‘Released Jordanian prisoner denied exit from Israel’

AMMAN — Hamzeh Dabbas, a Jordanian recently released from an Israeli prison who was issued an “urgent travel document” so he could return home, was denied exit by the Israeli authorities on Tuesday, an activist said.

Border authorities prevented Dabbas, who was released last Friday after serving a 45-month prison term, from crossing the King Hussein Bridge into Jordan and referred him to Israeli intelligence, according to Shireen Nafe, a member of the media team which supports Jordanian prisoners in Israel (Fedaa).

The Interior Ministry had issued the travel document for the freed prisoner after he was denied entry into the Kingdom for not carrying any identification documents, Interior Ministry Spokesperson Ziad Zu’bi told The Jordan Times.

“He reached the [King Hussein] Bridge with no passport, identification card or any document; therefore he was not allowed entry,” Zu’bi said over the phone.

Dabbas, who is in his mid-thirties, was arrested in 2011 while entering the West Bank to attend his sister’s wedding, according to Nafe, who said that Israeli authorities charged him with belonging to Hamas and transferring money to the group, as well as being part of an aid convoy to deliver aid to the besieged Gaza Strip.

“He had his passport with him when he was arrested on the Israeli side of the King Hussein Bridge, but before his release the prison administration told him his passport was lost,” she noted.

Dabbas, the father of two who used to work at the Jordan Engineers Association before his arrest, received “humiliating” treatment from the Jordanian authorities at the bridge and “was questioned for two hours”, when he first attempted to cross into Jordan, Nafe claimed, a matter Zu’bi denied. 

Nafe said Dabbas is in good health although he was affected by the hunger strike he participated in.

He was among five prisoners who went on hunger strike between May and August 2013 until Israeli prison authorities agreed to allow regular visits by their families.