Last update - 00:00 08/01/2007
Israel arrests U.S. deportee over alleged Jihad ties, says brother
By The Associated Press
A former imam who was deported to his native West Bank last week over his aid to a group the United States classifies as a terrorist organization was arrested by Israeli authorities after crossing from Jordan, his brother said Monday.
Fawaz Damra, 47, had been jailed in Monroe County, Michigan, for a year while awaiting deportation for concealing his ties to Islamic Jihad when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced his removal Friday. His brother, Nabil Damra, said the Red Cross and the Center for the Defense of the Individual, an Israeli advocacy group for Palestinians in theterritories, informed him that Fawaz Damra was in custody and had been taken to Israel's Al Jalameh detention facility.
"He was arrested the moment he arrived to the border," Nabil Damra said through a translator by cell phone from the West Bank. He said a lawyer had been hired for his brother.
Israeli military and security officials had no comment. A Red Cross official in Jerusalem said he did not know of the case.
Don Bryant, president of the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network and a friend of Damra's, was alarmed when he learned Damra had been detained.
"Our biggest fear is that he might stand trial in Israel," Bryant said. "This is a nightmare for him."
He said Damra's wife Nesreen declined to comment.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Greg Palmore said that Damra was flown to Amman on Thursday and taken to the Allenby Bridge, where he was directly handed over to Palestinian authorities.
Any parties crossing the Allenby Bridge must first go through an
Israeli-controlled checkpoint. Palmore said that if Damra were arrested, Palestinian authorities - not U.S. authorities - must have handed him over to the Israelis.