Israel Matzav

Palestinian Jewish girl taken from Tulkarm

There are signs from Yad l'Achim all over my neighborhood that say "there are many Achmed ben Sara's" (Ahmed - an Arab name - the son of Sara - a Jewish name). In other words, there are too many Jewish women who are married to Arab men. Many of these women - probably most of them - don't realize that once they marry an Arab man, they are virtual prisoners. If they manage to escape, it is almost inevitably without their children. But under Jewish law, those children are Jewish.

For those of you who recall the Sally Field movie of the early 90's "Not Without My Daughter" or a series of stories that appeared in the Wall Street Journal about 3-4 years ago about American women married to Saudi men who were refused help by the American embassy, those stories are real - and typical. As far as I am concerned, if Yad l'Achim actually did this, they deserve a medal. For the record, under Jewish law, the girl is Jewish.

Judea-Samaria Police were investigating Friday morning whether a Palestinian girl abducted from Tulkarm and taken to Ashdod Thursday night was, in fact, Jewish.

The girl's Palestinian father claimed Israelis disguised as police officers had come to his house Thursday night and taken both him and his daughter. Afterwards, the father was released, and the girl vanished.

Police suspected the haredi anti-missionary organization Yad Le'achim, which works to retrieve Jews - particularly Jewish women - from Palestinian homes, was behind the incident.

According to Ma'ariv's web site, the girl's Israeli mother approached the organization last week with a plea to extract her daughter from her Palestinian husband's home.

The mother claimed she had married the man some seven years ago, believing him to be Israeli, but later discovered she had been deceived. The woman said her husband would often beat both her and her daughter, who was raised as a Muslim.

As of Friday morning, Ashdod police were attempting to locate the girl in the city.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:40 PM