"'The most disturbing question she asked me, and she asked me more than once, was what was I going to do with the information I learned in the territories,' Koplow said. 'What business is it of security at departure as to what I'm thinking or what I might say?'"
Dani Dayan, the Israeli consul general in New York, later apologized to Koplow for his treatment but justified the questioning on security grounds.
Israel has long targeted Jewish dissenters. Jews who have been balked by Israel include: Ariel Gold, a supporter of BDS, prevented from entering last month; Norman Finkelstein, who was arrested in 2008 and deported, for visiting a human rights activist (Finkelstein was told he can't come back for 10 years); Lillian Rosengarten, author and Holocaust survivor, deported in 2010 for trying to enter Gaza in the freedom flotilla; and Noam Chomsky, prevented from entering the West Bank in 2010, after hours of questioning. The Ministry of Interior said later that Chomsky's refusal had been a mistake.
Beinart's detention is shining a light on the treatment of others. Elizabeth Tsurkov:
"The uproar about
@PeterBeinart's questioning at Ben Gurion Airport forced Netanyahu to come out with this statement. When people of Arab descent & non-Zionist Jews were questioned & even deported, he kept mum."
Yousef Munayyer notes that Netanyahu has cracked down long ago on other dissenters, including those supporting BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), so who is he to talk about democracy?
"This is laughable from the head of a government leading, coordinating and pumping money into a world wide repression effort against dissenters."
Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace points out that the action is part of a longstanding pattern.
"...translation of 'administrative mistake': when actual ongoing undemocratic policies are noticed by the world. The nation state bill and the response to it is on the same continuum."
And Abby Kirschbaum noted last week after her questioning, "the level of surveillance and intimidation we experienced tonight was unsettling, but it is a fraction of the lived reality for the Palestinians I know and am proud to work with."
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