U.S. Interrogated Israeli Anti-Zionist Academic Ilan Pappe on Gaza Views

Date: 17 May 2024 - 21:26

News ID: ۱۲۷۳۹۷

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – Prominent Israeli academic Ilan Pappe said he was interrogated by the Department of Homeland Security after arriving in the U.S. on Monday.
Arriving at Detroit airport, the academic - known for his stridently anti-Zionist views and research - said he was subjected to two hours of questioning.
Amongst the questions, he was asked whether he was a Hamas supporter and whether he regarded the Israeli aggression on Gaza as a “genocide”.
“The two man team were not abusive or rude, I should say, but their questions were really out of the world!” Pappe wrote on Facebook.
“They had long phone conversation with someone, (the Israelis?) and after copying everything on my phone allowed me to enter.”
A number of pro-Palestinian campaigners have warned of increasing pressure being applied by state authorities in the U.S. and Europe against prominent opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Pappe also cited the treatment of British-Palestinian doctor and rector of Glasgow University Ghassan Abu Sittah, who on 12 April was detained at an airport in Germany and refused entry into the country.
He was travelling to attend a conference on Palestine that he had received an invitation for, but was slapped with a Schengen-wide travel ban for one year, which barred him from travelling to 29 countries across Europe.
The ban was overturned earlier this week.
“I know many of you have fared far worse experience, but after France and Germany denied entry to the Rector of Glasgow university for being a Palestinian... God know what will happen next,” wrote Pappe.
“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.”