Nour Joudah
For the second time in two months, Israeli authorities have prevented Nour Joudah, a Palestinian-American teacher, 25, from returning to her job at Ramallah Friends School in Palestine. After spending the Christmas holiday in Jordan, Nour was denied entry by Israeli authorities who demanded to know the name of every Palestinian she had associated with during her earlier service. The heartrending case has gotten scarce attention from US politicians and media. Joudah sent this letter to the president yesterday. Her friends shared it with us.
March 18, 2013
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I write to you as a young Palestinian-American woman who was denied entry by Israeli officials twice in the last two months. My only wrongdoing was trying to return to my job at a USAID-supported school in the West Bank city of Ramallah. As you visit Israel and occupied Palestine this week, you should know that countless American citizens have been shut out.
I have been a teacher at Ramallah Friends School, an American-owned Quaker school, since August 2012. After earning a master’s degree from Georgetown University last year, I decided to step back from collegiate academia, and instead contribute by teaching high school youth before completing my Ph.D. However, after spending the Christmas holiday in Jordan, Israeli authorities denied me entry despite having a valid one-year multiple-entry Israeli visa. Shocked, I was sent back to Jordan, separated from my belongings in Ramallah and 90 energetic students who suddenly had no teacher for the second semester.
Determined to return, I hired an Israeli lawyer and contacted my representatives in Congress. They put me in touch with the Israeli Embassy in Washington, which advised me to try to enter Israel again. Taking their advice, I bought a ticket and landed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on February 25. I was confident because the embassy was advising me and I was carrying a supportive letter from a member of Congress. But I guess I was naïve. I was questioned for eight hours, held in a detention center overnight and deported to Jordan on the first flight out of Israel the next morning. This is the type of treatment law-abiding American citizens often receive at the Israeli border. Unfortunately, my experience is not unique. The State Department warns that Americans of Arab or Muslim descent may experience “significant difficulties” entering Israel or the West Bank. The Arab American Institute has documented hundreds of these cases, including Americans being asked humiliating questions, detained for hours, denied entry or strip-searched. Israeli authorities even mistreated an African-American U.S. Congresswoman before they realized who she was.
I was raised in Tennessee, and grew up with stories of a Jim Crow past. The parallels of discrimination are ever-present in this type of treatment. Mr. President, what is your administration doing to stop this discrimination against U.S. citizens? I have received essentially no help from the U.S. Embassy or Consulate. When you meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu this week, I urge you to ask him why an ally and the largest recipient of U.S. aid treats American citizens this way. When you visit Ramallah, you’ll be just a few blocks away from my students, to whom I cannot return. Instead of another closed-door meeting, I urge you to consider addressing them, many of whom are dual citizens, and their interrupted right to an education.
Sincerely,
Nour Joudah
Great letter! Go Nour Joudah!
But PS: I wonder which of his handlers flunkies will handle it–you know, grab a boilerplate form, send it out to you via snail mail thanking you for your concerns and assuring you Obama is doing all possible in his pursuit of peace in the region, then deep-sixing your letter. Obama himself will never read it. It won’t even get to his desk.
Anyone think differently?
I’ll be very surprised if Obama pays any attention to this.
After 4 1/2 years I have yet to figure out what or who Obama actually cares about.
He doesn’t seem to have a real passion for anything.
This is an outrageous, but all too typical case of US government abandoning the citizens. As I commented before, while a country can do (almost) anything to person crossing the border, it is also a subject of reciprocity.
After Avi Marmara, Turks complained about the treatment at BGU, and Turkey applied similar treatment to some groups of Israeli tourists. Often the retaliatory treatment is most effective if it directed at ranking members of the elite. This should work, unless, as Secretary Hagel remarked (famously, infamously) our State Department represents Israel first.
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On a less serious not, if Israel really, really wishes to free Pollard, normally the simplest method would be to arrest an American, accuse of spying and propose an exchange. Except that it would be futile. as it assumes that US government would care.
Good letter. Wouldn’t it be nice if the president took up the entire question of (that is, mentioned his disappointment with) Israeli refusal to honor its own entry permits when he visits tomorrow?
Given that this brave young woman is a Palestinian American marks her for harassment by the Israeli authorities. A background check would have confirm Nour Joudah’s heritage. Could she have been singled out for her participation in campaigns thought to be too pro-Palestinian during her academic career in the US which a simple Google search would indicate? Or is her case simply a random selection done to intimidate a teacher responsible for young Palestinian minds in what have become intentional acts where the goal is to create a publicized spectacle with the intention of discouraging protest and encouraging quiescence. The more attention these cases receive, the more embarrassing Israeli policy becomes….
Keep up the good fight Nour Joudah. Your case is far from being unique….