Israel Ignores U.S. Pleas, Deports Awad as a Threat to Its Security

The Israeli government ignored U.S. wishes Monday and deported Mubarak Awad, the Palestinian-American advocate of nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir ordered the deportation, saying Awad was in the country illegally and was a threat to Israel’s security.

Awad, 44, denied he had incited violence during the Palestinian uprising and said he had the right to remain in Jerusalem where he was born before the establishment of the state of Israel.

Police and security forces brought Awad, a psychologist, to Ben-Gurion Airport for his New York-bound flight from a nearby prison in a van with covered windows, Israel Radio reported.

He arrived at New York’s Kennedy Airport on Monday night, where about 50 demonstrators, pro and con, awaited him. He is scheduled to hold a news conference today.

The United States protested the deportation action.

“We think it’s unjustifiable not to permit him to stay in the country where he was born,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Monday.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals signed a “peace treaty” in a symbolic ceremony Monday to show that gaps between the two sides can be bridged.

They said the agreement, written in Hebrew, Arabic and English, is the first of its kind to be negotiated by Israelis and Palestinians. It was signed by about 25 Israeli and Palestinian authors and artists during a news conference.

The pact calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state, to be called Falastin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Falastin” is how the word “Palestine” sounds in Arabic.