’I worked for peace,’ says deported Arafat ally

A Palestinian man — once wounded alongside Yasser Arafat in his Ramallah headquarters during an Israeli Defense Forces siege — has been thrown out of Canada for being a member of Fatah, which was deemed a terrorist group despite its role governing Palestinian territory with financial support from the Canadian government.

The decision by the Immigration and Refugee Board, recently upheld by the Federal Court of Canada, highlights the awkward transition from violent roots to government entity.

Akram Muslih Anteer, 30, said he is dismayed by his deportation.

“I told them Fatah is not terrorist group. It is a group that works with Canada, it is a group that works with the Stephen Harper; the United Nations works with Fatah.

“I don’t have any history like that,” he said when asked if he is a security risk.

“President Arafat made the people inside Palestine to see outside Palestine. He worked for peace. I promise you, I worked with him for the peace.”

“Arafat came to Palestine and signed for peace with Israel. I was a volunteer with Arafat. I was a young guy.

“He talked about stopping the problems in Palestine, war wasn’t good. Just talking to him about the problems, I talked to him like that.”

Fatah was founded in the 1950s by Palestinian activists, including Arafat, and for years promoted violent struggle to achieve its goals of a Palestinian state. It is through Fatah that Arafat became chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Fatah has, like its founder, been moving from revolution to politics. In 1994, Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and met with thenprime minister Jean Chrétien during official visits to Canada as a political leader.

Fatah is also the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who replaced Arafat.

Global Affairs Canada, the foreign affairs ministry, says “Canada continues to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,” and has “a commitment of $300 million over five years toward improving Palestinian security, governance and prosperity.”

The IRB, however, declared Anteer inadmissible to Canada because of “reasonable grounds to believe” that Fatah is “a terrorist organization.”

He was ordered deported to Sweden, where he had lived before, in June while he took his case before the Federal Court of Canada.

Justice Cecily Strickland rejected his appeal last month, accepting it was a reasonable decision.

Costanza Musu, an associate professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa, called the decision “surprising.”

“Fatah was for a long time a terrorist organization but that has changed for some time now. The Canadian government does support the Palestinian Authority; Abbas has been supported by the international community,” she said.

Anteer suspects his problems stem from his perceived closeness to Arafat.

“I stayed with him at the house,” he said of a period in 2002, during the Second Intifada, when Arafat was confined to his compound in Ramallah during a tense standoff.

“I was at House Arafat as a volunteer, many people were.

“People came from the university, from the schools to stay there. The military thought people in the house were terrorists, maybe.”

After the siege, Anteer was jailed.

“I told them, ‘ Never I have problems, why you put me in here in jail?’ ” he said of his interview with Israeli officials. “They say, ‘ because you’re with House Arafat you stay in jail.”

Jailed several times over the next few years until he was expelled from Israel in 2009, he resettled in Sweden.

“After that, I’m thinking I come to Canada because I have family there. I want to come to Canada to live with my family.”

His mother and two sisters live in Mississauga, Ont. Anteer arrived in Canada on April 18, 2013 and claimed refugee status.

During an interview with Canada Border Services Agency, he spoke of his involvement in Fatah, acknowledging that he joined as a youth after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 by Israel and the PLO. He was ordered detained.

His role was identifying and intercepting opponents of Fatah and working with high-ranking Fatah officials, the CBSA reported.

Anteer told them he reported to Ata Abu Rumeila, the head of Fatah in the Jenin area. That name troubled enforcement officers, who noted Rumeila was also the reputed head of the al- Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Jenin, which is a designated terrorist organization by Canada.

The link between al- Aqsa and Fatah also caused problems with the IRB, which accepted evidence that Fatah supported al-Aqsa in terrorism against Israel.

Anteer distances himself from Rumeila.

“I never have any work from him, I never have any job with him. I don’t even like him,” he said. “I don’t have any contact.”

Anteer said he wants to return to Canada.

“I haven’t any trouble with the government, I just want to live normally, nothing more,” he said. “Just me, my family, my business. Nothing more. No Fatah, nobody.”

Marc Herman, his Ottawabased lawyer, hopes to file a motion for the government’s intervention to allow Anteer another chance in Canada.