Ahead of first Christmas without their dad, daughters of late American hostage Amer Fakhoury launch nonprofit/تقرير من موقع فوكس نيوز: بنات الشهيد عامر فاخوري ومع أول عيد ميلاد بغياب والدهم يعلنون عن تأسيس جمعية غير نفعية لمساعدة الأميركيين المختطفين والأسرى في الخارج
Ahead of first Christmas without their dad, daughters of late American hostage Amer Fakhoury launch nonprofit تقرير من موقع فوكس نيوز: بنات الشهيد عامر فاخوري ومع أول عيد ميلاد بغياب والدهم يعلنون عن تأسيس جمعية غير نفعية لمساعدةالأميركيين المختطفين والأسرى في الخارج Jacqui Heinrich, Ben Evansky/Fox News/December 24/2020
Amer Fakhoury, 57, died in August after US forces rescued him.
The daughters of an American hostage who died of cancer after being forcibly incarcerated in Lebanon during a family vacation have launched a foundation to support Americans in captivity overseas.
Amer Fakhoury, 57, died in August after U.S. forces brought him home to Dover, N.H., in a daring military rescue operation. Fakhoury developed cancer in Beirut, which his family believes was linked to unsanitary conditions in the military prison where he was beaten and tortured over false charges drummed up by Hezbollah.
AMERICAN MAN WHO WAS DETAINED IN LEBANON FOR SIX MONTHS DIES OF CANCER, FAMILY SAYS
Fakhoury’s children tell Fox News the Amer Fakhoury Foundation’s goal is to honor their late father and fill financial and advocacy gaps for hostages and their families. Fakhoury, in his dying days, proposed building support for hostages sharing his harrowing experience. The father of four recounted his traumas, including physical beatings and witnessing the torture of a 13-year-old boy. Fakhoury said he wanted to shine a light on unseen victims and establish a network that would support hostage homecomings.
“Our foundation hopes to help hostages and their families financially and emotionally,” Guila Fakhoury, Amer’s eldest daughter, told Fox News. “What happened to Amer Fakhoury can happen to any U.S. citizen visiting a foreign country.”
Zoya Fakhoury said the sisters used their collective savings to sustain their parents’ home and restaurant mortgages while their father was detained and their mother fought for his release.
“We did not want them to come home homeless and lose the business they worked so hard to build,” Zoya Fakhoury said. “We also had to take care of sending money to Lebanon in order to pay for the lawyers, medical bills, and my mother’s stay. We were already dealing with the trauma of our father being held by Hezbollah, and we had to add on financial burden on our shoulders, as well.”
The foundation aims to assist other victims with pro bono lawyers and resources to help navigate the traumatic experience without the added worry of financial stress.
The Amer Fakhoury Foundation will soon be launching a channel on YouTube and will detail, for the first time, Amer’s story from the day he was kidnapped to his release.
“We will also address the torture and abuse that goes on in Lebanon, a country where the U.S. sends millions of dollars in aid to every year,” Guila Fakhoury told Fox News
Fakhoury was held without charges for nearly six months after a Hezbollah-backed newspaper accused him of torturing Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists in the ’80s and ’90s. Fakhoury, who fought in the South Lebanon Army during Israel’s occupation of the country, was never previously accused of the charge and had taken advantage of an invite to ex-pats to return to his home country after not seeing family for two decades.
The largely Christian force disbanded after Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, and Fakhoury sought refuge first in Israel and finally in America, where he received citizenship, opened a successful Lebanese restaurant, and became an active member of the Republican party.
FAMILY OF US CITIZEN IMPRISONED IN LEBANON PLEADS FOR HIS RELEASE: ‘THIS IS A CRY FOR HELP’
The Trump administration and State Department lobbied for his release following proposed bipartisan sanctions against senior Lebanese officials involved in Fakhoury’s unlawful detention, and US forces brought him home after a military judge responded to the mounting pressure by levying unfounded charges of murder, attempted murder of prisoners kidnapping, and torture – all which were later dropped.
Fakhoury’s supporters say he was well-loved by the people of Dover — including many fans of his Lebanese restaurant. He was also an active member of St. George’s Church in the town.
While his family hopes to keep his memory alive, they stress that the life of a person fighting for the return of a hostage can be desperately lonely.
“We as a family were not prepared for this tragedy, and had to use all our savings in order to stay afloat,” Guila Fakhoury said.
“We reached out to the government, as well as many hostage organizations, but none were able to provide financial support and that is one of the reasons the Amer Fakhoury Foundation emerged. We would love to work with the government on creating a plan to other help families in the U.S. who have their loved ones held hostage.”
“When our father was detained, my sisters and I used up all of our savings in order to pay my parents’ house mortgage as well as their business mortgage. We did not want them to come home homeless and lose the business they worked so hard to build,” she said.
The family, while thankful that President Trump and Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, helped free their father, feel the White House should take more action against the country they say tortured a U.S. citizen.
“We Americans send a lot of money to Lebanon every year and our tax money should not go to promote torture and abuse. [Lebanese] government officials that are responsible for the torture and killing of our father need to be held accountable,” Guila Fakhoury said.
Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defenses of Democracy focusing on the region, told Fox News that the U.S. should reassess its relationship.
“It is an Iranian satrapy run by Hezbollah,” he said. “Its so-called institutions work hand in glove with or on behalf of Hezbollah. U.S. security assistance to Lebanon, including US funding for UNIFIL, only props up the Hezbollah order. It does not advance any real US interest and should be terminated.”
According to the U.S. Aid website, the United States has given approximately $219 million in aid to Lebanon in 2020.
The James W. Foley Legacy Foundation states that there are currently 42 publicly disclosed hostage and wrongful detention cases involving Americans abroad. The 11 countries where Americans are being detained include China, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Russia and Venezuela.
James Foley, a well-respected conflict journalist, disappeared in 2012 while covering the Syrian civil war. He was beheaded by ISIS terrorists in August of 2014. Foley’s mother set up the foundation in her late son’s name to help families in similar tragic situations that she had faced with her son’s captivity and death.
MOTHER OF JAMES FOLEY: NEW SURVEY SHOWS MAJOR STRIDES FOR FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES
Guila Fakhoury told Fox News the Foley Foundation was a big help to her family as they dealt with the emotional toll of her father’s detention and death.
Fox News’ Julia Musto contributed to this report.
