Obama - Agreed to help
Photo: AFP
Abbas and Fayyad - Also to lend a hand?
Photo: AFP
Obama aids American in West Bank custody battle
Democratic presidential hopeful devotes efforts to help US woman from native Illinois who says her Palestinian husband is holding their four young daughters hostage in Palestinian Authority
An American woman fighting to get back four daughters living in the West Bank with their Palestinian father has gotten unusually high-powered help - from Barack Obama.
Opinion
Roni Sofer
Obama’s trip to Israel a photo opportunity aimed at America’s Jewish voters
And that's how the private battle between Yasser and Colleen Bargouthi, which spans continents and cultures, took a public turn.
In separate interviews, the two offered conflicting explanations of what brought the family to Bargouthi's home village of Kobar in June 2007.
Colleen Bargouthi, 36, said her husband of 14 years moved the family to the West Bank under the pretext of a vacation, and that he has refused to let the girls, ages 5-11, return to the US.
Yasser Bargouthi, 38, said his wife agreed to move to the Palestinian territories for a fresh start after she took an overdose of anti-depressants.
He said he won't let the girls go to the US because he fears his wife, who he claims has abused prescription drugs, cannot care for them. Mrs. Bargouthi confirmed taking an overdose last summer, citing anxiety, but denied abusing drugs or being an unfit mother.
Mrs. Bargouthi, who returned to the US without her daughters in May, said she's worried the girls will never be allowed to leave the West Bank and will eventually be married off to relatives.
Her husband said he's not a traditional Muslim and will let the girls make their own choices.
On Wednesday, US consular officials visited Bargouthi and his daughters - 11-year-old Emily, 8-year-old Hannah, 6-year-old Amanda and 5-year-old Sarah - in their apartment in Kobar.
It's a village of several thousand people 10 minutes from the city of Ramallah, where Obama met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad last week.
The girls were watching a Jennifer Aniston movie and their aunt was cooking lunch when the US officials arrived for a 70-minute inspection. Emily told the visitors she misses her mother and wants her parents reunited. ''We want to be one family, no matter where we live,'' she said.
Bargouthi said his wife is welcome in the West Bank, but acknowledged he has filed for divorce. Mrs. Bargouthi said she won't return to the West Bank, alleging that during her stay her husband was abusive and once laid two guns on a table, accompanied by a threat to kill her. Bargouthi said he owns no guns and denies threatening his wife.
'The girls said they want to go to America'
The couple met in 1993, while he studied in the US and she worked as a waitress. They married a year later, and Bargouthi adopted his wife's young son, Rick.
After the family came to Kobar, Bargouthi started working for a workers' rights organization.
The family lived in a relative's vacant home in Kobar, and in the fall, Rick and the two older girls attended a private school which, according to its principal, follows a US curriculum.
Mrs. Bargouthi said that at one point, she asked to remove the girls from an Islamic religion class after the teacher told them they should wear head scarves. She said her husband complied.
Bargouthi said his wife went to the US in November, then came back to Kobar and became increasingly insistent that the family return to Illinois. He said he urged her to make a life in the West Bank.
Mrs. Bargouthi alleged that her husband kept her a virtual prisoner. He said he encouraged her to learn Arabic and get a job. After returning to the US with her son, Mrs. Bargouthi contacted Obama, in his capacity as Illinois senator, and asked for help.
Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, confirmed that Obama asked him last week to look into the matter. Obama's Senate office also confirmed the request.
US consular officials said they were acting on a previous request by Mrs. Bargouthi to check on her daughters.
She said her husband has only allowed her supervised phone contact with her daughters, and at times cut off her calls.
"My daughters told him they want to go America,'' she said from the Chicago suburb of Midlothian, where she works as a taxi driver. ''They don't want to be away from me.''
Bargouthi said he is ready to cooperate with US authorities, but wants assurances that he'll get fair hearing.
"I didn't do anything wrong,'' he said. ''I would do anything to clarify that, if I have a commitment that I will not be treated as a criminal or as a terrorist, as they are describing me."
