Sandra Tamari’s husband, Steve, recently wrote about Sandra’s experience and its aftermath, following a trip in May where she was refused entry at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport and deported. For Steve, the most unexpected part of the experience was what happened after Sandra returned to the US.
From the piece he titled: “US missing in action as Israel targets Palestinian-Americans” Steve writes:
Sandra’s experience and the outcry that followed made this an opportune moment to act. With assistance from various activist networks, our petition drive secured enough support within a short time to get us an audience with State Department officials on June 26.
We had five specific requests for the State Department officials: to treat Palestinian-Americans in Israel as they would any other US citizen; to raise this issue with Israeli counterparts; to examine the legality of this all-too-common scenario in light of the aforementioned 1954 Treaty; and to inquire whether US embassy or consular officials have any records related to the numbers of Palestinian-Americans denied entry to Israel and areas under its control.
We also petitioned the State Department to protest Israeli plans to destroy the Palestinian village of Susiya, the most recent example of 65 years of Israeli whole-scale ethnic cleansing.
Our exchange with the State Department demonstrated once again our government’s inability to guarantee basic assistance to Palestinian-Americans at Israeli ports of entry.
The officials expressed sympathy, and acknowledged that US officials have repeatedly raised such concerns with their Israeli Foreign Ministry counterparts to no avail. But they could offer little more than a verbal promise to relate our concerns to higher-ups.
I am not holding my breath. The State Department has a 30-year record of offering no effective assistance to its citizens in this regard. Why should we expect anything different this time around?
That said, Sandra’s case solidified my optimism in the citizenry’s basic decency and in the power of grassroots organizing and hard-nosed questioning.
Click here to read the entire piece: “US missing in action as Israel targets Palestinian-Americans” from Ma’an News Agency (updated 7/14/12).