Adam Shapiro
Posted on 04/01/2002 11:28:03 PM PST by kattracks
Edited on 05/26/2004 5:05:36 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
April 2, 2002 -- LIKE a bad dream, he appeared from nowhere.
Live from Ramallah - Adam Shapiro!
I was on the air with Bob Grant on WOR, 710 AM, yesterday. All of a sudden, the electronic gods and a mischievous producer conjured up the man I'd referred to in my column as the "Jewish Taliban."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
He is a traitor to the civilized world. If somebody was killing British civilians on daily basis, and an american was aiding them, in my mind, he would be a traitor.
The sailors on the USS LIBERTY found that out the hard way.
Found what out the hard way? Your desire to mention USS Liberty is evident, the connection between that event and the article or your post, however is not.
As for the media, they must have loved it, leaking their chops of world revolution and cult definitional wars. The media should be the prime targets for provoking, inducing and encouraging sedition by posting "objectively" "both" sides of the problem.
There are no two sides of the problem, but only one: the media pitting extremists against other extremists, to divide the world that way, without care to post what those concerned by jurisdiction may need to say about this cult war that is encouraged. The media has gone way beyond its free speech rights.
"My son works for peace,” Doreen Shapiro, Adam's mother, said at the family's home.
"What has he really done?” asked his father, Stuart Shapiro, who fears his son will be compared to American Taliban John Walker Lindh. "Tried to bring peace in any small way he can? That's bad?”
Adam Shapiro, a Hunter High School graduate and former Jerusalem director of Seeds of Peace, a camp for Palestinian and Israeli children, entered Arafat's compound Friday night after hearing reports of injuries.
Though not medically trained, he had spent the day in a Palestinian ambulance, using his U.S. citizenship to cajole Israelis to allow paramedics to treat wounded Palestinians.
Despite some initial skepticism, Adam Shapiro's parents -- both public school teachers -- have embraced his cause, even though they are criticized. His mother calls his work "bearing witness,” and says Jews have strayed from being vigilant against persecution.
"It's a lot of difficulty talking about this, a lot of arguments,” Stuart Shapiro said. He said colleagues have questioned him about Adam, asking, "How can he do this? What is he doing? Let him help the Jews.”
To them, Stuart Shapiro said, his answer is, "Of all the people in the world, I believe my son.”
Shapiro told the New York Post he feared for his life until the IDF permitted him to leave the compound on Sunday morning, after he ate a sparse breakfast of bread and cheese with Arafat.
His parents, Stuart and Doreen, and his brother Noah, a lawyer, had gathered in their Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, apartment on Saturday night when they received a call from Shapiro telling them he had safely left the compound.
Noah Shapiro told the New York Times his brother's belief in the teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. motivated him to help the Palestinians.
"He's passionate about it, and wants to show there is a way to protest without suicide bombings," he said.
Adam Shapiro, who told various news outlets he does not consider himself a Jew, previously worked for Seeds of Peace, a summer camp that brings Jewish and Arab teenagers to Maine every year to learn about coexistence. He also taught English in Yemen and led tour groups through the Muslim country. For the past three years, Shapiro has lived in Ramallah. He said he plans to wed Huwaeida Arraf, an American-born Palestinian, in May.
Shapiro, a 30-year-old native of Brooklyn, New York, spent the night sitting on the floor in a room in Arafat's three-story office building, which has been surrounded by Israeli forces since Friday, said his Palestinian fiancee, Huweida Arraf.
The volunteer medic entered the compound Friday afternoon with an ambulance to evacuate Arafat guards wounded in exchanges of fire in the Israeli assault. The army's takeover is part of a major military offensive launched in retaliation for attacks on Israeli civilians.
Arraf said Israeli troops then prevented her fiance and another foreigner, Caoimhe Butterly from Dublin, Ireland, from leaving the compound.
The Israeli military said it was unaware of foreigners being in Arafat's headquarters, but said no one was permitted to enter or leave the compound, except in humanitarian cases.
Shapiro, a member of an international solidarity movement with the Palestinians, has been living in the West Bank town of Ramallah for three years, said Arraf.
"He's physically fine, although worried and a little scared," Arraf told The Associated Press by telephone from Ramallah.
Arraf said Shapiro told her that two of the wounded Palestinians in the compound need oxygen, including one who had suffered a mild heart attack. Arraf last spoke to Shapiro early Saturday, and has since lost all contact with him. Earlier, he had called her to tell her about the meal he had shared with Arafat.
"I don't think there's a lot of food. He was like `I just had breakfast with the president,"' Arraf said.
Is this the possible IRA sniper there were talks about few weeks ago?
The group said Israeli troops stopped the ambulance on the way out, arrested the Palestinians on board and forced Ms Butterly back into the compound. Members of the group are currently trying to gain access to the compound.
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Irish national Caoimhe Butterly is still inside the compound! Those in Ramallah are incredibly concerned and are asking everyone to call their respective governments to request the Israeli military cease the destruction and carnage.
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Ms Butterly who is a volunteer medic decided yesterday to remain in the compound after the Irish government made representations on her behalf.
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Adam Shapiro - an American, and Caoimhe Butterly from Ireland.
They have arrived at the headquarters in a Palestinian ambulance that attempted to evacuate 5 wounded Palestinians from the compound.
The Israeli army did not permit the evacuation.
The 2 volunteers were forced to stand on their knees in the pouring rain for 3 hours.
The ambulance is held outside the headquarters.
Neta and the other volunteers can be contacted through these numbers:
Two Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances carrying a doctor and two foreign international volunteers American citizen Adam Shapiro and Irish national Caoimhe Butterly have been held up for over 3 hours trying to reach the injured in the compound
Adam reported the ambulances being stopped and completely search and everybody was being forced out of the ambulances.
- At the time of this writing one ambulance carrying the doctor and the two foreign civilian volunteers have been let in. One ambulance was turned back. Two injured are being removed from the compound now.
POLITICAL PRISONERS ON HUNGER STRIKE IN CHIAPAS.
Cristina Riba and Caoimhe Butterly report from Mexico
On the third of July, the day following the Mexican presidential elections, four prisoners in the penitentiary center Cerezo number 10 in the municipality of Comitan, Chiapas commenced on an indefinite hunger strike. The four are sympathisers of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) and as political prisoners have included among their demands the immediate release of 80 other political prisoners incarcerated in the Chiapan jails who were imprisoned specifically for their connections or allegiances to the EZLN.
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It is better to die struggling than to die little by little. For all that they have done to us our heart and our voice have strengthened behind the bars, we became one heart to demand our freedom
Hunger-strikers.
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