London – The security personnel of an Israeli airline have humiliated an American professor, asking her to remove her clothing and board the plane with no luggage.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Professor Heather Bradshaw, a neuroscience researcher at Indiana University, was invited by Hebrew University to take part in a conference in Israel, Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported on Sunday.
“Our guest arrived at Luton airport (in London) on Thursday in order to fly to Israel using [Israeli airline] El Al, and she was shocked to discover that straight away, the security personnel treated her as a terror suspect,” said Haifa University professor Arik Rimmerman, who submitted a complaint to El Al in Bradshaw’s name.
No one told her what she was suspected of, the American professor told the Israeli daily.
After being questioned about the books in her suitcase, she underwent a 50-minutes physical examination.
The Israeli security forces asked her to remove her bra, the report added.
“She presented numerous documents indicating the purpose of her visit and her passport – which shows she has already been to Israel several times,” said Rimmerman.
“The security personnel treated her and the documents she presented with utter disrespect.”
The security personnel did not allow her to bring her luggage to the aircraft. She was permitted to take her passport and her credit cards with her.
She told Ha’aretz that she felt helpless and was holding back tears and that, upon arrival in Israel, no one from the airline could update her regarding her luggage and other belongings she was forced to leave behind.
“asking her to remove her clothing and board the plane….”
ahem..
how many times has she been to gaza or met with the plo?
i always thought israeli security was known for its intuition.
i guess its not.
#3: And your proof is?
#3 – check it out.
Shabk does not do this every day, nor every week, nor every month.
Obviously, there’s more to this story.
Likely, either she or someone who fits her profile has a terrorist boyfriend, who Shabak feared would be using her as to transport a bomb (which has already occurred with an unwitting Irish woman).
You can be sure this was not random.
Although Shabak could have been mistaken in this case, they were definitely acting on serious information and were zealous about protecting lives, B”H>
One thing is for sure here….. something is missing from the story!
El Al security doesn’t just pick on people like TSA does in the USA just for the sake of the horrible liberal disease called Political Correctness, there has to be a reason she went thru this. Could it be perhaps that she opened her big fat mouth to one of them and they promptly inserted her foot right into her mouth?
Could it be that she is LYING about this and it never happened???? I dont understand how emitzer ken klistin aza punim anyway!
There is something missing and I for one, cannot wait to find out what is missing. I hope VIN stays on top of this so that we could find out.
I have NO problem being stripped and searched when it comes to the safety of flying.
The israelis are known to smell out the people who need to be searched and i am sure they had some info which we dont know..
Security operates independently with only one pririty; safety.
They will follow their suspitions regardless of paperwork or even VIP status and it should be this way.
I witnessed them questioning a South American who did not know where he would be staying or the name of the “Moshe” that would meet him at the airport in TLV. After he was cleared by security it turned out he was a super VIP that was invited on a junket by the Ministry of Tourism to encourage tourism from his Country.
For the record, it was a female officer who did the strip search
If this is true, the security team should be punished!!! however I agree there is definitely more to this story!! she is probabally some liberal professor with whom the security team had some issue with. If she wants to come to Israel let her go through this, otherwise don’t accept the invite!!
I don’t believe that this is the whole story. I’m sure she’s a looney left liberal (which is why the Haaretz anti-semites are taking up her cause.
this is exactly why so many people will fly only on elal.they are super carefull.there must be more to the story
Would you say there is more to the story if you were strip searched.
Might be the wrong one, but would be understandable if this was their mistake
Heather Bradshaw is an IEET Affiliate Scholar. Ms. Bradshaw spent her early childhood in the remote hills and dusty towns and villages of Iran, Pakistan, and Libya where her father often worked to use technology to bring clean drinking water, refrigeration, employment, skills, and more sustainable livelihoods to people who had not yet experienced these benefits. Her own appreciation of the power of technology to bring positive change on an individual and social level led her to study (automotive) engineering at university back in the UK and then, after a short period working for a small British manufacturing company, to work for the UK Government’s trade promotion agency, British Trade International. Through this she also developed an interest in and links with China.
I dont know if its the same person but there is a Heather Bradshaw who works for IEET and according to their website
“spent her early childhood in the remote hills and dusty towns and villages of Iran, Pakistan, and Libya”
possibly that was the reason they searched her
Re: #18 , 19
Yes, there is a lady with the same name from a google search. A very minimal search reveals that this Bradshaw is British and studies a field of research totally different that this Bradshaw’s neuroscience area. Give the Shin bet more credit. I am sure that they had more than a google search to go on.
In spite of all the security, at times El Al has made near disastrous errors. For example, in Sept., 1970, it allowed two Palestinian terrorists (posing as a Latin American couple) to board an El Al airliner, in Amsterdam. I don’t know what kind of screening machines were being used then, but each of the terrorists had pistols and grenades. One of them is now a “retired” terrorist, by the name of Leila Khaled. She and her friend tried to hijack the El Al flight. There was a shootout on the plane, and the pins on one of the grenades was pulled, but fortunately, it didn’t explode. An Israeli steward was wounded, but the armed security guard on El Al shot and killed the male terrorist. Ms. Khaled was captured, and the flight landed in London, where she was taken into custody by Scotland Yard. The flight then proceeded to JFK. Incidentally, Ms. Khaled was later freed, when her meshpucha hijacked other airliners, and the Brits were forced to let her go.
AKIVAF Says:
Re: #18 , 19
Yes, there is a lady with the same name from a google search. A very minimal search reveals that this Bradshaw is British and studies a field of research totally different that this Bradshaw’s neuroscience area. Give the Shin bet more credit. I am sure that they had more than a google search to go on.
no one is perfect, no organization is perfect , not even the shin bet, it could have been an error on their part
It is better that a few suspected terrorists are inconvenienced than having an entire airliner hijacked or blown up.
People are human and make mistakes. It is better that the mistake is made against the potential bomber than against the innocent passengers of the plane.
If there was a mistake, she should be compensated. The action was correct.
They clearly goofed in this case. I hate to break it to you, but Jews DO sometimes make mistakes.
Better to oversearch someone than to undersearch a possible or real terrorist. If this had happened to me I would have been very annoyed or even worse, but I would still understand that it is a risk anyone travelling must be willing to take in today’s day and age. ElAl is known to be the most security conscious airline in the world. Someone I know participated in an ElAl security drill – these are held several times yearly in every airport that ElAl flies out of. This person was astounded at how amazing the security was and both people who were ‘shills’ in this drill were quickly weeded out of those allowed on to the plane.
I’ve been searched…. including my cases opened!!
all I could say was Kol Hakavod to ELAL!!
Why is this more bothersome than those X-rated scanners the US is installing in our airports? Serves same purpose in similar fashion.