 "Photo: N/A")
A warm smile and easy laugh reveal Hebah Ismail’s unthreatening, gentle personality. An American citizen, this 3L of Egyptian descent works with the International Human Rights Clinic on projects related to Bedouin land rights. Hebah wears a hijab. She still does not know which of one, or combination, of these characteristics prompted the immigration personnel at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport deny her entry to Israel.
Ismail flew to Israel to join Clinical Instructor and Global Advocacy Fellow Ahmad Amara and a fellow student for field research related to a 2008 report prepared by the Goldberg Committee. Convened by the Housing Ministry in 2007, the Goldberg Committee examined land disputes between the state of Israel and the Bedouin community and offered subsequent recommendations.
As her colleagues had already been in Israel for several days, Ismail arrived alone on the afternoon of December 23rd and planned to travel from Tel Aviv to Be'er Sheva by train. That evening, as Amara prepared to meet Ismail at the station, the Ben Gurion security services phone to notify him that she had been detained.
“I originally knew something would happen, that she would be held,” Amara said. “And we prepared for that.”
As expected, Ismail was pulled aside in border control for more intense screening. Over several hours, security personnel questioned her reasons for traveling to Israel, often returning to whether or not she intended to visit the Occupied Territories. A signed letter from the Human Rights Program attesting to the purpose of her trip and outlining her agenda did nothing to assuage their misgivings.
After almost seven hours, Hebah was directed to claim her luggage and open it for examination.
“I wasn’t strip searched, but they did pat me down well,” Ismail said.
After going through her computer, including the external hard drive, the line of questions continued. While most of those originally holding Ismail appeared rather young, a man in his 30s and clearly in a position of authority took over the interrogation.
Ismail recounts how this man introduced himself.
“I don’t remember his exact words,” she says. “But basically he told me, ‘Before we get started, we want you to know that this is a democratic country, and we respect other points of view. But we found things on your external hard drive that are very concerning.’ He was sure I had some other objective, but I had no idea what that could be.”
Hebah tried to assure the security officer that her trip related only to the clinical project and a personal desire to visit Jerusalem. But he remained convinced that an article on her computer describing modern Israeli as being on land previously held by Palestinians pointed to a more insidious motivation and began pressuring Ismail to allow him to read her emails.
“He told me, ‘I cannot let you through until I know I can go home and get a good night’s sleep,’” Ismail said. “He kept saying, ‘If you let me go through your email, I’ll let you in.”
Having been counselled by Amara prior to the trip that the security forces had no right to demand access to her emails, Ismail denied his request. Almost eight hours after landing, Ismail’s passport progressed from border control to immigration, who would proceed to ask the same set of questions. Only later would be learn that security had finally granted her entry and immigration ultimately denied her. Again, the demands centered upon her emails, but now the consequences escalated.
“They told me that if I didn’t let them read my emails, not only would I not be allowed into Israel, I would be banned for life.”
Having stood by her initial refusal regarding the personal mail, Ismail cannot ever travel to Israel.
“I always wanted to go to Jerusalem. And this was finally my chance. But I won’t be trying to go back.”
After being fingerprinted, photographed and having her passport scanned, Ismail was moved to van. She assumed this would take her to the departure gate, and she texted family about her imminent deportation. But instead of boarding a plane, Ismail found herself in the “Hedar Mesuravimor”, or “Rejected Room”, a holding pen for those awaiting deportation, a place she describes as akin to “a really bad Egyptian hostel.” This room would become her home over the next day, as she waiting for a flight 23 hours away. Before she could re-inform her family, the phone was taken, along with all of her other belongings.
“Once they asked if I had a heart condition, they even took my medication. I was allowed to keep one small sweater.”
Unable to contact her family, Ismail continued to request that someone contact Amara, so that he could at least reach out to them. Each time, the person on duty would simply tell her she could call later. But no one ever allowed her to make that call.
