Deportation fears for West Bank heart surgeon ease

JERUSALEM, Jan 27 (Reuters) A German doctor of Palestinian origin, who has worked in the occupied West Bank for years, said today that Israel threatened to deport him, but Israel said he could stay -- once he applied for a permit.

Cardiologist Dirgham Abu Ramadan, who is one of the few open-heart surgeons in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has worked at local hospitals for years, moving around with an Israeli tourist visa in his passport.

Since the Hamas Islamist movement took power last March, Israel has tightened up on Palestinian expatriates using tourist visas, which were generally renewed every three months by leaving the West Bank and returning.

Abu Ramadan said he was detained for more than a day at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport before Israeli authorities agreed to extend his tourist visa by a week.

''They told me I was allowed in for seven days during which I would either get a work permit or I leave the country,'' Abu Ramadan told Reuters.

An Israeli official said Abu Ramadan had been told three months ago to apply for a permit.

''We told him, apply for a work permit and you will get it immediately,'' Shlomo Dror, an Israeli Defence Ministry spokesman said. ''We told him yesterday (Friday), come on Sunday and we will give you a work permit.'' For years, thousands of expatriates of Palestinian origin have been entering the West Bank on temporary visas because it is difficult to get permanent residency cards and other permits issued by Israel.

Abu Ramadan told Reuters by telephone from the airport that a lawyer was working on his work permit.

He said he has 270 surgeries scheduled in the coming months.

Some Palestinians can receive treatment at Israeli hospitals but it is difficult to get permits and many cases have been refused in the wake of the 2000 Palestinian uprising.

Last month tp Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reached a deal with the Israeli government to allow foreign nationals of Palestinian origin to get Israeli visas that would allow them entry to Palestinian areas.

REUTERS DH RN0150