8 apr 2014
Without warnings or reasons and while returning, Tariq Khateeb who is holding a foreign nationality was taken to the interrogation room in the Israeli “Ben-Gurion” airport and detained for more than eight hours. In spite of the several inquiries asked by his family to the airport administration and security about their son’s place, they did not receive any answer. In the end, they were told that he was being interrogated.
Such a case is one of dozens several Arabs are still exposed to. They are subjected to interrogation, humiliation and harassment at the Israeli airports that pursued such practices repeatedly against Arab citizens in Israel during their travelling.
Khateeb,25, said the airport security took him to the interrogation room after they discovered through his passport he was an Arab citizen. They interrogated him for more than an hour for the reasons of where, when and why he left and returned to Israel.
Khateeb’s family arrived to the airport when they felt that he was too late. However, the airport’s security prevented Khateeb from making a call to tell them about his place.
The security didn’t only interrogate Khateeb to let him go, but they left him detained in the room alone from 1 pm until 8 pm, to reflect the policy of "Israel’s" racism and humiliating the Arabs with all the practices it has.
Such a case is one of dozens several Arabs are still exposed to. They are subjected to interrogation, humiliation and harassment at the Israeli airports that pursued such practices repeatedly against Arab citizens in Israel during their travelling.
Khateeb,25, said the airport security took him to the interrogation room after they discovered through his passport he was an Arab citizen. They interrogated him for more than an hour for the reasons of where, when and why he left and returned to Israel.
Khateeb’s family arrived to the airport when they felt that he was too late. However, the airport’s security prevented Khateeb from making a call to tell them about his place.
The security didn’t only interrogate Khateeb to let him go, but they left him detained in the room alone from 1 pm until 8 pm, to reflect the policy of "Israel’s" racism and humiliating the Arabs with all the practices it has.
28 feb 2014
The unnecessary, humiliating treatment that multitudes of Arab Israelis suffer routinely in Israel's airports must be done away with for good.
Ezies Elias Shehadeh is an Israeli teacher who has been teaching for 19 years at a Jewish high school in Tirat Carmel. She recently accompanied her students on a school trip to Eilat. But the fact that she is a Christian Arab immediately aroused the suspicions of the airport security screeners, turning her trip into a gantlet of humiliations.
Orly Vilnai reported in Haaretz that when Elias Shehadeh and her students arrived at the airport, she was separated from them, then forced to strip and stand in her underwear to undergo a “security check.” The checkers even ran their hands through her hair and over her body. “When I complained, they asked me: ‘Do you want to do this the easy way, or stay here?’
I went through close to an hour of humiliation that way,” she related. It’s impossible to make light of what Elias Shehadeh went through – an experience common to many Arab citizens of Israel and residents of East Jerusalem, and even to foreign tourists entering Israel. Many of them suffer body searches, personal questions and invasions of privacy, often for no real reason, but simply because of an arbitrary decision by the screeners.
The Israel Airports Authority and the security agencies have a plethora of excuses and justifications. They claim that all such procedures are carried out in accordance with the law, in order “to make sure that the passenger would not board the airplane with objects in her purse or on her person that could endanger the security of the plane and the passengers.”
But passenger security can be ensured without unnecessary humiliations. Today, there are plenty of technological devices that can be used in place of humiliating procedures. Nor is it believable that Elias Shehadeh was strip-searched not because of her ethnic origins, but based on “other parameters,” which is what the authorities claim. In her case, it’s hard to find those “other parameters”:
This teacher was stripped and humiliated solely because she is Arab. And those who treated her in this fashion hurt not only her and her students, but also the principles of equality and individual liberty in Israel. This incident once again proves that the religion of security drives the authorities out of their senses. Nobody questions the importance of security, especially in strategic locations like airports. But even there, not everything should be sacrificed to the Moloch of security. The airports authority must change its procedure for security checks fundamentally and institute checks devoid of racism and humiliation.
Ezies Elias Shehadeh is an Israeli teacher who has been teaching for 19 years at a Jewish high school in Tirat Carmel. She recently accompanied her students on a school trip to Eilat. But the fact that she is a Christian Arab immediately aroused the suspicions of the airport security screeners, turning her trip into a gantlet of humiliations.
