‘Humanitarian taxi service” rescues Palestinian American from Ramallah
Following the outbreak of war, 23-year-old student Tamer was trapped on the West Bank. Moti Kahana's rescue extraction company came to get him.
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
A Palestinian-American thought to be the last US citizen in Ramallah after war broke out between Israel and Hamas has been returned home — by Israeli-Jewish humanitarian rescue.
Moti Kahana’s company, GDC, (Global Development Corporation), is a private company which provides logistical services to governments, NGOs or individuals.
He specialises in rescue extractions, particularly of people in war zones such as Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine. He also delivers urgently needed supplies, describing GDC as “a sort of humanitarian taxi service”.
After the October 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas terrorists, a 23-year-old student, Tamer, found himself stuck in Ramallah, on the West Bank, where he had been visiting family. He is an American citizen, born in New Jersey, but was extremely fearful of leaving Ramallah by himself. “He was scared of Hamas and he was also scared of Israeli settlers”, Kahana told Jewish News. JN is not using Tamer’s surname for security reasons.
But Tamer’s family knew of GDC’s work and asked if the company could help.
“It took me more than a week to get him out”, Kahana told Jewish News, “because the subcontractors, that I would normally use, wanted enormous, ridiculous amounts of money. One wanted $35,000, another $50,000.” Even though it was a 30 minute drive at best, he said, Israelis were fearful of driving into Palestinian areas in the post-October 7 tension.
GDC turned to the American Embassy in Israel and were advised that if Tamer could be taken to Haifa, he could get on a boat there and sail to Cyprus, from where he could fly home.
But because of the negotiations with the subcontractors, Tamer, quite literally, missed the boat. He also missed the opportunity to fly back to the US on one of the specially laid-on charter flights. He was, Moti Kahana explained, also extremely nervous about being rescued by Jews. “I told him about my work in Syria and Afghanistan — I actually think I’ve saved more Muslims than Jews.”
In exasperation, Moti Kahana turned to his brother in Jerusalem, Yoni, who agreed to drive to Ramallah just for the cost of his petrol, and rescue Tamer.
“So I called Tamer and said, my brother is coming to Ramallah and he will take you to the airport [in Israel]. And he said, great, what is your brother’s name? I told him, Yoni Kahana. He said, what, Kahane, are you out of your mind?” (Kahane was the extremist rabbi who led the hard-line settler movement; he was assassinated in 1990. Both names sound the same in Hebrew and Arabic). “Don’t worry”, Kahana told him. “We will come and get you and you will be fine”.
Reassured that Yoni would keep him safe, Tamer said goodbye to his relieved family and caught an El Al flight to the US out of Ben-Gurion. “El Al were very good,” Moti Kahana said, “they were really helpful” — as were the American embassy, the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli government.
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