'Did You Know That 70 Years Old Professors of History Are Threatening America’s National Security?'
Ilan Pappé, professor of international studies at the University of Exeter, and the author of The Idea of Israel and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, was reportedly stopped by the US Department of Homeland Security while entering the country on Monday. Pappé, an Israeli historian, has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government's military onslaught in Gaza. He has also criticised countries in the West for continuing to support the Israeli military action, and argued against those who misrepresent all criticism of Israel as being 'anti-Semitic'.
Read his note on his ordeal, published first on his Facebook page.
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Did you know that 70 years old professors of history are threatening America's national security?
I arrived on Monday at Detroit airport and was taken for a two hours investigation by the DHS (US Department of Homeland Security), and my phone was taken as well.
The two men team were not abusive or rude, I should say, but their questions were really out of the world!
Am I a Hamas supporter? Do I regard the Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide? What is the solution to the "conflict" (seriously this what they asked!)? Who are my Arab and Muslim friends in America...how long do I know them, what kind of relationship I have with them.
In some cases I sent them to my books, and is some cases I answered laconically yes or no...(I was quite exhausted after an eight-hour flight, but this is part of the idea.)
They had long phone conversation with someone, the Israelis? And after copying everything on my phone, allowed me to enter.
I know many of you have fared far worse experiences, but after France and Germany denied entry to the Rector of Glasgow university for being a Palestinian...God know what will happen next.
The good news is – actions like this by the USA or European countries taken under pressure from the pro-Israeli lobby or Israel itself smell of sheer panic and desperation in reaction to Israel's becoming very soon a pariah state with all the implications of such a status.
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