3 U.S. Arabs Say Israelis Tortured Them

Three Arab Americans, arrested by Israeli police during family visits to Israel or the West Bank, complained to the State Department on Thursday that U.S. diplomats knew they were being interrogated under torture but did nothing to help.

All three, released after weeks or months of detention, said the American diplomats who visited them in prison seemed unable or unwilling to challenge the Israeli security forces who scoffed at their U.S. citizenship.

Anwar Mohamad, 27, of Orlando, Fla., said his Israeli interrogator told him “this [U.S.] passport you have does not mean anything to us. It won’t protect you.”

Mohamad was released last Dec. 7 after 50 days in detention. He said he was tortured for most of that time, frequently by being tied to a chair in an extremely uncomfortable position with a filthy hood over his head.

Mohamad was joined at a Washington news conference by Yousuf Marei, 44, of Chicago, and Beshar Saidi, 35, of Detroit. The U.S. human rights organization Partners for Peace said at least five other American citizens are in detention in Israel.

The three men were accused of membership in terrorist organizations, charges they denied.

Israeli police are permitted to use “moderate physical pressure” while questioning prisoners accused of terrorism or other security offenses. Israeli news accounts confirm that this includes forms of torture.

The three Arab-Americans said they were visited in jail by U.S. consular officers. But all complained that the diplomats did not even register a formal complaint about their plight. Marei said the diplomat who visited his cell brought two magazines and a four-page list of the rights of American citizens under detention in foreign countries. He said the Israeli jailers confiscated the list of rights.

State Department spokesman James B. Foley said Thursday that the U.S. issued a formal protest on behalf of the only one of the three who asked for it, though he said privacy rules would not allow him to say which man made the request.

But he said the department regularly warns that there is not much it can do on behalf of Arabs arrested by Israel, even if they are U.S. citizens.

He read from a warning to travelers: “U.S. citizens arrested in the West Bank or Gaza [Strip] may be prevented from communicating with lawyers, family members or consular officers for lengthy periods. Consular access to persons arrested in Gaza or the West Bank, or arrested for security offenses, is frequently delayed. U.S. citizens arrested for security offenses may be subject to mistreatment during the interrogation period of their cases.”

Foley said department officials plan to meet with the three men today and will request affidavits detailing their treatment by the Israelis. The three gave such affidavits to reporters Thursday, but Foley said the State Department had not yet seen them.

A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said all three were accused of serious security offenses. “Interrogation is never an easy process,” he said.

Saidi confessed to membership in a small Lebanon-based terrorist organization. He said Thursday that the confession was coerced and that he had never belonged to the group. He was sentenced to two years in prison and served 18 months before his release earlier this year. The other two were never formally charged.

Jerri Bird, president of Partners for Peace, gave reporters a letter from President Clinton, dated Aug. 4, assuring her that the administration will “raise our concerns with the Israeli government.”