Former Bruin detained in Israel due to activist work

The Associated Press Abdelkarim, with his son
Ali, in this family photo, was detained Sunday at
an Israeli airport.

By Kelly Rayburn
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]

A UCLA alumnus who, little over a decade ago was among a group
of students to establish the first student-run Muslim newsmagazine
in the country, remains detained in Israel after his arrest at an
international airport, friends and colleagues said.

Riad Abdelkarim”“ who helped launch the Al-Talib
newsmagazine and is now a physician in Los Angeles ““ was on
what friends call a fact-finding mission in Jenin in the Occupied
Territories. He had recently reported terrible devastation and
destruction, colleagues said. He was reportedly detained Sunday at
Ben Guirion International Airport while trying to return to the
United States. Dallal Muhammad of Dallas, Texas, was arrested with
Abdelkarim, numerous sources said.

A third man traveling along with Abdelkarim said at a press
conference in Los Angeles Tuesday he was detained at the airport
and released after seven hours of interrogation, which he said
included deprivation of sleep and verbal abuse by Israeli
officials.

Neither the U.S State Department nor Israeli authorities have
confirmed the detainments, but one U.S. diplomatic source, speaking
on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrests to The Associated
Press.

Abdelkarim’s family released a statement Monday, calling
for his release and describing their fear. “At this time, our
family is shaken,” it said. Abdelkarim has a wife and four
children who live in Orange. The children “are traumatized
and are asking for their father,” the statement reads.

Abdelkarim’s family also feared “Israel’s
acknowledged policy of using “˜physical pressure’ in
questioning suspects,” and noted his asthmatic condition,
which they said worsens with stress or when he does not have his
medicine.

A politically active Muslim, Abdelkarim served on the board of
directors of the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas-based nonprofit
organization whose assets were frozen by the Bush administration
for allegedly funding the terror group Hamas. Friends and relatives
said, however, he was not likely targeted for this connection,
noting he traveled to Israel in January without incident.

He was traveling with a group of doctors from International
Medical Corps and had relayed home reports of miserable conditions,
calling colleagues on April 28 during a fund-raising event.

“He reported … the smell of death under the
rubble,” said Khalid Turrani of the Washington-based American
Muslims for Jerusalem who was at the event. “I remember him
saying that “˜words cannot describe the atmosphere. You can
smell death wherever you walk.'” Numerous human rights
organizations have called upon United Nations to investigate
conditions in Jenin, to determine if Israel broke international law
by conducting a civilian massacre. The Israeli government maintains
they were only targeting “terrorist
infrastructure.”

Abdelkarim was a student activist during his time at UCLA,
working on Al-Talib and other student Muslim publications printed
before the university supported Al-Talib. He went on to UC San
Diego medical school in the early 1990s, after graduating from
UCLA.

Members of the current Al-Talib staff and the Muslim Students
Association are contacting numerous representatives, asking them to
push for Abdelkarim’s release. “He’s a very nice,
humble guy, very community-oriented” Al-Talib Editor Mostafa
Mahboob said of Abdelkarim. “On behalf of his family … we
ask he be released,” he said.

With reports from the Associated Press