The New York Times · 18 April 2002

CP-2002-106

Only Label for American in Ramallah Is ‘Human Being’

By JOEL GREENBERG

Scan 1690 × 774 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, April 17 — After more than two weeks under curfew in Ramallah, Adam Shapiro and his fiancée came here this week for a brief respite and some organizational work before returning to the battered West Bank city that is still occupied by Israeli troops.

At an East Jerusalem hotel, the couple was fielding calls on three cellphones from fellow activists in West Bank cities that have been invaded by the Israelis. Later, they helped arrange shipments of food and medical supplies to Palestinians confined to their homes. Mr.

Shapiro, an American Jew from Brooklyn living in Ramallah, gained attention when he entered Yasir Arafat’s compound with an ambulance shortly after Israel tanks broke through its walls last month.

His account of events inside the besieged offices of the Palestinian leader were widely reported, earning him harsh criticism from right-wing Jewish groups who labeled him a traitor. His parents moved out of their home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, after receiving death threats, and the police still keep an eye on their house.

Arriving for an interview in a bandana, earrings and a stubbly beard, Mr. Shapiro, 30, seemed unfazed by the criticism, and intent on pursuing his work in Ramallah with his fiancée, Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian-American from Detroit. They plan to marry in Detroit next month, passing through New York on the way.

Police officers will be at the airport to deter possible violence, Mr. Shapiro said. “I’m not as scared of a sniper outside my house in Ramallah as I am of some crazy in New York City,” he added, half-jokingly. Since leaving Mr. Arafat’s compound, Mr. Shapiro and Ms.

Arraf have been busy challenging the Israeli curfew, defying Israeli snipers by walking the streets and delivering food and medicine.

How this transcription was made

Transcribed from the slide scan by a reader working off magnified crops, not by optical character recognition. The clipping carries no masthead, no folio and no printed year; it is cut from the body of a page. The day and month come from the printed dateline, “JERUSALEM, April 17”, and the year from the article’s own content — the siege of Yasir Arafat’s compound and Israeli tanks through its walls “last month”. The newspaper is not printed on the clipping either; the attribution rests on the photograph’s credit line, “Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times”, which is a freelance credit and so fixes the paper that commissioned the picture rather than, strictly, the paper that printed this page.

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