America must tell Israel to meet its obligations

Jame's Zogby writes an open letter to John Kerry and Loretta Lynch about the gross treatment of two Palestinian Americans who tried to enter Israel at Ben Gurion Airport for a family wedding

For more than 30 years, Arab Americans have been subjected to discriminatory treatment at Ben Gurion Airport. Uriel Sinai / Getty Images

This is an open letter to United States secretary of state John Kerry and attorney general Loretta Lynch.

No American citizen should be subjected to the treatment that George Khoury and Habib Joudeh received when they arrived at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel last month. Mr Khoury is a 70-year-old Palestinian-American from San Francisco. Mr Joudeh, 62, from Brooklyn, is also an American citizen of Palestinian descent. During the third week in July, both attempted to travel to Israel/Palestine. Both told me they had been excited about their trips as neither had visited the area in more than 20 years.

Mr Joudeh and his sons were going to a family wedding in the West Bank. Mr Khoury is a deacon in the Archdiocese of San Francisco and was making a Holy Land pilgrimage. Neither were able to complete their long- awaited visits.

On arrival in Israel (Mr Khoury landed on July 21; Mr Joudeh and his sons landed on July 23), they were detained for long hours, subjected to abusive interrogations, insulted by Israeli security personnel, and finally denied entry and forced to purchase, at their own expense, tickets back to the US.

There are some differences in the treatment they received (Mr Khoury was held for more than a day, while Mr Joudeh and his sons were detained for six hours), but there were significant common elements with the most disturbing being the reason they were denied entry. Because both men were of Palestinian descent, Israel would not honour their US passports or recognise that they were American citizens. They were told they needed to get Palestinian IDs and even then they could only enter through Jordan, via the Allenby Bridge.

The reason stamped on Mr Joudeh’s deportation order was that he was denied entry based on “prevention of illegal immigration considerations”. When the border control agent told Mr Khoury that, as a Palestinian, he could not enter Israel, he said: “I’m not coming through as a Palestinian. I’m coming as an American citizen”. The agent replied: “No, no, you belong with the Palestinian people. This is our Israel, this is for the Jews. No Palestinian should come to Israel. You should have gone through the Allenby Bridge.”

Mr Khoury said: “I am coming with an American passport and you should honour it.” The agent replied: “How do you want me to honour your American passport? Do you want me to kiss it, to hug it, or to worship it?”

What happened to Mr Joudeh and Mr Khoury was not the actions of a few rogue agents. For more than three decades, the Arab American Institute has recorded and submitted to the US state department hundreds of instances where Arab Americans have been subjected to such treatment at Ben Gurion.

By so flagrantly disregarding the citizenship rights of Palestinian-Americans, Israel is in violation of its treaty obligations under the 1951 US-Israel Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation. In the language of the treaty, Israel pledges to permit US citizens the right to “travel freely, to reside at places of their choice, to enjoy liberty of conscience” and to guarantee them “the most constant protection and security”.

The US government has failed to protect the rights of its citizens. The opening page of the US passport states: “The secretary of state of the United States of America hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.”

The department of state says that it does not condone Israel’s behaviour, but, in reality, it acquiesces. When Mr Khoury’s daughter wrote a letter of complaint to the US embassy in Tel Aviv, she received a response saying: “Unfortunately, the US government cannot assist US citizens in gaining entry into Israel ... Should your father wish to travel again in the future, we advise him to contact the nearest Israeli embassy or consulate for guidance.”

The US official then directed her to the department’s “travel advisory” stating that “regardless of whether they hold US citizenship, Israeli authorities consider anyone who has parents or grandparents who were born or lived in the West Bank or Gaza to have a claim to a PA ID”. They will, therefore, be treated as Palestinians and not as Americans.

Israel, it appears, has a peculiar view of American citizenship. If you are Jewish, you are in a special class in that you can become an Israeli citizen. If you are an American of any non-Arab ethnicity, you are welcome to visit. But if you are an American of Arab descent and, in particular, of Palestinian descent, then you are not seen as an American and are not welcome.

The state department’s acquiescence allows Israel to act with impunity. It also makes the US government appear to be complicit in Israel’s behaviour.

Last year, some members of Congress made a determined push to have Israel admitted into the US visa waiver programme. In response, the state department noted that they could not support Israel’s admittance because of their long-standing practice of discriminating against Americans of Arab descent. This was the right move, but it is not enough.

I urge Mr Kerry to insist that the Israeli government live up to its obligations to treat all Americans equally without regard to their religion or national origin. Should the department of state fail to act, I request that Ms Lynch determine whether the state department is guilty of failing to provide Arab Americans equal protection under the law.

James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute

On Twitter: @aaiusa