Israel Defies U.S., Deports Arab-American Activist

Israel today deported Arab-American activist Mubarak Awad in defiance of the United States, insisting that he had helped foment the 6-month-old Palestinian uprising.

Awad, the 44-year-old founder of the Center for the Study of Non-Violence in Jerusalem, put up no resistance as police escorted him up the stairs to a TWA airliner bound for New York. He had refused to fly the Israeli national carrier El Al.

Awad has denied inciting violence and has said he has the right to remain in Jerusalem, where he was born before the establishment of the State of Israel. He holds dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship.

Awad’s American wife, Nancy Nye, left Sunday for New York, where she planned to meet her husband tonight.

U.S. Objections Ignored

Before Awad’s departure, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told reporters that Israel would expel Awad despite objections from the Reagan Administration, which regards him as a model campaigner for nonviolence in the Middle East.

Shamir said any country, including the United States, would have expelled Awad without a second thought.

“There was no basis or reason to keep a man in Israel whose stay here was illegal. Besides that, he acts against security and order,” the Israeli leader said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said: “We think it’s unjustifiable not to permit him to stay in the country where he was born. If he acted illegally, he should have been charged in a court of law.”

Awad returned to Jerusalem in 1983 after studying and living for 13 years in the United States, where he obtained U.S. citizenship and married Nye.

He established the Palestinian Center for the Study of Non-Violence when he returned to Israel.

Police kept reporters at a distance when Awad arrived at the airport in a black prison van, part of a convoy of vehicles that drove onto the Tarmac. He boarded the airliner before other passengers were allowed to embark.

Placards Ordered Down

Police ordered a dozen Israeli supporters outside the terminal to take down placards and banners, including one quoting Jewish tradition which read: “Mubarak--Next Year in Jerusalem.” Police said the demonstration was illegal.

The supporters gave boarding passengers copies of a letter that Awad wrote from prison addressed to his Israeli and Jewish friends. The letter said Awad favored separate Palestinian and Israeli states, side by side with open borders.

“We must show that we are able to resolve our conflicts through peaceful means,” the letter said. “I also want to remind you, as friends and supporters, that I am a Jerusalemite and I will return soon.”

Of a dozen passengers interviewed, half had never heard of Awad. Some were frightened to learn he was flying on their plane. One passenger refused to take the letter and another angrily handed it back.