ben gurion airport

Israeli immigration agents arrest migrant worker Geraldine Esta and her daughters in their home in Ramat Gan, Israel, July 23, 2019. (Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

PHOTOS: Israel begins crackdown on foreign workers and their children

Israeli immigration authorities begin summer-long deportations of at least 50 foreign workers and their Israeli-born children. Text by +972 Magazine Staff, photos by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org Israeli immigration authorities have begun immigration raids targeting foreign workers from the Philippines and their children, in a crackdown that is expected to snare at least 50 adults and their…

By +972 Magazine July 24, 2019

Lara Alqasem.

Hundreds of academics, Jewish leaders demand Israel release U.S. student

Lara Alqasem got permission from the Israeli consulate to study at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. Upon landing, she was detained and ordered deported. She has been held for six days. Over 100 academics and Jewish professionals signed a petition demanding that Israeli authorities release a Palestinian-American student they have been detaining for nearly a week and let her enter…

By Edo Konrad October 8, 2018

A general view of the security check-in area at Ben Gurion International Airport, August 24, 2006. (Gili Yaari/Flash90)

Israel denies entry to Palestinian American over alleged BDS support

Israeli border authorities stopped 22-year-old Lara Alqasem from entering the country, despite the fact that she has a one-year student visa. An American woman with a valid student visa was denied entry to Israel upon landing on Tuesday at Ben Gurion Airport. Lara Alqasem, the 22-year-old granddaughter of Palestinian refugees from Haifa and a recent graduate…

By Edo Konrad October 3, 2018

Latest

Simone Zimmerman at an IfNotNow training session in New York. (Rafael Shimunov)

In Israel, American Jews can kiss their privilege goodbye

The recent harassment of left-wing American Jews by the Shin Bet is a sign that their privilege may no longer be enough to protect them. American Jews have good reason to be afraid. Recent interrogations, harassment, and deportation of left-wing Jewish American activists over their political beliefs and activities have ushered in a new political moment…

By Edo Konrad August 9, 2018

An El Al plane is seen through a barbed wire fence at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Israel denies entry to four American civil rights leaders

The delegation is in Israel and the West Bank to learn about the human rights situation on the ground. Three of the four deported already received their visas, but were taken back in. Four members of an American human rights delegation to Israel and the West Bank, were detained at Ben Gurion Airport, denied entry, and…

By Mairav Zonszein May 3, 2018

A Palestinian woman suffers from tear gas inhalation during a demonstration against the occupation held one day before International Women's Day, at Qalandia checkpoint, West Bank, March 7, 2015. (Anne Paq/Activestills.org)

The impossible return home

Our trip back to Israel-Palestine, the first since my daughter’s birth, was also the first time our family would be separated. The Israeli border, the crossing to the place where her father and I met and fell in love, would be the first thing to come between us. I didn’t get a haircut in 2017 and it’s…

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat January 4, 2018

Police arrest a Palestinian-Israeli protester during a demonstration against Operation Protective Edge, July 18, 2014, Haifa, Israel (photo: Activestills)

Israelis must speak up about the injustices here, and the world must listen

The world is not against us — rather, it is at best indifferent to the oppression of Palestinians, and at worst colludes in it, which is why Israelis must inform decent people about what is happening here. I was invited to attend a series of meetings organized by French activists that were held this week. The…

By Orly Noy April 8, 2017

Arab passengers are profiled at Israeli airports and are often subject to strip searches, which Adalah says are illegal. (Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Strip-searching Arab passengers at Israeli airports is illegal, rights group says

Not only are Arabs profiled at Israeli airports, it turns out the way security personnel search and follow them may also be illegal. Despite dozens of testimonies, Airport Authority denies utilizing strip searches at all. Israeli airport security is notorious for profiling and discriminating against Arab passengers, from invasive and humiliating questioning and strip searches, assigning security officer…

By Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man September 19, 2016

British peace activist Gary Spedding holds up his passport, with a refusal stamp from the Israeli border authorities. (photo: Aaron Dover)

Israeli tribunal upholds ban on British human rights activist

Human rights activist Gary Spedding was refused entry to the country in 2014 over suspicions that he would ‘incite a riot.’ Jerusalem tribunal shortens ban from 10 to 5 years. An Israeli tribunal rejected last week an appeal filed by a British human rights activist who was banned from entering the country for 10 years.…

By Haggai Matar May 26, 2016

The Long Road to Bethlehem: Part five

As her time in Bethlehem winds down, Mya begins to wonder whether she really wants to move to the U.S with her Palestinian fiancé. But when the Gaza war breaks out, she finds herself being pushed out by people she had grown to trust. And yet, nearly a decade after she arrived, leaving has never seemed so hard.

By Mya Guarnieri Jaradat January 28, 2016

British peace activist Gary Spedding holds up his passport, with a refusal stamp from the Israeli border authorities. (photo: Aaron Dover)

British national challenges Israel’s policy of deporting peace activists

Israel’s Interior Ministry banned British peace activist Gary Spedding from the country for 10 years, claiming that he was an anti-Semitic liar who might start a riot. Unlike other activists who have suffered the same fate, Spedding isn’t giving up without a fight. An Israeli court is slated to rule next month on a case…

By Haggai Matar August 24, 2015

Passengers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport (Photo by ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com)

High Court greenlights racial profiling at Israel’s airports

High Court rejects petition calling for an end to racial profiling against Arabs at Ben-Gurion Airport, yet refuses to make a principled ruling on the policy as a whole. Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), demanding an end to racial profiling at Ben-Gurion Airport on…

By Edo Konrad March 11, 2015

'Haaretz' newspaper (Photo: Hmbr/Wikimedia/CC)

Jeffrey Goldberg joins the ‘Haaretz’-bashing club

American columnist’s liberalism stops at Ben-Gurion Airport. But then again, we already knew that. For many years there was a running joke at Haaretz is that if every person who called to cancel their subscription actually had one, the paper wouldn’t have suffered a financial crisis. The latest to join the club is Jeffrey Goldbreg,…

By Noam Sheizaf June 5, 2014