Israel Denies Entry For Jewish-Muslim Sponsored US Delegation
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Turaani (L) and Zaknoen (R) say the U.S. Consulate did not help them after being denied entry into Israel with the U.S. Congressional delegation |
By
Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON,
Aug 10 (IslamOnline) - A coalition of Jews and Muslims working for
peace in the Middle East expressed outrage on Thursday after Israeli
security refused entry to a delegation of U.S. congressional staffers
sponsored by their organizations, and after the U.S. Consulate in
Israel refused to intervene on behalf of the American Muslim members
of the group.
"Israel
and AIPAC [American Israel Political Action Committee] were deathly
afraid of a joint Jewish-Muslim congressional delegation," said
Joshua Ruebner, a member of the nine-person delegation and executive
director of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI).
"They
wanted to prevent members of Congress and their staffers from seeing
the realities of life in the Occupied Territories, and what Israel is
doing with the three billion dollars that it gets from Congress every
year."
JPPI
joined with American Muslims for Jerusalem (AMJ), which sent two of
its own officials - executive director Khalid Turaani and programs
director Margaret Zaknoen - on the delegation. Ruebner told
IslamOnline that the six Congressional staffers preferred to remain
unidentified for now, in fear of retribution against their efforts.
AMJ
and JPPI issued a joint press release Thursday, which detailed their
attempts to enter Israel on Thursday from Jordan through the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, over the Allenby Bridge.
At
the State Department's press briefing on Thursday, deputy spokesman
Philip Reeker commented briefly on the incident, saying, "It's
our understanding that two of the three coordinators with the group,
who were not congressional staff members, had been denied entry into
Israel. And then the congressional staff members themselves decided
not to present their passports to the Israeli authorities for
inspection and permission to enter."
But
Ruebner told IslamOnline that the passports of all nine Americans were
taken by the officials. "They were under the impression that the
congressional staffers were refusing to give their passports, which
was not true," he said.
"They're
relying on an account that was probably provided to them by AIPAC,
instead of bothering to call us and ask what had happened."
He
added that it was not only "two of the three coordinators with
the group" who were denied entry - Turaani and Zaknoen - but the
six congressional staffers as well. After five hours of waiting,
Israeli security personnel informed the delegates that the Ministry of
Interior had refused entry to all but one of them.
Ruebner,
who is a dual American and Israeli citizen, said that he was led to
believe he was also being denied entry up until the end of their
"ordeal," but was finally told that he was allowed to enter.
He chose, however, to remain with the delegation and return to Jordan.
One
Israeli policeman did threaten violence, he said; the press release
stated that officer Alexander Frumin suggested that the situation
could come to "blows."
Upon
being refused entry, the delegates sought intervention from the U.S.
Consulate in East Jerusalem; the consulate, however, informed them
that they would intervene for all the Americans except for the two
Muslims, Turaani and Zaknoen.
"I'm
outraged at it," Zaknoen told IslamOnline from Jordan. "It
was shocking that they were so clearly willing to admit that they
would write [us] off so quickly."
Ruebner,
also speaking from Jordan, said the consulate had been under the
impression that "under no circumstances would Israel let in
Margaret and Khalid, and so they decided to try to press for the
entrance part of the delegation by engaging in racial and religious
profiling, and discrimination."
He
said it was "infuriating… that the American government was only
willing to stand up for the right of some of their citizens, but for
their Arab and Muslim citizens they would not exercise any
influence."
Zaknoen
recalled what she said was the lack of U.S. effort in bringing to
justice the Israeli killers of Suraidah Saleh, a 21-year-old
Washington, D.C. native who was shot point-blank and killed in April,
and said that such events only reinforced the perception of the U.S.
government as discriminatory.
"It
really just gives you the impression that they consider our American
citizenship less valid," Zaknoen said. "The government is
repeatedly sending the message that our citizenship and our lives are
worth less."
Zaknoen
was part of an earlier effort by AMJ to send a delegation to Israel
and Palestine earlier this summer; that delegation was also turned
back. Both times, she said, "we were given absolutely no reason
as to why we were being denied entry."
At
the State Department briefing Thursday, Reeker said that the U.S.
"Consulate General in Jerusalem and the Embassy in Tel Aviv were
deeply involved in attempting to facilitate entry for the group."
But
Ruebner, rejecting the State Department's version of the events which
made it seem "that it was our fault that we weren't allowed to
get into the country," said that "the State Department has
been less than helpful in terms of getting us in."
The
delegation was still in Amman on Friday, waiting to return to
Washington
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