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April 4, 2003/Nisan 2 5763, Vol. 55, No. 32
Faith puts POWs at risk
MICHAEL J. JORDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
It's now well known that just before Daniel Pearl's captors in Pakistan slit his throat last year, they forced The Wall Street Journal reporter to admit his Jewish blood.
Less known is that the faith of the American pilots captured by Iraq during the first Gulf War reportedly also animated their torturers.
"What is your religion?" a beaten, bloodied and blindfolded Marine Capt. Michael Craig Berryman was asked, according to testimony from Jan. 28, 1991.
"Baptist," he replied.
"No, you are a Jew!" they screamed.
The beatings grew more savage, says Berryman: "They just went crazy."
Neither the pilots nor Pearl, according to those familiar with his case, were captured because of their real or perceived Jewishness.
Nevertheless, for the journalists and soldiers now in Iraq who are Jews, recent history indicates that their faith carries added risk in case of capture or imprisonment.
Earlier this month, the British Ministry of Defense agreed to allow Jewish soldiers to erase religion from their dog tags, out of concern in the British Jewish community that they may be singled out for harsher treatment.
In the first Gulf War, U.S. Jewish soldiers deployed to the Gulf were encouraged to shield their identity and classify themselves on their dog tags as "Protestant B," an internal code to let military chaplains know the person was Jewish.
The military has made no concessions this time around, Major Tim Blair, a Pentagon spokesman, told JTA.
"We're not looking at this from the perspective of any specific religion, but from international law regarding prisoners of war," Blair said.
"We now have 4,000 or so enemy Iraqi prisoners, and we're giving them proper treatment according to the Geneva Conventions, if not better. And we expect the same humane treatment from the Iraqis who have our POWs."
The Geneva Conventions, adopted in 1949, states that "members of armed forces who have laid down their arms" shall "in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith."
It is this passage, among others, that lawyers for 17 American POWs - and 37 of their family members - contend the Iraqis violated in the first Gulf War.
In their $610 million lawsuit against the Republic of Iraq, which co-counsel John Norton Moore says will soon come before the District of Columbia's Federal District Court, several POWs describe how they were not only accused of concealing their religion, but had their pants yanked down and genitals inspected.
"The Iraqis were apparently unaware that many American males are circumcised, regardless of their religious beliefs," Moore told JTA.
How to protect Jewish soldiers is a tricky situation because no one wants the U.S. military to also treat its soldiers differently based on religion, says David Scheffer, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues from 1997-2001.
The greater risk for Jewish soldiers is no secret to their families.
Judy Ledger is concerned for her son, Matthew Boyer, who is a Marine in Iraq. The 24-year-old's dog tag clearly states his religion as Judaism.
Says Ledger: "When it comes to POWs, I just think Daniel Pearl - that's all I can think about."
Despite Pearl's death, the Journal maintains a long-standing editorial policy of being blind to religion, said Brigitte Trafford, spokes-woman for Dow Jones, the Journal's parent company.
"We assign our reporters on the basis of their talent and the need for the assignment - not on the basis of their race, religion or ethnicity," Trafford said.
Knight Ridder, which publishes 31 newspapers nationwide, has 47 re-porters and photo-graphers currently in Iraq, said John Walcott, who heads up Knight Ridder's war coverage and is its Wash-ington bureau chief.
Walcott said he is unaware who among his staffers in Iraq is Jewish, though he acknowledges they may face rougher treatment should they be captured.
"After the Daniel Pearl murder, I think journalists who are Jewish have to be very careful about putting themselves in a place where their lives will be at risk," said Pulitzer Prize-winner Joshua Friedman, who began reporting from the Arab world 40 years ago.
"I probably wouldn't go alone to some of these places that I once went to," he said. "We're vulnerable because we're Jewish, and I'd never felt that before. There's a fever of anti-Semitism today in Muslim countries and we have to face it, right? It's true."
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