Exiled Palestinian militants say families ready to
join them
Paper reports deal will allow wives and children to spend
summer in Italy
The three Palestinians who are exiled in Italy as part of the deal that ended
Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity standoff said their families would be flown here
over the next few weeks.
The remarks, which were published Monday in La Repubblica, represented the first time the
three have broken their silence since arriving on Italian soil last week.
Their whereabouts have remained a secret, and the report in La Repubblica sheds no light
as to where they are being kept.
The interview took place in Rome, at the presence of the Palestinian Authority’s
envoy to Italy, Nimer Hammad.
“God willing, according to what has been promised to us, within one or two months my
children will arrive in Italy and we’ll finally be together again,” Khaled Abu
Nijmeh was quoted as saying.
Abu Nijmen is married and has four children. Ibrahim Mahmoud Salem Abayat, another of
those sent here, has a wife and eight children. The third one, Mohammed Said, is not
married.
According to the report, Italy has promised the men that their wives and children would be
flown to Italy for the summer months. Previously, Italian government authorities had said
the families would not be allowed to join him.
The Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the report. La Repubblica also said Said
hopes his girlfriend, who now lives in Jordan, will be able to come to Italy and settle
down.
“We would have wanted to come to Italy, all 13 of us,” Abu Nijmen, referring to
the total of exiled Palestinians, was quoted as saying.
Italy nixed an arrangement earlier this month that would have seen it take in all the men
and put pressure on its European allies to take in at least some of Palestinians.
Last week, the men were sent to six different countries, which granted them permission to
stay for a year on “humanitarian grounds.” The men, whom Israel accuses of
terrorism, were first flown to Cyprus and about 10 days later to their respective
destinations:
Three to Italy and Spain, two to Greece and Ireland, one to Belgium and Portugal.
A 13th man, Abdullah Daoud, 41, head of the Palestinian intelligence service in Bethlehem
and the most senior among the militants, was left behind in Cyprus until another EU
country can be found to take him in.
Abu Nijmeh and Mohammed Said are members of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia linked
to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. Abayat is a member of the
militant group Hamas.
Italian officials said their status would be similar to mobsters turned state’s
evidence and enter witnesss protection programs. The Palestinians would also lose their
right to stay in Italy if they abandoned the security and other arrangements imposed on
them.
“We know well these security measures are for our own safety,” said Abu Nijmen,
insisting he and his fellow Palestinians have no desire to leave Italy.
In Madrid, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said it had sent a letter to European countries
sheltering the 13 Palestinian exiles to complain at their decision to protect the
militants, whom it considers terrorists.
A spokesman for the Wiesenthal Center said Monday the treatment afforded to the
Palestinians could fuel anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe.
“These terrorists should be treated with the contempt they deserve and government
officials should not be falling over themselves trying to accord them one privilege after
another,” the center said in the letter sent to European Union president Spain late
last week.
The center said it sent the same letter to the leaders of Ireland, Italy, Greece, Belgium
and Portugal, which together with Spain and Cyprus agreed to give refuge to the
Palestinians.
Israel said at the time of their exile that it reserved the right to seek the extradition
of the militants, who are all on its most wanted list, if they were allowed freedom by
their respective host countries.
“There has been a tremendous outbreak of anti-Semitic incidents across Europe, which
are being incited by the situation in the Middle East,” said Shimon Samuels, director
of international affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris.
“The acceptance of these 13 militants can only serve to encourage further Jew hatred
and incite further anti-Semitic violence,” Samuels told Reuters. With agencies
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