IF you are a critic of Israel these days, it’s very possible you will be stopped at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, pulled aside, questioned and maybe even detained. And of all people, it is Americans who are being stopped. By detaining them and other activists for expressing critical views of Israel, the country obviously is far from being the democratic state it professes to be.
Peter Beinart, a progressive American Jew and political commentator was, by his account, asked about his participation in a protest in the West Bank city of Hebron during a visit two years ago. The Shin Bet internal security agency, which carried out the interrogation, issued a rare apology for Beinart’s detention, calling it an “error of judgment” by a field officer. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the detention an “administrative mistake”.
Beinart was not a one-off. Simone Zimmerman, an American activist opposed to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and to Israel’s 2014 Gaza war, and a former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign, was similarly questioned for hours before being allowed to enter Israel.
The list goes on. Meyer G. Koplow, the chairman of Brandeis University and a pro-Israel philanthropist, was interrogated at the airport because he had put a Palestinian promotional brochure in his luggage. Moriel Rothman-Zecher, an Israeli living in the US, was held for questioning about his involvement in two anti-occupation organizations for which he volunteers.
Reza Aslan, a former CNN contributor, religious scholar and author was the most egregiously abused. Some of the things Aslan was told by his interrogator included: “You think because you’re a public person I can’t do whatever I want with you?”, “If you don’t cooperate it will be a long time before you see your kids again”, “I may let you into Israel but, who knows, I may not let you out”, “You would miss your kids yes?”
The detentions are part of an increasing hardline atmosphere in which activists are branded enemies of the state. It would not be in the least surprising if Israeli officials were stopping Palestinians or other Arabs at the border. But it is stopping people from America, Israel’s closest ally, targeting them for their political views. It is more than shocking, possibly illegal and certainly outrageous.
It’s one thing for Israel to ban entry for people supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, the global campaign promoting various forms of boycotts against Israel. There has been an increase in deportations of foreign, pro-Palestinian activists since parliament passed legislation in 2017 barring entry to people considered to have taken significant action to advocate for boycotting Israel. The law was part of a campaign to counter the BDS movement which Israelis oppose, consider anti-Semitic and view as calling for the country’s destruction.
But it seems you don’t have to be a BDS supporter to have problems at the airport. Beinart, Zimmerman and Aslan are not BDS affiliated but oppose Israel’s occupation and its treatment of Palestinians.
“Israel is an open society which welcomes all — critics and supporters alike,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement following Beinart’s detention. “Israel is the only country in the Middle East where people voice their opinions freely and robustly.”
That’s not true. Shin Bet is abusing its authority for purposes that have nothing to do with preventing attacks in Israel, the excuse it uses to legitimize the interrogations.
The Israeli attorney general will initiate a probe into the Israel Security Agency guidelines, which resulted in the detention and questioning of Beinart and other human rights activists. But at this rate, the questioning and detentions could eventually yield a country which no one would call, as Israel likes to describe itself, one of the world’s most open democracies. Israel is exercising unabashed political censorship befitting a police state.
