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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/18/international/middleeast/18SHAP.html

April 18, 2002

Only Label for American in Ramallah Is ‘Human Being’
By JOEL GREENBERG

JERUSALEM, April 17 - After more than two weeks under curfew in Ramallah, Adam Shapiro and his fiancée came here this week for a brief respite and some organizational work before returning to the battered West Bank city that is still occupied by Israeli troops.

At an East Jerusalem hotel, the couple was fielding calls on three cellphones from fellow activists in West Bank cities that have been invaded by the Israelis. Later, they helped arrange shipments of food and medical supplies to Palestinians confined to their homes.

Mr. Shapiro, an American Jew from Brooklyn living in Ramallah, gained attention when he entered Yasir Arafat's compound with an ambulance shortly after Israel tanks broke through its walls last month.

His account of events inside the besieged offices of the Palestinian leader were widely reported, earning him harsh criticism from right-wing Jewish groups who labeled him a traitor. His parents moved out of their home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, after receiving death threats, and the police still keep an eye on their house.

Arriving for an interview in a bandana, earrings and a stubbly beard, Mr. Shapiro, 30, seemed unfazed by the criticism, and intent on pursuing his work in Ramallah with his fiancÀee, Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American from Detroit.

They plan to marry in Detroit next month, passing through New York on the way. Police officers will be at the airport to deter possible violence, Mr. Shapiro said. ``I'm not as scared of a sniper outside my house in Ramallah as I am of some crazy in New York City,'' he added, half-jokingly.

Since leaving Mr. Arafat's compound, Mr. Shapiro and Ms. Arraf have been busy challenging the Israeli curfew, defying Israeli snipers by walking the streets and delivering food and medicine.

The couple say they want to provide humanitarian aid while nonviolently resisting the Israelis. Those are the goals of a group of Palestinians and foreigners that Ms. Arraf helped found, the International Solidarity Movement. It has been active since the start of the current Palestinian uprising, planning marches, rebuilding demolished Palestinian homes and planting trees to replace those uprooted by the Israelis.

After Israeli forces smashed into Mr. Arafat's compound on March 29, several members of the movement marched by Israeli tanks into the Palestinian leader's office.

Such activities have been anathema to Mr. Shapiro's Jewish critics, who say he is betraying his people. He says he wants to end an occupation he considers harmful to Israelis and Palestinians.

``I think there's an incorrect supposition that someone who is Jewish necessarily has to stand with Israel, or that someone who is Arab or Muslim has to stand with everything the Palestinians or the Arab countries do,'' Mr. Shapiro said. ``My philosophy is that we're all human beings, and I don't buy into ethnicity and sectarianism. I do what I think is right, and there are plenty of Israelis out there standing with me.''

``Allowing the Palestinians to live in freedom is good for Israel and good for the Jews,'' he said.

The International Solidarity Movement incorporates Palestinians and foreigners in its actions, a method the group believes softens what would be a more violent response by Israeli troops confronting only Palestinians. Yet the group has often been met with tear gas and stun grenades, and once with gunfire.

Mr. Shapiro, who was raised Jewish but says he is an atheist, says he is acting ``as a human being, as an American who has grown up with freedom - seeing what's happening, the injustice, and wanting to do something about it.''

That has also included contacts with the press to counter what he says is ``a tremendous amount of misinformation'' in America.

In comments that have outraged his critics, he has compared some instances of Israeli behavior toward Palestinians to that of the Nazis.

Mr. Shapiro wrote in an article that the demolition of Palestinian homes, the seizure of the Palestinian political headquarters in East Jerusalem and the closure of other offices serving Palestinians reminded him of Kristallnacht, a night of anti-Jewish rioting in Nazi Germany in 1938 that destroyed hundreds of Jewish shops, homes and synagogues and claimed 36 Jewish lives.

Mr. Shapiro insists that the comparisons are valid, and that he chose them deliberately to resonate with Israelis and Jews.

He argues that Palestinian suicide bombers are products of the Israeli occupation and that when occupation ends so will the suicide attacks.

Mr. Shapiro and Ms. Arraf met while working at the Jerusalem center of Seeds of Peace, an American group that promotes dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth.

Both had developed an interest in each other's culture and politics. Mr. Shapiro had completed a master's degree in Arab studies at Georgetown University, and had worked at a language school in Yemen.

Ms. Arraf, who is Christian, is the daughter of an Israeli Arab father and a Palestinian mother. She majored in Arabic and Judaic studies and political science at the University of Michigan. She spent a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and studied Hebrew on a kibbutz. She was a founder of an Arab-Jewish group on the Michigan campus.

``I wanted to be involved in diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians,'' she said. ``I really wanted to understand the Jewish mentality and history, Israeli culture and society, and the language, so I would have the legitimacy on both sides that is needed to be a negotiator.''

Mr. Shapiro and Ms. Arraf seem focused now on helping Palestinians cope with the Israeli occupation.

``I don't think I'm crossing any line,'' Mr. Shapiro said. ``The cause is justice and freedom - these are human causes.''