I agree with Celia Hassan’s Young Voices on June 23, “Detention offers student new outlook on Israel.” Israel has no right to violate the human rights of the Palestinians, living under their complete control. It certainly does not have the right to trample American citizens’ rights. This policy has nothing to do with security, and everything to do with keeping families apart so they have to leave their homes.
I have been to Hassan’s great-grandmother’s house in Ramallah. I was there in 2006, when Hassan’s great-aunt Mona, 62, also an American citizen, tried to visit Ramallah, her birthplace. She was held in detention at Ben Gurion airport for 10 days. She had been “back and forth too much,” and was told to “stay in America.” Her aging mother? “Take her with you when you go.” She got a Tel Aviv lawyer for $4,000, paid $4,000 in “bail,” and was allowed in for two weeks.
Israel’s policy of refusing Palestinian Americans entry and encouraging Palestinian residents to leave, while allowing unlimited Israeli immigration into the Palestinian West Bank, is aimed at changing the demographics of the occupied territory. This is against international law. It is racial discrimination, and it must stop.