U.S. Incarceration Of Five Israelis Sparks Hard Questions
Why have five young Israelis been
detained for over six weeks in a
maximum-security facility in New York
on charges of minor immigration
violations? Why have their deportation
orders, which were issued one month
ago, not yet been implemented? Why
have the American authorities not taken
note of the fact that, according to
persons very close to the case, at least
one of the five is on the verge of mental
collapse? These are just some of the
angry questions Jews in Israel are
beginning to ask as more details of this
bizarre case come to light.
The five, at least one of whom has
asked to remain anonymous in order
not to alarm his ill father and other ailing
relatives, were originally arrested on
Sept. 11 on charges relating to the
Bin-Laden terrorist attacks. After up to
16 hours of "unpleasant" questioning,
the investigators realized that they had
made a mistake - but decided to keep
the Israelis in jail anyway because their
visas had expired. "The boys received
deportation orders on Sept. 25," Atty.
Steve Gordon, the New York attorney
of one of them, said, "and I admit, I
have no explanation as to why they have
not yet been deported. Nor can I
understand why they are being held in a
maximum-security facility. Either the
U.S. government is not telling us
everything, or else it's true that the
Immigration Service simply does not
have enough manpower to implement
the orders, as they claim."
Meanwhile, however, the five are
suffering greatly. The mother of one
told Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson that
she has it from a "first-hand source"
that one of them is in "very dangerous
psychological condition," and that the
others are also suffering. The parents
are in close contact with one another,
and have become, the mother said, a
support group for each other.
"Hopefully, when the boys return, we
will be able to tell the full story of how
we helped each other," she said. She
said that she was not allowed to
communicate with her son during the
six weeks following the arrests. When
told that the Consul-General in New
York had said that they might be
released "next week," she said, "Of
course they *might* be - but there has
been no indication at all that anything
has changed since a month or six weeks
ago. The whole thing is one big
question mark."
"Even the Israeli Consul-General in New
York was allowed to visit only after
asking several times and receiving a
special permit," Katie Shmuel, the
mother of another of the youths, told
Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson yesterday.
"He was allowed to talk to them only in
English, and only from behind a glass
partition. The Consul told me that the
boys are in a bad state and that they are
being held under difficult conditions." It
has since been learned, however, that
some of them were granted improved
conditions two days ago.
Mrs. Shmuel said that President Moshe
Katzav, New York Mayor Giuliani and
others had attempted to intervene, but
there have been no results so far. The
youths are being held in the
Metropolitan Detention Center in
Brooklyn. When asked if the local
Jewish community had gotten involved,
both mothers said that they had been in
contact with "someone there" but that
they had not seen results.
A spokesperson for the Israeli
Consulate in New York told Arutz-7
that in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks,
"the Americans now have different
procedures for dealing with the
detention of anyone arrested in
connection with the attacks. Every
single request of ours must go through
the FBI and the State Department's legal
team" - even though the terrorism
charges have long been dropped. "We
are doing as much as we possibly can
on their behalf," she said.
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