A Palestinian hospital administrator has been detained by the Israeli security services after he returned to Israel from a conference in Oxford during which he described some of the difficulties involved in running a hospital on the West Bank during the Palestinian uprising.
The British ambassador to Israel, Francis Cornish, has intervened with Israeli cabinet ministers on behalf of Samer Awartani, the administrative director of Rafidiah Hospital in Nablus, who was arrested on 7 May.
Mr Awartani was en route to his home in Tulkarm in the Palestinian Authority from a health administration conference funded by the British government.
“We worry about his arrest because there is no explanation. We want to know where he is being held and that he is safe and well,” said British Embassy spokeswoman Menna Rawlings. She added that the British government is “attached to this case” because the British Council in east Jerusalem invited Mr Awartani to Britain.
The director of the British Council in east Jerusalem, David Martin, told the Jerusalem Post that he was concerned. He said that it would be “surprising if Awartani engaged in illegitimate activity. Whatever he has done, he has a right to see a lawyer.”
A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem commented that Mr Awartani's arrest “is completely unconnected to his participation in the seminar at Oxford.” He added that at the border with Israel, during a “routine” examination, Mr Awartani was found to have “traces” of RDX explosives on him, “which indicated that he had been in contact with RDX.” Consequently he was being held for questioning.
As for his demands to meet Andre Rosenthal, a lawyer who has taken up the case on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights, the ministry spokesman said he was “due to meet with his lawyer in accordance with Israeli law.”
Mr Rosenthal appealed twice to the High Court of Justice to be able to meet his client but the High Court rejected the appeals. As the BMJ went to press, Mr Rosenthal was expecting Mr Awartani to be brought to the military court in Petah Tikva.