BEIT UMMAR: Israeli military abducts Palestinian mayor; CPT Hebron visits family
CPTnet
27 August 2006
BEIT UMMAR: Israeli military abducts Palestinian mayor; CPT Hebron visits
family
by Dianne Roe
At 2:00 a.m. Thursday, 24 August, Miriam (Im Musa) Alqam heard loud knocking
on the door. She feared soldiers were coming to take her husband. She was
right. Israeli soldiers who had come in six jeeps surrounded the family
home in the farming village of Beit Ummar, just north of Hebron.
The children (ages four to fourteen) were still sleeping when the soldiers
took their father away in his night clothes, refusing his request to use the
bathroom or to get a change of clothes from his closet.
Farhan Alqam (Abu Musa) is the mayor of Beit Ummar. He is the most recent
of the Hamas elected officials that the Israeli army has abducted and
imprisoned without charges.
CPTers Christina Gibb, John Lynes, and Dianne Roe visited the Alqam family
two days later. Eleven year-old Musa told CPT that when he got up in the
morning and saw his uncle, he knew something was wrong. He asked his uncle
if Israeli soldiers had arrested his father. His uncle answered, "Yes."
Musa added, "Most children in the world have fathers who can take them
places. Our fathers are taken to prison."
Three weeks earlier, 3 August 2006, at CPT's request, Mayor Alqam had
hosted thirty internationals representing several different Christian
organizations visiting Israeli and Palestine. He had shared with the
visiting internationals the difficulties his village faced because of the
American and Israeli sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. Tracy Hughes,
who brought a delegation from Common Global Ministries, expressed shock when
she heard of the arrest. "The mayor clearly stated his belief in non
violence as a way to find a solution to the problems."
Mayor Alqam had good working relationships with international and Israeli
peace and human rights groups. (See 24 July 2006 release, "A different image
of Hamas.")
At the time of his arrest, the Mayor was in the process of inviting former
President Jimmy Carter to visit Beit Ummar. President Carter and his wife
Rosalyn visited the village in the early 1980s. Beit Ummar named one of its
quarters after Jimmy Carter.
CPT has had a relationship with Beit Ummar for ten years.
A video of the 3 August meeting with the mayor and of the 24 August
interview with his family will soon be available on the website. To view
farmers praying in the fields of Beit Ummar, go to