Dead man waiting
Israel, Judicial, 12/11/1997

The Israeli High Court session on Wednesday was rough for the judges who admitted at the end that they found it hard to reach a decision. For them, it was a story similar to the famous King Solomon and the two women who fought over one child, each claiming he was hers. At the end of the fatiguing session, the judges said they would convene another session in a few days to decide whether the subject of the appeal, a dead man, should be buried as a Muslim or Jew.

The body of Shaukat Qouza'a, the 56-year-old man from Haifa, has been held in a West Jerusalem hospital since last Friday because of a dispute between his two wives, the Muslim one from Hebron and the Jewish one from Haifa. Some thirty years ago, the man knew a Jewish woman and since has been living with her in West Jerusalem after he converted to Judaism.

In 1995, Qouza'a decided to convert back to Islam and married a Muslim woman. He died last Friday, but his burial has been held up because of the dispute over how he should be buried. His Muslim wife insists he is a full-fledged Muslim who is entirely entitled to a Muslim burial ceremony. His Jewish wife appealed on Sunday to the High court demanding that she be allowed to bury him in a Jewish ceremony.

During the court's deliberations it seemed that the main line of argument between the two sides is whether Qouza'a converted legally from one religion to another. His Jewish wife's lawyer claimed that Qouza'a lied to the Islamic Shari'a' court when married his present wife and said he was single. His Muslim wife's lawyer, meanwhile, insisted that his conversion from Islam to Judaism was not legal and that once he reconverted to Islam he just repaired a mistake he made many years ago.

The story began thirty years ago. Shaukat Qouza'a fell in love with Jacqueline, a Jewish resident of Haifa. They lived together and had three children, one of whom is now a Jewish seminary student. Two years ago they decided to get married according to Jewish law, after Shaukat converted in the US and changed his name to Yehoshua Ben Abraham. But not long after the wedding, the couple began to fight.

Shaukat left the house and went to live in East Jerusalem, close to his Muslim relatives. He worked as a waiter and married Hiyam Hujjeh, 35, from Hebron. Later it was discovered that he had returned to Islam. Shaukat recently fell sick, was hospitalized in a West Jerusalem hospital and died last Friday. Immediately after the death both of Shaukat's families, the Muslim and the Jewish, demanded the hospital release his corpse for burial. The hospital, aware of the sensitivity of the issue, told them to appeal to the courts.

Lawyer Medhat Diba, representing the Muslim family, surprised the court when he pulled an official conversion document out of his briefcase, issued by the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs on November 29, 1995, stating that Shaukat had ³returned to Islam.² A representative of the Jewish woman¹s family questioned the authenticity of the document and the ministry agreed to look into it. The date stamped on the document was only nine days after Shaukat got married in a Jewish ceremony.

After the court proceeding, Diba said: ³It¹s not possible that a Muslim becomes a Jew in a speedy conversion process in the US that lasted only two weeks. We also wonder why his Jewish wife, who now demands to have his body, didn¹t visit him at all when he was in the hospital, while his Muslim wife took care of him day in and day out? From our view, everything shows that he is Muslim and that¹s how he will be buried.²

Previous Stories:
  72% of Israeli students believe Arab Knesset members threaten Israel   (12/8/1997)
  Israeli racism against Palestinian Christians   (12/4/1997)
  Isareli artist trial of grave defacing   (11/6/1997)

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