O.C. Doctor May Have Planned to Help Fund Terror, Israel Says

In their first official explanation for detaining an American aid worker, Israeli authorities said in newspaper reports Wednesday that Anaheim doctor Riad Abdelkarim may have been planning to use a U.S. charity to help fund “terror attacks” by the Hamas militant organization.

But the Israeli charges were dismissed as “baseless” by another aid worker who was detained with Abdelkarim and released this week after signing papers that will prevent her from returning to Israel.

Dallas charity worker Dalell Mohmed said Wednesday that the Israeli allegations against Abdelkarim were meant to divert attention from his imprisonment and from international criticism of the Jewish state’s treatment of humanitarian aid workers.

“It was a horrific experience, a Kafkaesque experience,” said Mohmed, 47, as she described her eight-day detention in Israel at a Los Angeles news conference Wednesday. “The urgent task now is to secure Riad’s immediate release.”

Israeli newspapers Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post reported in Wednesday’s editions that Tel Aviv courts had partially lifted a gag order on the case and extended Abdelkarim’s detention for seven days while police and security officials probed his activities with the Holy Land Foundation, based in Richardson, Texas. Officials offered no evidence of wrongdoing.

The foundation, an Islamic relief organization, was outlawed in Israel in 1997 and the United States in December on charges that it helped fund Hamas suicide bombings and other terrorist activities. The foundation has denied the accusations and is suing the federal government for freezing its funds. Mohmed had been the foundation’s emergency relief coordinator, and Abdelkarim joined the board last spring.

Abdelkarim was questioned about his Holy Land activities by the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks and found to be uninvolved in terrorist activities. He had also traveled to Israel without incident as recently as January.

On his most recent trip, the Anaheim doctor’s stated aim was to assess the medical needs of Palestinians at the request of a Los Angeles-based global humanitarian organization. Mohmed said she went to Israel May 2 to set up a charity for Palestinian children, KinderUSA.

“The fact that I was employed by Holy Land and released, while Riad had been on the board less than one year, tells you these charges are bogus,” said Mohmed, an Indiana native. She added that Israel’s “main mission was to prevent humanitarian goods from coming in.”

In recent months, Israel has come under fire from organizations ranging from the International Red Cross to the United Nations for arresting aid workers, shooting at them, blocking ambulances from serving the wounded and other actions criticized as violations of the Geneva Convention.

During three days of interrogations typically lasting more than 15 hours, Mohmed said, authorities did not significantly focus on Holy Land or KinderUSA. She said they repeated “mindless” questions about her family and Israel itinerary, exhorting her to “come clean.”

After detaining her May 5 at gunpoint at her hotel, Israeli officials refused to give the reason for her detention, saying only that it was a “security matter” and never presented any evidence of any crimes, she said. Mohmed, who maintained a hunger strike throughout her ordeal, said she was kept in near-solitary confinement in a small, rat-infested cell.

She said she was shackled and chained during transfers to interrogations, but never physically mistreated.

Mohmed said, however, that she heard Abdelkarim screaming in the next room: “Stop! Stop this now!” and believed he was being tortured.

An Israeli consular official in Los Angeles said he had no information on the case.

U.S. consular officials who met Abdelkarim had reported that he seemed in adequate condition, but Mohmed said the officials were incompetent.

She said they did nothing to seek her release and asked only if she had adequate toiletries.

She contrasted her experience with the presidential welcome at the White House for two American missionaries released from Taliban custody in Afghanistan.

“Is my life not as worthy?” she asked. “Is Riad’s life not as worthy?”