Posted on 10/11/2006 2:28:22 PM PDT by HAL9000
PALESTINIANS RELEASE U.S. STUDENT HELD HOSTAGE IN W.BANK - SECURITY SOURCE
Haaretz.com - Militants demand Israel release Palestinians for U.S. hostage
Thank you..that is good news.
The Palestinians really don't want any part of an argument with us.
Did he have to convert?
Actually I am curious to find out if this "student" is of the Rachel Corey school of anti-Jewish activism.
Need to find out about this student before I believe that it was a real kidnapping.
Or else we'll send Jimmuuhh and Billy Jeff over to grab rifles and stand in the ditch defending the Jordan River.LOL
I'm with ya on this one. What would anyone in their right mind be doing wandering around there, with the semi-primate palis anyways?
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193418563&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Oct. 11, 2006 14:50 | Updated Oct. 11, 2006 23:57
Kidnapped American teacher released unharmed in Nablus
By YAAKOV KATZ, KHALED ABU TOAMEH, AND AP
An American teacher was freed late Wednesday after being held for a day by Palestinians. He appeared to be unharmed.
Michael Leighton Phillips, 24, was brought to security headquarters in Nablus, where he was joined by a former mayor, Ghassan Shakaa, and a security chief, both members of the moderate Fatah movement.
Reckless in Nablus? (archive)
Phillips was seated at a table as news cameramen photographed him. He appeared comfortable as he thanked the people who helped win his freedom.
It was unclear who had kidnapped him or how he was freed.
A group of gunmen demanded on Wednesday that Israel release women, children, sick and elderly Palestinians from its prisons and stop airstrikes against Gaza houses in exchange for Phillips's release.
The group did not give a deadline.
Earlier, Palestinian security officials were investigating the claim that Phillips had indeed been kidnapped in the West Bank city of Nablus.
The group, calling itself Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for Phillips's disappearance in a statement it sent to local journalists. The group also said that it faxed a photocopy of the student's passport to news agencies and Palestinian security offices.
The IDF stressed that entering Nablus, as well as other Palestinian cities in the West Bank, was dangerous for foreigners as well as for Israelis, who were forbidden by law from entering Palestinian territory.
"People risk their lives when entering these places," one officer said. "Nablus is a dangerous city, it is the terror capital of the West Bank and foreigners should think carefully before traveling there."
International Director of Project Hope Jeremy Wideman told The Jerusalem Post that it was not certain that Phillips had been kidnapped. Phillips, he said, was in his early twenties, was from New Orleans, of Italian descent and had been in Nablus for close to half a year teaching English to Palestinian schoolchildren.
"We don't even know if he has been taken," he said. "He has not been around for one day and it could be that he just went away for the day."
As to the IDF warnings not to enter Nablus, Wideman said it was actually the military that made the West Bank city dangerous.
"Generally the city is welcoming and safe," he said. "It is certainly safer than Latin American cities. We will need to wait to see what happens."
In June, after several hours in captivity, American-Jewish student Benjamin Bright-Fishbein was released unharmed after he was kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen while visiting Nablus.
A US exchange student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Bright-Fishbein - who had spent the past month working as an intern at The Jerusalem Post - went to Nablus because he said he had heard it was an "interesting city."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3313974,00.html
Al-Aqsa: We freed kidnapped US youth
Dozens of armed gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades storm Nablus apartment where terror group holds kidnapped US citizen Michael Leighton Phillips; American youth freed, taken to home of PLO Executive Committee member
Ali Waked Latest Update: 10.12.06, 00:12
Dozens of armed gunmen from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades stormed the Nablus apartment where kidnapped US citizen Michael Leighton Phillips was being held and freed the American youth.
Phillips was initially taken to the home of a PLO Executive Committee member’s home, where he was surrounded by dozens of media crews.
Phillips spoke to Ynet immediately after his release and said he want disappointed in the Palestinian people, “even though I can’t exactly say that they treated me kindly.”
According to Phillips, he was held by his captors for 48 hours. “I don’t know who the kidnappers where or what they wanted, but I know who put me in the taxi that I was kidnapped from,” he said.
He refused to describe how the kidnappers treated him, and only said: “I can’t say they treated my politely or kindly.”
Earlier, the Ansar A-Sunna Palestinian terror group said it had kidnapped an American youth in Nablus and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel in exchange for his release. The group is well known as being active in Iraq and identifies with al-Qaeda.
In the afternoon hours, the kidnappers gathered a press conference to announce their demands: The release of women, children, elderly and infirm being held in Israeli prisons, and a halt to air force strikes on Palestinian areas.
A blurred photocopy of a passport and student card carrying the American youth’s name was sent to the Reuters news agency.
Locals slam kidnapping as 'unpatriotic'
Samah Atout, manager of Project Hope, said Phillips was working in refugee camps near the West Bank city of Nablus, teaching English. Palestinian residents of Nablus told Ynet that Phillips had been working for an UNRWA school in the Askar refugee camp for the past four months on a fully volunteer basis.
"He loved the work, the students and the whole of the Palestinian people, and would bring gifts to his students because he felt their poverty,” a Nablus resident told Ynet. He defined the kidnapping as anti-national, unpatriotic and damaging to Palestinian interests.
Ala Sanqara and Rabia Abu Leil, chiefs in the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades who liberated Phillips, said that as soon as they learned of the kidnapping, al-Aqsa operatives searched all the places where gunmen affiliated with the organization hung out.
From their perspective, they explained, freeing the captive became a national mission intended to prevent the sullying of the Palestinian image in the eyes of the international community.
In an earlier conversation with Ynet, Abu Leil said al-Aqsa was in no way connected with the kidnapping. “Not only are we not connected, but we severely condemn the whole business. If this youth was kidnapped in Nablus itself, then this is very since the foreign youths that are here despite the circumstances are generally volunteers who come to help us by teaching and humanitarian aid.”
First Published: 10.11.06, 23:47
Poster boy for "Queers for Palestine"
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Good news.
Have they ever released the soldiers they took hostage?
This was probably a political stunt.
Hal question what in the world he doing in the WEST BANK?
HELLO
STAGED STAGED STAGED STAGED STAGED STAGED STAGED
They are very, very lucky I'm not the President of the US...
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