinian descent and the State Department’s 30-year policy described as a “special relationship” with Israel is documented in a lengthy article by Jerri Bird, President of Partners for Peace in the June issue of the Foreign Service Journal (FSJ) due to be released the week of June 10.
Editors at the FSJ contacted the State Department and offered them the opportunity to write a rebuttal. They declined.
According to Ms. Bird, “Israel has repeatedly detained, tortured and incarcerated Americans of Arab origin, without suffering any sanctions or even a public reprimand from Washington.”
Responding to a question in an April 2, 2002 press briefing, a State Department spokesman confirmed that Israel was holding at least 18 American citizens on “security” charges, and had detained at least 22 more since “the current violence began last fall.” He also noted that “we have no way of knowing for certain the numbers of American citizens who may have been detained for short periods and released.”
In addition, Israeli and international human rights organizations have gathered evidence that such prisoners are routinely denied family visits for long periods and deprived of access to legal counsel. Their interrogations routinely include torture. The Department of State Human Rights Report has detailed these abuses for years.
Ms. Bird first learned of the detention and torture of American citizens in 1998, when the case of Hashem Mufleh was brought to her attention. He was an 18-year-old, third-generation American born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After attending high school in the West Bank village where his grandmother lives, he went to Ben Gurion Airport together with his mother and brother to return to Albuquerque to attend university. Israeli authorities seized him at the airport.
Partners for Peace launched a nationwide effort to bring the facts of his situation to public attention. He was severely tortured and was jailed for more than a year before he was expelled from the country.
The article describes a number of cases of torture of American citizens including the case of Anwar Mohammed. CNN produced a 17-minute documentary about Anwar’s experience and aired it worldwide. Other cases were soon referred to her and she has been able to document a total of 13, two of whom remain in prison today.
“For the sake of peace, our ‘special relationship’ with Israel must change” says Ms. Bird.
The Foreign Service Journal is a leading magazine on foreign affairs. Published since 1924, the Journal is the only magazine written specifically for members of the U.S. Foreign Service. The Journal has a circulation of 13,000, including active and retired diplomats, congresspersons and other foreign affairs professionals.
Jerri Bird, the wife of retired Foreign Service Officer, Eugene Bird, has lived in Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and traveled in all of the other Arab countries except Iraq and Sudan. She is president and founder of Partners for Peace, a Washington, D.C.-based NGO whose mission is to educate the public about the issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Partners for Peace sponsors an annual 10-city tour of the United States called “Jerusalem Women Speak: Three Women, Three Faiths, One Shared City,” that brings women from Israel and Palestine together to share their views of the conflict with ordinary Americans.
Ms. Bird is also the author of numerous articles on the role of women in the Muslim world and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She wrote the chapter “Revolution for Children in Saudi Arabia” in the book Children in the Muslim Middle East, edited by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea and published by the University of Texas Press in 1995.
For detailed information see the Partners for Peace web site at: www.partnersforpeace.org. The Foreign Service Journal’s web site is www.afsa.org/fsj.
For interviews and talk show appearances Jerri Bird can be reached at 202-863-2951. E-mail contact information for US citizens cited in the article can be obtained by the press from Partners for Peace.
