Detroit, MI – The state of Israel has denied entry to a Detroit university student of Palestinian descent traveling there for a study-abroad program. Arab-American and civil rights groups plan to protest the decision Thursday.
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Abeer Afana, a 21-year-old Wayne State University student, was detained May 16 at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv as she tried to enter the country on her U.S. passport. She was then returned to the United States.
U.S.-born Afana of the Detroit suburb of Novi was part of a monthlong program designed to examine conflict and cooperation among Israelis and Palestinians. Seven other American students were admitted, including Jews and Arabs.
Afana was sent home because her parents were from the Gaza Strip and she had once held a Palestinian passport.
In Tel Aviv, Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told The Associated Press that Afana was told she had to enter Israel from Jordan, via the Allenby Crossing, because she is a Palestinian with a Palestinian identity number. She said it does not matter that the student was born in the U.S.
“Anyone with an active Palestinian identity number … has to go through Allenby,” Haddad said. “It was not a denial of entry in principle,” she said, adding that the rule has been in effect for “many years.”
The U.S. Department of State’s consular affairs website warns travelers that Israel will “consider as Palestinian anyone who has a Palestinian identification number, was born in the West Bank or Gaza, or was born in the United States but has parents or grandparents who were born or lived in the West Bank or Gaza.”
It says such Americans must travel to Israel using their Palestinian passports, regardless of their U.S. citizenship, and that they “may be barred from entering or exiting Israel, the West Bank or Gaza.”
The Palestine Cultural Office, Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, National Lawyers Guild and other organizations said they would hold a news conference Thursday afternoon at Detroit’s U.S. courthouse. Afana is expected to attend.
Bob Thomas, Wayne State’s dean of liberal arts and sciences, said the university is “meticulous” about ensuring that students are traveling on valid passports.
“We want to do things correctly. We are trying to do things in good faith,” Thomas said.
Thomas said Afana is an ideal candidate for the program, which has students interacting with Israelis and Palestinians.
“She’s exactly the kind of student we hope will be involved,” he said.
“We’ve consciously tried to involve students from the various backgrounds that are representative of our region and that region,” he said.
Two messages were left by The Associated Press for Afana.
“The issue itself, the whole conflict, is so complex and hard to understand,” Afana told the Detroit Free Press. “But I feel like you can’t understand it unless you see for yourself what’s going on.
It’s about time Israel did something right.
Keep the troublemakers like Chompsky and A beer A fany out of Places they don’t belong.
another left wing troublemaker making an issue out of nothing… they’re good at that. let them drop dead.
OK, the young lady was not denied entry to Israel only entry via Ben Gurion. If she followed the rules there would not have been a problem. So the basis for protest is she didn’t get her way?
Most likely the Israelis require persons of status similar to the young lady enter Israel only after entering territory under the rule of the PA. Insisting the Israelis change their rules if there is no real evidence of discrimination Her complaint is sad commontary on the nature of Civil Rights in 2010
I dont understand. Anyone with an Israeli passport or jewish name cannot enter Jordan, Egypt and most arab countries. How ridiculous can they be.
BGY also bust schops on Americans that they feel might be born of Israeli citizens.
How did she get an American passport so quick – Is the White House selling them now wholesale to anyone?
I know someone whose father was born in Israel.
His father left Israel at age 2, and never lived there again.
The son was not born in Israel, nor ever visited there.
His only connection to Israel was that his father live there from age 0 to 2.
When the son (as an adult) decided to visit Israel for the first time – he was arrested in the airport, upon arrival, for not having served in the military.
He was told that he could have simply gone to an Israeli Embassy or Consulate and gotten a “waiver of service” paper, and they would never have bothered him – but how did he know he even needed to do such a thing?
He wasn’t an Israeli (as far as he knew), nor had he ever applied for citizenship, been to Israel, lived in Israel – other than to have one parent live there as an infant !
They eventually (after 4 hours) let him pass – but warned him next time to go to a consulate first.
He did, and he’s been back to Israel many times since, without a problem.
That’s what happened with this girl – exactly the same.
One of her parents lived in Gaza as a child.
Let her go through, and explain the rules for next time – how could she have known there was anything wrong?
You can buy an airline ticket from Detroit to Amman nonstop, which is $800 cheaper than any ticket to Israel (which requires at least one stop in another city)
This kind of situation actually deters terrorists from even trying to enter Israel. The hijackers of the flights of 9/11 were also students. Better to be careful and make public scandals than than to make exceptions and mistakes.
She was traveling to a foreign country; didn’t she bother to find out what she would need to be allowed in?
Israel is not required to admit anyone it doesn’t want to. Just like any country, it can deny aliens entry for any reason or no reason. The USA certainly does so. A US visa is no guarantee of entry; the ICE person at the airport can deny you and you have no recourse.
I am a college student and these study abroad programs are pretty common. It is very well known, however, that people with any kind of Palestinian credentials have to pass through Jordan. They go to Amman and get a cab into Israel through Allenby. If she is making a big deal about trying to get into Ben Gurion either she is purely trying to get publicity for this old and well-known restriction or she (and her college) was truly ignorant of it and unfortunately is now being used as a pawn (be it willing or unwilling) by the Arab-American groups to challenge this policy, which is intricately tied in with the Right of Return.
How absurd! An Israeli visa stamp has always been a big problem for someone trying to get in to an Arab country. Their open hatred and discrimination against Jews is accepted as normal. These people are anti-semitic and looking for excuses.