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This is for any one who thinks mr elderman is truthfull .. ' we were desperate people coming to palestine not a terorr gang'
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/opinion/_04THU2.html
April 4, 2002
Death Threats in Brooklyn
s the Mideast death toll soars, so do anxieties about the region's corrosive hatreds spilling onto our own shores and threatening the lives and freedoms of Americans. That fear has now become reality in Brooklyn in a way both surprising and repellent. Death threats from irresponsible local supporters of Israel have forced an innocent couple, Doreen and Stuart Shapiro, to flee their home. They became a target after their son Adam delivered humanitarian medical aid to Yasir Arafat's besieged compound in Ramallah, on the West Bank.
Rage at Mr. Arafat for his complicity in murderous suicide bombings across Israel is understandable. Yet Mr. Arafat's behavior scarcely turns Adam Shapiro's peaceful action into treason against America and the Jews or makes him the equivalent of an American Taliban fighter, as some of the menacing messages charge.
Last Friday Mr. Shapiro persuaded Israeli troops to let an ambulance into the Arafat compound to provide medical help to wounded Palestinians inside. Then he too became trapped inside overnight by continuing gunfire. The next morning Mr. Shapiro reported receiving Mr. Arafat's expressions of gratitude over a shared breakfast.
Some of the Shapiro family's New York neighbors obviously do not see his conduct as benign. They are entitled to their opinions. But threatening Adam Shapiro's relatives with harm offends American traditions of tolerance and the humane values of the American Jewish community. It is also criminal. Shapiro family members tell of messages wishing them all 'a fiery death' and promising to make that come about. Those threats sounded serious enough to prompt Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, to help arrange police protection for the family. Adam Shapiro's brother Noah is now under police guard, while his parents have temporarily fled New York for their safety. No political motive, real or imagined, can justify the threats to the Shapiro family. To pretend otherwise is to think like a terrorist
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