Israel arrested the former imam of Ohio's largest mosque after he was deported from the US last week, the Shin Bet internal security service confirmed.
Fawaz Damra, 46, was arrested because of his ties to Islamic Jihad, a militant Palestinian group classified by Israel and the US as a terrorist organization, Shin Bet said on Tuesday. It gave no other details.
Smadar Ben-Natan, an Israeli lawyer retained by Damra's family to represent him, said Damra was being held at the Kishon prison and she planned to meet with her client yesterday.
Damra's family, friends and members of the Islamic community in Ohio reacted with outrage on Tuesday and demanded that the US government be held accountable for Damra ending up in Israeli custody.
Damra, a Palestinian originally from the West Bank city of Nablus, was deported by US authorities last week because he concealed his ties to Islamic Jihad when he applied for US citizenship in 1994. Relatives expecting him to enter the West Bank on Friday reported he never showed up and said they had been told by the Red Cross he was detained, but there was not any official Israeli confirmation until Tuesday.
"We waited for him all day and he didn't come," said Nabil Damra, the imam's brother.
"He is not an extremist and we don't understand why he was arrested. My mother is crying. Our house is sad. My father, who is 83, is waiting for his son. We pray that my brother will come home and see his father before he dies," he said.
Islamic Jihad, a small radical group with links to Iran and Syria, has carried out dozens of suicide bombings and rocket attacks against Israel.
During his trial, jurors were shown evidence that Damra raised money for the organization, along with footage of a 1991 speech in which he called Jews "the sons of monkeys and pigs."
He later apologized for making anti-Semitic statements.
Damra, whose wife and three daughters remain in the US, served as the imam, or religious leader, of the Islamic Center of Cleveland in suburban Parma.
His supporters gathered at the mosque on Tuesday along with his wife and children, expressing concern for his safety.
"There seems to be widespread speculation that my husband's disappearance has him in a place where there is no due process, where he is likely to be tortured or worse," said Nesreen Damra, barely able to read her prepared statement through tears.
A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman denied accusations that the government's intent was to hand Damra over to Israeli authorities.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS