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bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
ZIONIST RACIST : ISRAELI ARABS (PALESTINIANS) RACIALLY PROFILED
DesertPeace
January 13, 2007
Israel constantly denies that its Arab citizens are treated any
differently than its Jewish ones. In plain, simple English... that is
nothing but a lie.
The following report that I have linked HERE is from the Electronic
Intifada, it is true... I have seen it happen at the airport, I
travelled with Palestinians and witnessed their harassment while I was
allowed through security without a problem... simply because I am a Jew.
The Palestinians I speak of are Israeli citizens, carrying Israeli
passports.
Yet, the State of Israel denies these antics.... makes one wonder what
else they might be lying about.
source:
http://desertpeace.blogspot.com/2007/01/israeli-arabs-palestinians-
racially.html
===
Suspected Citizens: Racial Profiling against Arab Passengers by Israeli
Airports and Airlines
Report, Arab Association for Human Rights and Center Against Racism, 12
January 2007
The following is the introduction to the report "Suspected Citizens:
Racial Profiling against Arab Passengers by Israeli Airports and
Airlines", issued in December 2006
Salah Ya'aqubi is an Arab citizen of Israel who lives in the village of
Reineh, close to Nazareth. He is a cum laude student in the Department
of Nursing in Tel Aviv University. In 2005, Tel Aviv University chose
Ya'aqubi as one of its representatives at an international conference
held in London. Three other students from the institution were also
selected to participate in the conference. The four students served as
representatives of the State of Israel at the event.
On the day of their flight, Ya'aqubi and the three Jewish students
arrived together at Ben Gurion Airport. The four were due to fly with
the Israeli air carrier Israir. During the routine security inspection,
the security staff inspected the baggage of all four students using x-
ray scanners. The Jewish students then moved on and their passports were
stamped, while Ya'aqubi was obliged to undergo a special security
inspection. The security personnel stated that they intended to
undertake a manual search of his baggage. During the course of the
manual inspection, the security personnel overturned Ya'aqubi's bag with
all his belongings in it, and then asked him to accompany them to a side
room so that they could ask him some questions. When Ya'aqubi attempted
to ascertain the reason for this special interrogation, which his Jewish
friends were not required to undergo, one security guard replied that
"these are our instructions, and they come from high up." The security
personnel asked Ya'aqubi numerous questions: where he was going, what
the purpose of his visit was, and so on. After completing the
questioning, the security personnel ordered Ya'aqubi to accompany them
to another room, where he was again asked the same questions. When he
commented that he had already answered these questions, and that his
baggage had already been examined, one of the security personnel told
him that these were their instructions, adding, "I don't care what they
asked you before." The security guards did not claim that there were any
specific suspicions against Ya'aqubi or that he presented any danger.
Eventually, after the additional security inspections were completed,
Ya'aqubi got on the airplane and flew to the conference. His feeling was
that he had been required to undergo a special security inspection
because of his national origin, i.e. because he is an Arab. At the end
of the conference, as the students headed back to Israel, the phenomenon
repeated itself. Ya'aqubi and the Jewish members of the delegation went
through the routine inspections at the inspection points of the British
authorities. Their baggage was examined and they were politely asked a
number of questions. After this inspection was completed, Ya'aqubi was
again asked to undergo an additional inspection by Israeli security
personnel. After his baggage was examined in an x-ray scanner, the
Israeli security personnel demanded to perform a manual search, claiming
that there was suspicion that his case contained "molecules of
explosives." Ya'aqubi stated that he had no doubt that his baggage
contained nothing other than his personal belongings. The security
personnel also insisted on carrying out a manual search of Ya'aqubi's
hand baggage.
After the inspections were completed, the Israeli security personnel
informed Ya'aqubi that his large bag would be held at the airport for
several days and then sent to Reineh, his home village. Ya'aqubi was
then taken into a side room and asked to remove his clothes and shoes,
on the grounds that there was "suspicion of the presence of an
explosive." Ya'aqubi then underwent a body search and was asked a number
of questions.
After taking his bag, Ya'aqubi was given his shoes back and permitted to
proceed to the duty free shops. However, half and hour before the flight
was due to depart, an Israeli security guard approached Ya'aqubi and
asked him to accompany him to a side room for a further inspection.
Ya'aqubi noted that he had already undergone several inspections and his
bag had been taken from him, but received the reply that "these are our
instructions." Ya'aqubi eventually boarded the flight fifteen minutes
late, after all the other passengers had already taken their seats. When
he entered, many passengers looked at him suspiciously, having witnessed
his last questioning.
Ya'aqubi described his feelings about the intrusive and humiliating
series of inspections and interrogations he was forced to endure in the
following terms:
This is the most offensive and humiliating experience I have
ever had. I was immediately suspect just because I am Arab. The
fact that I am an outstanding student, was traveling as a
representative of an academic institution, and was selected to
represent Israel at an international conference didn't help me
at all. I sensed the lack of esteem and respect and the contempt
the security guards felt toward me. It was particularly offense
since I saw with my own eyes that the security personnel let my
Jewish friends proceed without hindrance, without being
interrogated, without being taken into a side room, and without
offending them in front of hundreds of passengers who flew with
us on the plane.
The experience related by Salah Ya'aqubi is a classic example of the
treatment encountered by Arab citizens of Israel when they come to Ben
Gurion Airport in order to board international flights. Any Arab citizen
who is planning to travel abroad, whether for vacation, family visits,
or work, makes sure they arrive at the airport four hours before the
scheduled departure, due to the series of delays and humiliating
interrogations they can expect because of their national origin
(hereinafter: discriminatory security inspection).[1] The delays range
from three to four hours. Jewish passengers are only rarely forced to
undergo such a rigorous process This phenomenon is so widespread that it
is hard to find any Arab citizen who travels abroad by air and who has
not experienced a discriminatory security check at least once. [2]
The Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA) and the Center Against
Racism (hereinafter "the investigating organizations") have accumulated
numerous complaints submitted by Arab citizens relating to
discriminatory security inspections they have undergone at the hands of
security personnel, despite the fact that they did not pose the
slightest security risk to the other passengers. These travelers have
never been suspected of security offenses and nothing in their past
could justify such special treatment. The complainants report that the
discriminatory attitude of the security personnel began as soon as they
realized that the people in front of them were Arab citizens - whether
by means of their external appearance, their accent, their place of
residence, or after the travelers identified as Arabs - and solely for
this reason. The complaints also show that the discriminatory security
inspection takes place in various stages, beginning at the main entrance
to the airport, continuing in the line for check in, and culminating at
the border crossings and passport booths. Sometimes the security
inspection even continues in the shopping area, as a security guard
accompanies the Arab passenger through to the departure gate, waiting
until they actually board the plane.
The discriminatory security inspection undergone by Arab citizens is not
confined to Ben Gurion Airport or to other airports and border crossing
in Israel. Arab citizens who choose to use Israeli airlines, such as El-
Al, Israir, and Arkia, also encounter such inspections at international
airports in foreign countries, undertaken by Israeli security personnel.
An examination by the investigating organizations regarding the source
of authority for the use of Israeli security personnel on the territory
of foreign countries showed that the inspections undertaken by the
Israeli companies are in addition to the local security arrangements. It
also emerged that the countries in which these inspections take place do
not supervise them, and prefer to ignore their discriminatory nature and
the human rights violations committed on their own soil. The demand to
reveal the nature of these arrangements was rejected on the grounds that
this is confidential information.
These discriminatory security inspections, whether in Israel or abroad,
are only imposed on Jewish passengers in rare cases. [3] Many Arab
passengers have reported undergoing a series of humiliating inspections
such as that experienced by Salah Ya'aqubi, with repeated checks, while
their Jewish fellow passengers proceeded after routine inspections. Many
Arab passengers described being led by Israeli security personnel at
foreign airports into side rooms for interrogation. In most of the
testimonies, the passengers noted that other passengers were also in
these rooms, almost all of them Arabs or foreigners wishing to enter
Israel.
The Airports Authority and the Israeli airlines have persistently
rejected the claims of discriminatory inspections by Arab citizens,
stating security reasons as the excuse for the series of inspections.
They claim that there is no standing procedure for "processing" Arabs
per se, without reference to specific suspicions or intelligence
information. The authorities claim that the inspections are undertaken
in accordance with confidential procedures determined by the General
Security Service, and are implemented on a routine basis, and not with
special reference to Arab passengers. [4]
In practice, however, the treatment of Arab passengers is sharply
distinctive, and forms part of the accepted approach since the
establishment of the State of Israel that the Arab citizens are not
entitled to genuine equality of rights and constitute a "security
threat" to the Jewish state. According to this approach, a person of
Arab nationality belongs to a category of security risk justifying
special security actions and inspections and close supervision,
regardless of their past or of their profiling by the security services.
In practice, the impression received is that the security inspections,
and particularly the interrogations, are not intended solely to ensure
the safety of the passengers, as the authorities claim, but also to
collect intelligence information relating to each Arab passenger, in
order to enhance the monitoring of these citizens. Technological
advances in recent decades make it possible to ensure close scrutiny
preventing the introduction of objects or substances liable to endanger
the passengers. Despite this, these advances have not altered the
reliance on human inspections. Indeed, in recent years, following the
installation of new scanners in the airport, the inspections are now
implemented in two stages - technological scanning, which is imposed on
all passengers, followed by manual inspections, imposed on the Arab
passengers.
It is important to note that discriminatory inspections are not imposed
on every Arab passenger or in the course of every single journey they
undertake. However, the large number of complaints shows that Arab
citizens are subject to a distinctive and discriminatory approach on the
basis of their national origin. They are collectively, and almost
automatically, subject to a security inspection that is not imposed on
Jewish passengers, and is based on a security perception that
persistently views them as a threat.
Given the large number of complaints, [5] a joint working team was
established for the first time in April 2006 to bring together the
Airports Authority and representatives of Arab citizens in order "to
examine jointly ways to improve the nature of the service and the
behavior toward Arab citizens at the airports and border crossings." [6]
The Airports Authority also established a "special committee to examine
the security inspection for the Arab population" in 2005, but the
conclusions of this committee, which effectively constituted an internal
audit mechanism examining problems relating to the security inspection
for Arab passengers, [7] were never made public.
This report will detail the manner in which the discriminatory
inspection is imposed on Arab citizens as a national group all of whose
members are spuriously perceived as a "security threat" to the state,
and will expose the true purpose of this inspection: To monitor Arab
citizens under the guise of security needs as part of a systemic and
deliberate policy on the part of the state authorities.
* Download the full report
Endnotes
[1] This method of inspection is known as "racial profiling." Amnesty
International USA defines racial profiling as "the targeting of
individuals and groups by law enforcement officials, even partially, on
the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion, except where
there is trustworthy information, relevant to the locality and
timeframe, that links persons belonging to one of the aforementioned
groups to an identified criminal incident or scheme." See: Amnesty
International, U.S. Domestic Human Rights Program, "Threat and
Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in
the United States," (October 2004). The report is available at the
address http://www.amnestyusa.org/racial_profiling/report/rp_report.pdf
(last accessed September 21, 2006).
[2] Discriminatory security checks on Arab citizens are not confined to
Ben Gurion Airport, but also take place at domestic airports and border
crossings. This report will focus on the discriminatory security check
at Ben Gurion Airport and at foreign airports.
[3] Such inspections are imposed mainly on Jewish left-wing activists.
See Aviv Lavi, "Enemies on the Left," Ha'aretz Supplement, January 30,
2004; "Enemies on the Left (2)," Ha'aretz Supplement, February 13, 2004.
See also Tova Zimuki, "The Blacklist of Left-Wing Activists," Yediot
Acharonot, March 17, 2004.
[4] Reply from the Airports Authority dated December 8, 2005, in
response to the request of the investigating organizations for
information; response of El-Al Airlines dated April 3, 2006 in response
to the request of the investigating organizations for information.
[5] According to information provided to the investigating organizations
by the Airports Authority, 206 complaints were filed in 2005; 178 in
2004; 230 in 2003; 253 in 2002; and 144 in 2001. These figures include
all the complaints presented to the Airports Authority, not only those
from Arab citizens. Many Arab citizens, however, do not bother to submit
complaints to the Airports Authority due to their sense that such
complaints will not help secure any change in the policy of
discriminatory security inspections. The investigating organizations
estimate that hundreds of Arab citizens undergo discriminatory security
inspections each year.
[6] "An End to Discrimination against Arabs at Ben Gurion Airport?",
Ma'ariv website (http://www.nrg.co.il), April 9, 2006.
[7] "The Solution to Complaints about Checks on Arabs at Ben Gurion
Airport: A Terminal in Nazareth," Ha'aretz, September 21, 2005.
source:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6382.shtml
Related Links
* Arab Association for Human Rights
* Center Against Racism
* BY TOPIC: Palestinians in Israel
===
-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
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