Orly Vilnai reported in Haaretz that when Elias Shehadeh and her students arrived at the airport, she was separated from them, then forced to strip and stand in her underwear to undergo a “security check.” The checkers even ran their hands through her hair and over her body. “When I complained, they asked me: ‘Do you want to do this the easy way, or stay here?’
I went through close to an hour of humiliation that way,” she related. It’s impossible to make light of what Elias Shehadeh went through – an experience common to many Arab citizens of Israel and residents of East Jerusalem, and even to foreign tourists entering Israel. Many of them suffer body searches, personal questions and invasions of privacy, often for no real reason, but simply because of an arbitrary decision by the screeners.
The Israel Airports Authority and the security agencies have a plethora of excuses and justifications. They claim that all such procedures are carried out in accordance with the law, in order “to make sure that the passenger would not board the airplane with objects in her purse or on her person that could endanger the security of the plane and the passengers.”
But passenger security can be ensured without unnecessary humiliations. Today, there are plenty of technological devices that can be used in place of humiliating procedures. Nor is it believable that Elias Shehadeh was strip-searched not because of her ethnic origins, but based on “other parameters,” which is what the authorities claim. In her case, it’s hard to find those “other parameters”:
This teacher was stripped and humiliated solely because she is Arab. And those who treated her in this fashion hurt not only her and her students, but also the principles of equality and individual liberty in Israel. This incident once again proves that the religion of security drives the authorities out of their senses. Nobody questions the importance of security, especially in strategic locations like airports. But even there, not everything should be sacrificed to the Moloch of security. The airports authority must change its procedure for security checks fundamentally and institute checks devoid of racism and humiliation.
27 feb 2014
She stood in the middle of Eilat Airport's small departures hall, and her eyes said it all. An impressive, well-dressed woman with an assertive face, only her burning eyes betrayed the insult she felt. "I'm so ashamed," she said, and the tears began to fall. But shame is the last thing Ezies Elias Shehadeh should be feeling. The shame is ours, all Jews who live in Israel and who allow the kind of situation that Shehadeh experienced to take place.
Shehadeh, a Palestinian who was born in Safed and has taught tourism at a Jewish high school in Tirat Carmel for 19 years, was returning from a school trip to Eilat with her students.
As soon as she reached the security screening station, she was separated from her students and treated like an arch-terrorist.
At Ben-Gurion International Airport, before the flight to Eilat, she was singled out for special attention from security but not to the same extent as in Eilat for the return flight. Shehadeh relates that she flashed her teachers' union membership card, the inspectors recognized that she was Arab but gave her a boarding pass without any problem — or so she thought. A few minutes later, she was called back to the screening station. Her purse and suitcase were emptied out, she was instructed to remove her shoes and her rings, and her cellphone was whisked away for inspection.
Nobody else on the flight was treated that way, she says. She remained quiet while her purse was emptied. She knows that as soon as the name on her identity card is read, she will be treated as if she were a ticking time bomb.
But at Eilat Airport, before the return flight, someone decided that she needed to be searched more thoroughly. She was taken aside to a small room where, she says, she was strip-searched. An Israeli security officer was stationed outside the room, while inside, a woman inspector wearing gloves began probing all through her carefully-styled hair. "They touched me all over my body. They even asked me about my bones. They asked me to take off my slacks, my bra. I remained in my underpants," she says, as the tears come back. "When I complained, they asked me: 'Do you want to do this the easy way, or stay here?' I went through close to an hour of humiliation that way."
It was not the first time, of course. Once when Shehadeh traveled abroad with her family, when they gave their last name as Elias, when airport screeners asked them for their name, they were ushered to an express line. But then the inspectors saw an additional name, Shehadeh, on their passports, and transferred them to a long line where even the children's baby food was opened for inspection. In other instances, Shehadeh and her husband were asked to produce their marriage certificate, and on another trip they were asked to point out their destination on a map. Every time they traveled, the harassment increased.
In a response, the Israel Airports Authority said: "The security screening procedure and its methods are unrelated to the passengers' ethnic origin, but rather have to do with many parameters. At no stage was the passenger stripped of her clothing. The screening procedures are set forth to the IAA by the state according to law. The body search was performed to make sure that the passenger would not board the airplane with objects in her purse or on her person that could endanger the security of the plane and the passengers."
