"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.