Update: 5:30 p.m., Nov. 2: Writer Susan Abulhawa is said to be in the air now, on a 10:30 PM Tel Aviv time flight to New York, having been deported from Israel for the second time in three years. Her appeal of the deportation order would not have been heard till after the sabbath, too late for her to appear at a literary festival on Nov. 3.
Update, 10 a.m., Nov. 2: Overnight, a judge ruled that Susan Abulhawa should be deported. Abulhawa is appealing the decision. Her associates do not know when that appeal will be heard. She is due to speak at the Palestine Literature Festival tomorrow.
Original post, Nov. 1: The Palestinian-American writer Susan Abulhawa was detained at Ben Gurion airport this morning as she entered Israel en route to a literary festival in Palestine. Israeli authorities sought to deport her on the grounds that she did not have a visa. She has appealed the deportation and is in a detention center, according to a friend who has spoken with Abulhawa’s lawyer.
Abulhawa, 48, is scheduled to appear at the Palestinian Literature Festival, November 3-7. She is a guest of the British Council, a sponsor of the festival. The Council has stood by her throughout the deportation attempt, says her friend Linda Hanna. The Kenyon Institute, a British research group, is also representing Abulhawa.
Abulhawa is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS). Israel has said that it will prevent supporters of BDS from entering the country. Hanna says that Abulhawa was not asked political questions when she was detained. Rather, Israeli authorities noted that she had been deported from Israel three years ago and said she therefore should have obtained a visa before attempting to enter the country again. Abulhawa was not aware of such a rule, Hanna said.
The author of a widely-hailed novel, “Mornings in Jenin,” Abulhawa was advised by the American Embassy to appeal the order when Israeli authorities sought to put her on a plane out of the country this morning, shortly after arriving from JFK at 10:30 AM.
Based in Philadelphia, Abulhawa is from a family that has lived in Jerusalem for centuries.
She is set to appear before a judge some time tonight, Hanna said. The judge has asked her attorney whether her participation was “essential” to the festival. Hanna said the judge was told that the festival is “dependent in great part on her being there.”
Her detention follows the deportation of activists who support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS). Last summer Israel deported Ariel Gold of CodePink and Katherine Franke, a Columbia law professor and member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Abulhawa’s detention also comes on the heels of the 16-day detention of a Palestinian-American student Lara Alqasem, last month, even though she had a visa to study at Hebrew University, because she had supported BDS in the past. Alqasem was ultimately allowed to enter. And over the summer two leading liberal Zionists were stopped and questioned about their political views at Ben Gurion, Meyer Koplow and Peter Beinart, Koplow on his way out, Beinart on his way in.
We will update this story as we learn more.
I can’t get over the gall of this govt, to detain a reknown like Ms. Susan Abulhawa. They have no shame now, but will someday I’m sure of it.
Israel is the black sheep of the OECD. The actions it takes to continue apartheid are all beyond the pale. Trump threatened to shoot rock throwers. Israel kills them. Here is a reply to the Trump proposal
Joe Kassabian
Joe Kassabian
@jkass99
·
16h
We had rocks thrown at us all the time in Afghanistan. Responding with lethal force is a fucking war crime.
@Mag
“Someone wrote an article today in the Guardian about antisemitism”
I read the article three times to try and make sense. To no avail. What a load of convoluted tosh. American “Anti-Semitism” is all about American Jews being hated for supporting immigration of non desirable foreigners as opposed to hating them for being Jewish. So it is not real “Anti – Semitism” since it does not involve criticism of Israel .”British” “anti-Semitism” is of course different as it of course involves criticism of the Chosen State:
“As British antisemitism engages Zionism and attacks Jews as a way to vilify the Jewish state”
No mention of the alleged British “Anti-Semitism” emanating from the left or the right. The unwritten assumption being guess what that it emanates from the Corbyn led Labour Party.
Speaking of which fresh news here in the Uk that the Met Police are to investigate alleged “Anti – Semitic” AKA “Anti- Zionist” crimes ( no not gun rampages by Corbynista guerrillas something much much more serious = social media postings !!) in the, no silly not the Tory Party, yup you have guessed it the Labour Party Yawn,Yawn.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46070229
Totally hilarious as she has at the same time bemoaned the fact that the Met Police are being starved of resources and this is preventing them from investigating and prosecuting serious non – Anti Zionist crimes such as paedophilia etc etc. Got to concentrate on the greatest danger to British society don`t you know = Anti – Zionist comments by members of the Labour Party.
And as if on cue Tom Watson , yearning for another freebie jolly to Zioland pops up to have his say and Amanda Bowman on behalf of the Board of Deputies of British Jews ( still sans Sherrif they really should get one ) has jumped on the opportunity to attempt to revive the corpse of the Zio anti – Corbyn campaign:
“We have repeatedly set out what Labour needs to do, including taking firm action against anti-Semites and making its opaque processes transparent.”
Credit where credit is due the BDBJ has shown itself to have been totally transparent in the last year in terms of highlighting it`s prime loyalty being to a foreign state.
“Denied entry to my homeland by a bunch of fucking Zionist colonizers who didn’t think I was sufficiently deferential. Livid.”
— susan abulhawa (@Susan Abulhawa) July 29, 2015
Payback is a bitch.
This was in the Irish Times. It is about the Unionists of Northern Ireland. They are descended from settler colonists. The key take is that it never gets better.
“Unionists were, and still are, cut off not just from Catholics and from Ireland, but from the world. It’s pure isolation. And it is so drummed into the young that they cannot let go of these views.”
Israel is exactly the same. Identity is built around “not Arab”
Fake identity . Anything that’s is not x is fake.
Israel is a problem child because of the decisions Ben Gurion and Eshkol made. Judaism should dump it.