Shehadeh is not alone. Over the past few years, we have heard many accounts of Palestinian citizens living in the 1948 occupied territories who undergo this kind of humiliation regularly. On the other hand, too many Israeli Jewish voices are heard claiming that this is the only way to keep us all safe. I would ask them to tell us, please, when airport inspectors last found weapons in the kidney of a Palestinian woman.
Source: Haaretz
Shehadeh, a Palestinian who was born in Safed and has taught tourism at a Jewish high school in Tirat Carmel for 19 years, was returning from a school trip to Eilat with her students.
As soon as she reached the security screening station, she was separated from her students and treated like an arch-terrorist.
At Ben-Gurion International Airport, before the flight to Eilat, she was singled out for special attention from security but not to the same extent as in Eilat for the return flight. Shehadeh relates that she flashed her teachers' union membership card, the inspectors recognized that she was Arab but gave her a boarding pass without any problem — or so she thought. A few minutes later, she was called back to the screening station. Her purse and suitcase were emptied out, she was instructed to remove her shoes and her rings, and her cellphone was whisked away for inspection.
Nobody else on the flight was treated that way, she says. She remained quiet while her purse was emptied. She knows that as soon as the name on her identity card is read, she will be treated as if she were a ticking time bomb.
But at Eilat Airport, before the return flight, someone decided that she needed to be searched more thoroughly. She was taken aside to a small room where, she says, she was strip-searched. An Israeli security officer was stationed outside the room, while inside, a woman inspector wearing gloves began probing all through her carefully-styled hair. "They touched me all over my body. They even asked me about my bones. They asked me to take off my slacks, my bra. I remained in my underpants," she says, as the tears come back. "When I complained, they asked me: 'Do you want to do this the easy way, or stay here?' I went through close to an hour of humiliation that way."
It was not the first time, of course. Once when Shehadeh traveled abroad with her family, when they gave their last name as Elias, when airport screeners asked them for their name, they were ushered to an express line. But then the inspectors saw an additional name, Shehadeh, on their passports, and transferred them to a long line where even the children's baby food was opened for inspection. In other instances, Shehadeh and her husband were asked to produce their marriage certificate, and on another trip they were asked to point out their destination on a map. Every time they traveled, the harassment increased.
In a response, the Israel Airports Authority said: "The security screening procedure and its methods are unrelated to the passengers' ethnic origin, but rather have to do with many parameters. At no stage was the passenger stripped of her clothing. The screening procedures are set forth to the IAA by the state according to law. The body search was performed to make sure that the passenger would not board the airplane with objects in her purse or on her person that could endanger the security of the plane and the passengers."
Shehadeh is not alone. Over the past few years, we have heard many accounts of Palestinian citizens living in the 1948 occupied territories who undergo this kind of humiliation regularly. On the other hand, too many Israeli Jewish voices are heard claiming that this is the only way to keep us all safe. I would ask them to tell us, please, when airport inspectors last found weapons in the kidney of a Palestinian woman.
Source: Haaretz
14 feb 2014
A state of emergency was declared temporarily at Israel's Ben Gurion airport on Friday morning after a hand grenade was found abroad a Ukrainian International Airlines plane prior to departure, according to Israeli media reports.
A passenger found the "safety pin" hand grenade aboard the flight and alerted authorities, who grounded the flight and declared a state of emergency while they searched the plane, according to Israeli news site Yediot Aharonot.
The flight's 143 passengers were subsequently removed from the flight and placed in a special hall, where security officials carried out extensive security searches. They also subjected the plane and the passengers' luggage to searches as well.
Although security officials did not find any further explosives, the incident was a serious breach of security at the airport, which prides itself on its extensive security procedures.
A passenger found the "safety pin" hand grenade aboard the flight and alerted authorities, who grounded the flight and declared a state of emergency while they searched the plane, according to Israeli news site Yediot Aharonot.
The flight's 143 passengers were subsequently removed from the flight and placed in a special hall, where security officials carried out extensive security searches. They also subjected the plane and the passengers' luggage to searches as well.
Although security officials did not find any further explosives, the incident was a serious breach of security at the airport, which prides itself on its extensive security procedures.