Israelis doubt citizenship of kidnap pair
The United States is handling the case of two Arab residents of Jerusalem who were kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents, Israeli officials said in Jerusalem.
In footage from Iranian television re-broadcast on Israeli television, the kidnapped men identified themselves as Nabil Razouk, 30, and Ahmed Yassin Tikati, 33, and said they were foreign aid workers.
Though relatives insisted Razouk had an Israeli passport and was a citizen, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jonathan Peled said he held an Israeli ID card, but was not a citizen. Peled said he could not confirm that a second man was missing.
The kidnapping indirectly involved Israel in the bloody conflict in Iraq, as officials scrambled to get information on the men.
“The issue is in the hands of the Americans,” said foreign ministry spokesman Lior Ben Dor. “We are not dealing with the issue at this stage.”
Few of the 180,000 Palestinians who live in Arab east Jerusalem have taken Israeli citizenship, though they have Israeli ID cards. Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after capturing it in the 1967 war and made citizenship optional to its Palestinian residents.
Yuval Steinitz, a top MP from the ruling Likud Party, said Israel should not get involved in trying to free the pair.
“First of all I’m not sure that they actually are Israeli citizens. I think they are residents of east Jerusalem. The state of Israel does not need to see itself responsible for the release of those who are not its citizens and weren’t sent to Iraq by Israel,” he told Israel Radio.
Anton Razouk, 60, an uncle of Nabil Razouk, said his nephew was an Israeli citizen working for the US Agency for International Development.
Tikati’s status was unclear, though Israel Radio reported today that he and his family left the region years ago for Europe and the United States.
