Supreme Court Upholds Deportation of Palestinian Activist Mubarak Awad

Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday upheld the deportation order against Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian activist and American citizen.

The court stayed execution of the order for one week, however, to allow Awad to testify in his libel suit against Maariv. The newspaper alleged he was a drug trafficker in the United States and that he channeled his income to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Militant Jewish settlers and other right-wing Israelis promptly demanded Awad’s immediate expulsion lest Premier Yitzhak Shamir, the acting interior minister, come under American pressure, during his visit to the United States this week, to rescind the deportation order.

Israelis who support Awad’s right to remain in the country rallied for him Sunday outside the Supreme Court building. They surrounded Awad’s American wife, Nancy, who read a statement from him and sang “We Shall Overcome,” the theme song of the American civil rights movement.

Awad, who was born in East Jerusalem, is an advocate of non-violent Palestinian resistance to Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. His method has been to encourage civil disobedience. But ultranationalists claim he also fomented violence in the administered territories.

Although Shamir claimed Awad was subverting state security and public order, the official grounds for his deportation were that he is in the country illegally. Awad’s residence visa expired last November.

The high court rejected Awad’s argument that as a native of East Jerusalem he does not come under the Israeli residency law. According to that law, an Israeli resident loses his status if he either remains outside of the country for seven years or becomes a citizen of another country.

Awad left Jerusalem after the 1967 Six-Day War and lived in the United States, where he acquired citizenship. He returned to Jerusalem about three years ago and founded an institute for the study of non-violence.

Justice Aharon Barak, who wrote the court’s decision, said the interior minister’s decision was fully justified on legal grounds. “Regarding the wisdom of this act of deportation, we will not express our opinion on it,” Barak said speaking for the court.

STATUS OF EAST JERUSALEMITES

Legal experts noted that the significance of the court’s decision was its unequivocal ruling that the annexation of East Jerusalem to Israel in 1967 and the imposition of Israeli law on the entire city did not grant residents of East Jerusalem the same rights as Israeli citizens.

The court affirmed that the right of East Jerusalem residents to remain there is subject to the approval of the interior minister. Therefore, under Israeli law, even permanent residents can be deported by the minister, whereas Israeli citizens cannot be.

In short, the high court ruled that the annexation of East Jerusalem applied to the territory, not the people living there, the legal experts said.

Awad’s written statement, read by his wife, said he had expected defeat of his appeal. “I am a Palestinian in an enemy court, I am Christian in a Jewish justice, I am from occupied Jerusalem in an Israeli high court,” he wrote.

“As a Palestinian, I never hated you,” Awad told the Israelis. “But as a Jerusalemite, I am telling you: I will be back.”

‘YOU ARE OUTSIDERS HERE’

Awad’s lawyer, Jonathan Kuttab, said after the ruling, “The message that Premier Shamir has sent us is very clear: You are outsiders here, you don’t belong in this land.”

Awad reportedly has asked to see U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, who is presently in Israel on his latest Middle East peace effort. Jewish militants fear the secretary might intervene for Awad, as the U.S. State Department did last November. As a result of that appeal, Awad’s deportation was put on hold for six months.

A group of right-wing Jews demonstrated Sunday demanding Awad’s immediate ouster. Among the most vocal was Ira Rapaport, a former member of a Jewish terrorist underground only recently released from prison, where he served a sentence for acts of violence against Arabs.

“This is a person who has consistently tried to overthrow our country, in talk and in practice,” said Rapaport. “Let him go to the United States. There they like terrorists. We don’t want any terrorists in our country.”