An American student teaching in West Bank refugee camps was reported missing Wednesday, and his project manager said he had been kidnapped.
A blurred photocopy of a passport and student card carrying the name Michael Leighton Phillips was sent to a foreign news agency by a group calling itself Ansar al-Sunna.
Samah Atout, manager of Project Hope, said she received a call saying Phillips had been kidnapped. She refused to give further details.
Alaa Sanakreh of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group linked to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, denounced the incident. "We have no hand in this, and if it is true that he was kidnapped, it will harm the Palestinian people," he said, adding that his group is helping Palestinian police look for Phillips.
Atout said Phillips was working with Project Hope in refugee camps near the West Bank city of Nablus, teaching English. She said Phillips, 24, came from Los Angeles and lived alone in a Nablus neighborhood.
Project Hope, based in Canada, describes itself as a nonprofit volunteer organization that provides educational and recreational activities, medical and humanitarian relief and practical training.
Well, it describes itself as this actually:-
Project Hope is a non-profit volunteer organisation whose goal is to provide a participatory, educational space for Palestinian youth and children. Committed to the principles of international humanitarian law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [link], our aim is support children denied access to basic services by providing educational and recreational activities, medical and humanitarian relief and practical training that can empower them with hope and skills for the future.
And maybe the kidnapped American is in this picture?
Anyway, I hope this misguided volunteer doesn't remain too long in a denied access/egress situation. It's enough we have to suffer Pal. violence but others?
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