A Palestinian suspected of bringing $180,000 from the United States to help fund the fundamentalist group Islamic Jihad has been remanded for three days while investigations continue.
Israel Television reported that Mohammed Barakat, 36, an American citizen, is believed to have received the money from a sheik in Chicago. He was arrested by police at Ben-Gurion Airport last week. Barakat said the money was intended for building a family home in Jerusalem.
A second man who was arrested, Samir Jaber, 36, was carrying $65,000 with him. He was released by the court.
These arrests occurred in the wake of last Friday’s introduction to Congress of the Clinton administration’s Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995. The long- awaited bill seeks to ban fund raising by American organizations that benefits terrorist groups abroad.
Clinton began the U.S. effort to combat terrorism two weeks age by freezing the assets of 12 terrorist groups and preventing future money transfers to them.
Islamic Jihad was listed as one of the terrorist organizations.
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