In June 2004, Swedish mother Elizabeth Krantz's five children were kidnapped from Sweden by Krantz's estranged Palestinian husband Ismail Nowajah. The children -- Adam, Amina, Zakarias, Miriam and Sara -- range in age from six to sixteen. They were taken to the Gaza Strip against their will and in contravention of Swedish law and have since been incarcerated in separate locations. Their mother, from a small town outside Gothenburg on Sweden's west coast, has custody of the children, with visitation rights granted to her estranged husband.
Ismail Nowajah says he disapproves of the upbringing his children were getting in Sweden, where they were born, and that he wishes to bring them up according to a stricter Islamic code, which he says cannot be done in Sweden but is possible in Gaza. Nowajah has signaled, however, that he is willing to release the children back into the custody of their mother in exchange for five million Swedish kronor (about 720,000 US dollars).
The children are Swedes. They are unfamiliar with Arab culture and have no knowledge of the Arabic language. They are thus unable to communicate in the environment into which they have been forcibly placed. They are denied schooling, and 15-year-old Miriam suffers from an unusual form of diabetes -- type 1 -- that requires special medication, treatment that has thus far been denied her by her father.
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