TEL AVIV, Israel, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A Muslim cleric who campaigned in the United States for Islamic Jihad lost his United States citizenship, was deported, and is now in Israeli custody.
The cleric, Fawaz Mohammed Damrah, is a Palestinian who obtained U.S. citizenship in 1994. In recent years he was the imam of a mosque in Cleveland.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Damrah raised money for the Islamic Jihad that is, "a foreign terrorist organization."
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said a videotape recording showed him saying at a fund raising event in 1991, "Whoever donates ... it is as if he too is fighting the holy war." In other fundraising events he allegedly said, "Terrorism and terrorism alone is the path to liberation."
The Islamic Jihad has been responsible for suicide bombings, assassinations and firing rockets into Israel despite the cease-fire. It targeted U.S. officials for assassination, the ICE said.
A U.S. court stripped Damrah of his citizenship, in 2004, because he had concealed his contacts with the Islamic Jihad and other organizations.
Last week Damrah was taken to Newark, NJ, and put on a special flight to Amman, Jordan.
The ICE said he was deported to the Palestinian Territories.
His Israeli attorney, Smadar Ben-Natan, told United Press International the Jordanians did not want to keep Damrah so on Jan. 4 they took him to the Allenby Bridge, on the Jordan River where Israeli security men awaited him.
There is no way to enter the West Bank but through Israeli security. The only entry point Israel does not control is at Rafah, on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli judge remanded Damrah into custody for 15 days after the Shabak security service presented intelligence the judge said ought to be checked.