Morning arrived, and with it a breakfast of cheese and tea. Lactose-intolerant, Ismail could do little more than stare at the food. Hours later, she finally met with Amara, though as her lawyer, not as her professor. Explaining that they could launch a case and arose media interest on her behalf, Amara laid out the various options. However, a best case scenario would take at least a week, during which Ismail would remain in detention. The decision was made for her to return to the US.
Finally boarding a plane on Christmas Eve, Hebah had never managed to leave the Ben Gurion Airport. Arriving in the U.S., three plainclothes Israeli security officials walked her to the Department of Homeland Security and handed over her passport.
“The DHS officer asked if I had been arrested. The Israelis said no. He asked me if I was an American citizen, and I said yes. Then he walked me to the front of the passport line, stamped me and said, ‘Welcome home.’ I turned to my escort and said, ‘Have a happy holiday,’ and walked through to meet my family,” Ismail said.
Of course, they were worried about me going to Israel in the first place, so now they get to say, I told you so!” she laughs.
Ismail joins a growing list of human rights and development workers recently denied entry to and work permits in Israel.
“There is a general practice of denying entry to American citizens,” Amara said. “Its not uncommon with those of Palestinian origin, or anything about Jerusalem, the Negev, human rights. In the past, I had an American student of Pakistani descent who was also denied entry. No matter what you say, they assume you are going to the Territories.”
According to Reuters, in December 2008, Israel denied entry to Richard Falk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Israeli Behaviour in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and an American Jew. According to Reuters, “Falk had angered Israel by making remarks comparing its forces' actions in the Gaza Strip to those of the Nazis in wartime Europe.” More recently, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that “Israeli immigration police were involved in the arrest and deportation earlier this month of a Czech pro-Palestinian activist living in Ramallah.” In addition to the UN and pro-Palestinian groups, impacted organizations include Oxfam, Save the Children and Doctors without borders.
Amara cannot determine how Ismail’s adventures will impact the future of the Bedouin land project. Unable to do the research, the group cannot complete the project, which must be put on hold until another trip can be arranged.
“Hebah knew the Goldberg report, there were meetings arranged specifically for her trip,” Amara said. “It means now we won’t have something ready.”
64 comments
www.onlineuniversalwork.com
Oh, and before you all jump on me from various directions, I don't give a fetid crap about ANY stupid superstitious religion, judeao-christian-islamo (all of the same root and family, btw), bhuddist, hindu, pagan, shamanic, whaterever.... nor do ascribe to capitalism or communism or any of the multitude of other politico-economic positions out there. I am caucasian english by birth raised in the US from age 7 and reasonably well educated, as you may surmise by my little essay here. ...and especially please don't attempt a reply unless you can write something coherent, reasonable, and logical from a position of knowlege of history or science, i.e. not a bunch of emotional based rehash of the ignorant hate or chickenshit 'security' propaganda that is so common in the US and the world in general today, or something that looks like it was written by someone devoid of grammar (ok, we all typo but those are obvious, lol) as it just shows just what an moron (antiquated psycological term for someone with the mental development and ability of 7-12 yrs of age) you can be.... have a nice life! };-)ps. yes, the USA is the land of the free... for those that can afford it and don't let anyone tell you different!! lol
pps. btw, I have a degree in Architectural Engineering and can state with confidence that, irregardless of whatever supposedly hit the WTC towers they did not 'fall' down but were blown up (why else would so much concrete turn to dust and steel members weighing tons fly up and out to land 500+ feet from the footprint of the building? why would the building 'hit' last and with the most glancing blow, hence less structural impact damage and more fuel burned up outside the building, 'fall' 1st? and if aviation fuel burns at a lower temp than steel melts-blow on it as much as you want it's physically impossible! steel used in columns like those start to lose strength at 600 deg F but retain like 90% of it's strength until above the temps that aviation fuel burns at and structures like those are designed with a safety factor of 3+ times the fail strength- why was there no 1000+ft. long twisted steel columns protruding from the wreckage?...and why would a building