Luay Abdel Jaber
15 May 1999
Luay Abdel Jaber
SUMMARY: According to Luay Abdel Jaber’s father, Luay was detained at a check point when en route to Beir Zeit University. Luay lives in the village of Tormosayya with his mother and siblings. Luay’s father is a salesman in the United States.
There have been three court hearings and each time the young man has been remanded over. The family in the West Bank has not been allowed to visit him. The mother saw him at one court hearing but officers would not allow her to speak to him or touch him. Luay was a sophomore at Bir Zeit University on the West Bank in Electrical Engineering at the time he was detained. He and his siblings and mother went to the family home in the West Bank in 1985.
The father has contacted Senator Durbin and his Congressman.
Luay’s father, Qasem Abdel Jaber, says that Luay was released from prison and he received a copy of a letter from Senator Durbin from the American Consulate General in Jerusalem that states that the case is closed. Qasem, however, says that the Israelis will not allow Luay to leave the West Bank and they have imposed some kind of find or bond on him that the family has paid because there could be no resolution of the case (according to his lawyer) until that was paid.
The amount was 10,000 shekels (about $2500). The reason for the court date is not understood by the family.
The family does not understand what is happening and why Luay’s court dates are constantly deferred and he is still not allowed to return to the USA.
Luay’s lawyer, Leah Tsemel says that she is trying to convince the Israeli judge that the case is closed. This seems rather fruitless since the court holds that it is not closed. No Israeli authority will allow Luay to leave the area.
This appears to be a Catch-22 situation and Partners for Peace believes the only hope for getting this young man out of the bureaucratic minefield is to seek the intervention of his Senators and Congressman. Mr. Abdel Jaber is very discouraged and hopeless but grateful for any assistance.
As of March 15, 2000 the offices of Senator Durbin, Senator
Fitzgerald, and Congressman Weller had been contacted to seek their intervention.
Update: Israeli authorities have scheduled court dates repeatedly, always then postponing the hearing another three months. In May 2000, a platoon of Israeli soldiers came to Luay’s family home at 1:30 am in the morning, pounding on the door and frightening everyone. They presented Luay with a paper which said:
“To: Mr. Luay Qasem Abdel-Jaber Shalabi
Judgment: Appointment for discussing a complaint
1. Looking into the complaint received in our office about the investigation in the months of May and June of 1999 in Jerusalem.
2. According to the complaint, come to the police station in Beit El on Wednesday, May 17, 2000 at 10:00 AM.
3. If you can’t come at the time and date above, call 02-651-9380 to arrange another appointment.
4. Absence will close the case.”
Luay went to the court at the appointed time and there was no one there to hear the complaint. He called the numbers listed on the above document and also a number given by a clerk at Beit El, and one was invalid and the other did not answer.
This episode has nothing to do with his court hearings which have been postponed, and, indeed, the June hearing was again postponed. He is, in effect, being held hostage in the West Bank, not allowed to leave the country on his American passport, and not being provided a court hearing, all in the face of the fact that the American Consulate General in Jerusalem informed Senator Durbin last summer (1999) that the case was closed.
