Detained Students Return to U.S.

Two University of California students who spent eight days in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity during the recent siege were released from an Israeli prison Sunday and flew immediately to the U.S., according to their parents.

Robert O’Neill, 21, a UC Berkeley student from Claremont, and Nauman Zaidi, 26, a UC Riverside undergraduate from Rancho Cucamonga, boarded a flight with tickets bought by their parents just before midnight Sunday in Tel Aviv and arrived at Newark International Airport in New Jersey at 4:45 a.m. Monday, according to family members.

They had spent more than two weeks in custody in Israel after the siege ended.

“We were very, very happy to hear from him,” said O’Neill’s mother, Merrilyn, who received an early morning call from her son. “He sounded tired, but his voice was much more relaxed than I had heard it in weeks.”

O’Neill planned to spend a day and a half with his fiancee and her family in Springfield, Mass., before he and Zaidi return to Egypt to finish their studies at the American University of Cairo as independent students. They were dropped from UC’s overseas program in Cairo for putting themselves in danger, a violation of the university’s rules.

Nasim Zaidi got a similar phone call Monday from his son, who told his father he was shopping for a plane ticket back to Cairo. “That’s fine with me,” said the senior Zaidi. “As long as he’s out of jail.”

Zaidi, a student of religion and toxicology, and O’Neill, who is studying cultural anthropology and the Middle East, had spent the academic year in Cairo under the UC program. The men, who got to know each other in Cairo, were spending spring break doing relief work.

According to Merrilyn O’Neill, when they found out that the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement was trying to get food to people in the church, the two men decided to help. The church was under siege by Israeli troops, who said terrorists were hiding inside, until May 10.

The Californians and three other Americans were detained by Israelis.

It is unclear whether the two UC students were deported. Although family members believe they were, a State Department source said Monday that it was unknown whether deportation actually occurred. The State Department source would only say that all five Americans made arrangements to leave Israel.

O’Neill and Zaidi must reenroll at UC but, according to UC spokesman Michael Reese, that is just a formality.

“They broke some pretty big rules. I understand,” said Merrilyn O’Neill. “They signed a contract saying they won’t put themselves or others in danger, and that’s exactly what they did.”

But O’Neill added about her son: “I was very proud that he took a stand. The strength of his convictions amazed me.... Of course, I was also terrified for him and everyone else in there.”

Initially in detention, “they spent a great deal of time playing chess,” O’Neill said. But last week, the two men were moved to a more solitary area, she said.

Both young men had been resisting deportation efforts because they wanted to return to Israel. They also resisted their parents’ efforts to buy and send them tickets to the U.S. “They felt we should not be paying for their deportation,” O’Neill said.

But both parents bought tickets. “We wanted him back home so he can get on with his life,” Nasim Zaidi said.

Although no longer in the UC overseas program, Zaidi and O’Neill plan to return to Cairo to finish their coursework. O’Neill said she had gotten an e-mail from the American University provost in Cairo saying that the two would be met at the airport and assisted in finishing their studies.

“They are truly being greeted with open arms,” O’Neill said.