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Jerusalem – A 65-year-old man from Ashkelon may have fallen into the hands of ISIS according to his worried daughter, who says her father went to visit his brothers in an unidentified Muslim country three months ago and has not been heard from since.
“He traveled to Jordan and from there he looked for flights,” his daughter said.
The man had previously traveled to this Muslim country and was arrested there. Despite this, he managed to escape and return to Israel. Walla News has learned (http://bit.ly/1g5p4RT) that the man was warned not to return to the country, but he did not listen.
According to the family, Israeli’s Foreign Ministry has found no information about the man’s whereabouts.
“We made aliyah in 1995. What brought him to this crisis was being separated from his family and the death of his mother,” his daughter said. “He told me that three Arabs were travelling with him. It was a red flag for me when I asked him who was paying the cost of the airline tickets and he said he was being taken for free. I told him it was dangerous, but he told me not to worry, that everything would be okay.”
Since that conversation, his daughter has not heard from her father. “I called this Muslim country, but no one there can even tell me if he arrived. He did not arrive at his brother’s house. They also don’t know what happened to him,” his daughter continued. “Every time I contact the Foreign Ministry in Israel, they give me the same answer. “It is not possible for us to personally search for your father. They told me maybe if I had enough money, they could get me in touch with someone who could try to locate him. But I don’t have money. We’re not talking about a thousand dollars here. We’re talking about far greater amounts.”
The daughter and other family members are trying to stay optimistic, but they are plagued by doubts. “We hope everything is okay with him, but he doesn’t speak Hebrew well.” The family’s biggest fear is that the father has been captured by Islamic State.
Since the father disappeared, his wife has moved into her daughter’s house. “I didn’t want to leave her alone,” the distraught daughter said. “Everyone is depressed and sad. His family in Israel and his sisters who live in London don’t know how to cope with the situation. This isn’t the first time he traveled there . . . He decided to travel to his brothers so he wouldn’t be alone in his grief and mourning [over his mother’s death]. We didn’t anticipate this would happen. If we had known, we would never have allowed him to leave Israel.”
The Foreign Ministry refused to comment.
Whether its emotional needs or mental illness or simply a desire to push the risk envelope, EY cannot take responsibility for such irresponsible actions by its citizens. When these episodes occur, there are frequently demands for prisoner exchanges or concessions. Its bad enough when these disappearances occur during military engagement such as the foolish Shalit exchange where terrorist were freed to kill again. No consideration should ever be given to concessions in these kind of private travel actions. If you travel to a hostile area (or allow a family member to do so) you forego any right to demand the government must take action to rescue you.
If his name is Habib, he is in Jail again in that same country.
I don’t get it. He traveled once to this country and was kicked out with a warning not to return. So, of course, he had to return to the same country where his name is on the stop list.
Arab countries can be very dangerous for a Jew.