The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal court in San Francisco, ruled on Friday to grant political asylum to an Israeli Arab after ruling he suffered economic persecution in the country and that the violent conflict between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors constituted an element in the decision to grant the decree.

Expressing displeasure with the decision, Israeli officials in the U.S. said it was the first time an Israeli citizen had been granted asylum in the U.S.

Ibrahim Baballah, an Acre man, reached the U.S. 11 years ago, telling immigration authorities he was persecuted by the Israeli army and denied his rights to earn a livelihood in Israel. He said he suffered from harassment as a result of being the son of a mixed marriage - one parent Arab, the other Jewish - and that he was unable to find work in his profession as an accountant and later as a lifeguard. He said he tried to work as a fisherman but the Israeli army prohibited him from doing so, with the navy hitting his boat, spraying it with water and firing over his head. As a result, his crew quit and he was forced to give up his business. He also claimed the naval base in Acre - apparently a reference to the officers´ training school there - had taken over his home in the city and he was harassed by the soldiers on the base.

The lower immigration courts ruled against him but on Friday, the court in San Francisco, known as one of the most liberal courts in the country, accepted his appeal for asylum. Judge Richard Paez ruled that "when analyzing in the aggregate, the physical assaults and the economic harassment endured by Baballah compel a finding of persecution." The three-member court panel ruled that the violent conflict in the region can be taken into consideration as relevant in a request for political asylum, when compounded by specific claims of cases of persecution. (© Copyright 2003 Haaretz. 07/15/03)