By CELIA HASSAN, The Columbian, 23 June 2008
What’s a nice, Reed College sophomore doing in detention at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport? I ask myself this during the hours I am held. What do I have in common with these dozen or so suspected security threats: the gray-haired women who whisper about their treatment, the 8-year-old girl, tears dried on her face and fear in her eyes, the 18-year-old traveling to see family? We have little in common except that virtually all of us are Americans.
But unlike Jewish Americans who breeze through customs in seconds, we are Palestinian-Americans. In treatment reminiscent of the Jim Crow South, we stand in a separate line, are harassed and intimidated. In Israel, the principles we cherish as Americans disappear; we are suspect because we are not the “right” religion or ethnicity.
During my interrogation, an Israeli officer grills me about everything from what classes I took last semester to what my parents do for a living. Another shows me pictures of people — my cousin in California, and my great-grandmother — and asks if I know them. When she shows me a woman I don’t know, she yells at me: “Don’t lie!” When I am allowed to leave the airport, I am advised to make this my “last trip to Israel.”
I just read the Opinion section in the Oregonian today and agree with Celia 100% that Palestinian Americans should be treated with the same level of respect as any other American visiting Israel. Its quite a shame that they cannot treat individuals uniformly across the board but I guess that’s Israel for you. Regardless, I was sorry to hear about this girl’s horrific experience on arriving in the Middle East. From my perspective, Israel has never been a country that was high on my list of places to visit and, after reading this article, my idea on never traveling there has been reinforced. I hope the rest of her stay in Gaza is a safe one and that she returns to the U.S. in one piece!
Sincerely,
Warren