with less damage than surounding buildings that contained a vast amount of sensitive information and evidence totally collapse? and what happened to all the gold buillion in the basements of the TT's, something like $6 billion held there to facillitate the world trade that used to take place there? and why was the Pentagon hit at all by a lumbering passinger jet seeing as it was the nexus of the biggest/bestus military regime in man's history? and no wing damage? why did we spend less money on investigating all this, the greatest crime of all time, than we did on whether or not Clinton got a blowjob from an intern!?!?! WTF is with that!??!?!? I'm not saying I know myself the answers to these questions so don't just throw me in with the so called 'conspiracy wingnuts' because that's a cop-out (I mean there's a conspiracy somewhere there in that mess but I don't know whose, just it's not the one our gov't. told us happend) but I can guarrantee that nothing will be right for this country, the so-called 'middle east' countries, and thus the world, untill we do resolve what really happened that day, we owe it to all those who have died, and are dying, there, in Afganistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza, and now Pakistan to find out but everyday that passes without a REAL investigation diminishes the chance of that... WAKE THE FUCK UP, PEOPLE!!!! educate yourselves and act on your knowlege the people who purpetrate and profit from shit like 9/11/01 and the crap in Israel, Afganistan, Iraq, etc. rely on your ignorance of history, lack of logical reasoning and general cowardice, don't let them do this to you! Security is the tonic of the politcally stupid, if you sacrifice everything for someone else to provide you with security you are a peasant or a slave to them ...
ppps. btw, do you realise that government (not just the USA's) agencies and large corporations hire PR companies to have people pretend to be average joes commenting on blogs and places like this to spin their shit their way? so, if it sounds too simplistic and overly emotional it is probably one of them.... use you fucking brain not your endocrine system to do your thinking!!!
interestingly enough, my old hardbound collegiate M-W's dictionary's deffinition of fascism also included inbetween the '...dictatorial leader,' and '...severe economic and social regimentation..' phrases something to the effect that the government was, 'in close co-operation with large corporations (or industry)..'. It has been a few years since I last remember reading it so this is not a direct quote, however, it did stick in my mind that there was a pronounced connection between the fascist gov't. and big businesses, prob. refering to Thyssen, Krupp, and the Wall St. Union Bank (which was run by former Senator Prescott Bush... yes, H.W.'s father, 'W's grandfather back when the family lived in Conn. before he had to leave in discrace and hide in Texas after being indicted for money laudering Nazi money into the US!! so, yeah, 'W' is about as country texan as Rove is truthfull and Cheny a safe hunter, and if he loved that ranch so much why did he sell it as soon as he left office? because it was a sham, like everything about him!!) who bankrolled Hitler's Nazi party, in that older dictionary. It intrigued me that that corporate connection was eliminated from the latter edition around the same time the neo-cons were setting up for the ensuing debacles of the 1st and 2nd invasions of Iraq and tried coining the mis-nomer of calling islamic religious fanatics, 'Islamo-fascists' when it would be far more appropriate to append the term to our own judeao-christian religious fanatics (judeao-christiano-fascist?) who were intent on creating hegmony in that part of the world!So, no, israel is not a true democracy of free people, it is a fascist theocracy, it is racist, it is greedy and just plain wrong! Back in the late 40's they could have embraced the Palestinians and kicked out the British together and founded a nation of equality and freedon of religion, thought, and people but they didn't.... they succumed to greed, fear, and religiously inspired ignorance of the consequences of their actions and 60 years later we have a mess that just can't be fixed (kill them all, let their gods sort them out? yes, I modified a quote form a catholic cardinal from the religious wars of renaisance europe).... stupid, silly, narrow minded people ruled by greed, fear and ignorance..... that have to resort to shit like what happend with the last invasion of Lebanon and the ghetto they have made of Gaza after Hamas won a free election of the people (like Viet Nam in '54 when 'our' boy looked like he was going to loose the UN mandated free election and we ended up supporting a series of evil despot dictators-one of who we had to assasinate after awhile to replace with yet another until we finally lost with negative honor!) and they just couln't deal with them on a rational basis.