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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (36260)	1/25/2004 7:57:27 PM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Always had a "taste" for the ironic. Expulsion of Israeli Soldier's Father Is Suspended Israel's high court today suspended for 30 days the state's efforts to expel the Palestinian father of an Israeli soldier, pending a hearing on granting him the right to remain in Israel. The Palestinian, Adel Hussein, 52, has been living illegally in Israel for years, passing as an Israeli Arab while seeking permission to remain legally, as a citizen or resident. His ex-wife and his son, who are both Israeli Jews, have been lobbying Israeli officials on his behalf. The family's circumstances were first reported in The New York Times on Nov. 9, and are now being widely covered in Israel. Mr. Hussein said he fled his home in a refugee camp beside the West Bank city of Tulkarm a few years ago after militants shot at his door, accusing him of being a Jew. He says he will be killed if he returns. On Friday, border police making random checks stopped Mr. Hussein near the seaside Israeli town of Netanya as he rode in a taxi to an engagement party. Unable to produce valid identification, he was driven through an Israeli checkpoint and expelled to the West Bank within four hours, dropped by the side of the road near the town of Qalqilya. Later that night, his son, Sgt. Muhammad Hussein, 21, smuggled his father back through the checkpoint in the car of an Israeli photographer. Didi Rothschild, the family's lawyer, said that a lawyer from Israel's Interior Ministry called him on this morning to ask to postpone a hearing before the high court on Adel Hussein's status. After an agreement between the lawyers, the court suspended any action against Mr. Hussein until the hearing takes place. A date has yet to be set. Mr. Rothschild said that public pressure on the Interior Ministry appeared to be benefiting his client. "It seems to me that if there will be strong opposition to the Interior office in Israel and outside Israel — and it seems now that's what going on — then probably the Interior office will give him citizenship," he said. Today, Israeli newspapers featured Mr. Hussein, and Israeli radio and television presented him describing in fluent Hebrew his situation and his experience on Friday night. As Mr. Hussein walked to get an espresso with his son in Tel Aviv on Sunday — a public excursion that would have been highly risky for both men before the court's action — strangers called to him from passing cars or stopped him to shake his hand, congratulating him and welcoming him. "You're staying with us, right?" one man asked. On the lapel of his gray jacket, Mr. Hussein wore a silver pin of a flying bird to represent his new sense of liberty. "I haven't felt such freedom since 1999," he said. "I can walk with my son anywhere." Last year, Israel tightened its already strict restriction on "family reunification," saying that Palestinians were using fake marriages to Israeli Jews to move into Israel and threaten its security. As for Sergeant Hussein, before today, he was breaking the law by merely meeting with his father, let alone smuggling him in from the West Bank. But military officials say that they are aware of his special situation and are trying to help him. nytimes.com lurqer