US Tourists Harassed and Denied Entry by Israeli Security

There have been three different reports of US citizens being interrogated by the Israeli Shin Bet security last May, saying that the Israeli security demanded passwords of person email accounts for anyone with an Arab name.

Najwa Doughman, an American of Arab descent, was visiting Israel for the third time in her life. After she landed with in Israel for a 10 day tour with a friend, she was interrogated with questions along the these lines:

“Do you feel more Arab or more American?”

The interrogator offered her own answer “Surely, you feel a little more Arab”

The interrogator then proceeded to ask Najwa why she was visiting Israel of all places, instead of Mexico, Canada, or anywhere else in the world for that matter. She was then asked to log into her personal Gmail account, where security read through every email and looked for key words like “West Bank”, “Israel”, “Palestine”, and “International Solidarity Movement”. The security guard then recorded many different names and contacts from Najwa’s Gmail address book.

After 5 hours of questioning, the two American travelers were forced to wait another 3 hours. After the 8 hour ordeal, they were informed that they would not be granted entry into Israel, and they would have all of their luggage searched and their photographs taken.

The two Americans were also given full body searches.

The two spent the night in a detention facility and were flown out via France 14 hours after landing in Israel.

There have been two other similar reports where Americans of Arab descent were denied entry into Israel after hours of interrogation and searching. The Shin Bet have released a statement saying that the precautionary measures taken by the security guards , under Israel law, are within their authority. 

It seems that there is a growing sentiment that Israel’s mis-treatment of Palestinian’s is rolling into a mandate to all people of Arab descent.

Michael Patton, POTHOS CEO comments; It would be wise to remember Ben Franklin’s sage advice “Those who would sacrifice Freedom for Security deserve neither”.