Testimony of Hathem Habiballah, resident of Ein Mahel

I am a doctor married to a woman of Italian origin; we have three children. Two of my sons are studying in Italy, and my daughter also intends to study their shortly.

Over one year ago, during the Christmas season of 2004/2005, my son came to Ein Mahal for a visit with his aunt and a friend of hers who is disabled and uses a wheelchair. My son told me that the disabled friend had been subjected to a disgraceful process of interrogation and searches by the Israeli security personnel at the airport. He told me that their suitcases were taken for inspection, and it was explained to them that they would receive these in Israel after the inspection. The suitcases eventually arrived, two days late, but when we opened them, we saw that some of them were torn and some of the items were broken.

When the visit came to an end, we drove  to Ben Gurion Airport. The flight was due to depart at 6:00 am. We made sure to arrive as early as possible so as to complete the interrogation as quickly as we could. We arrived at the airport four hours before the departure time. When we arrived at the external entrance to the airport, the guard asked us to identify ourselves and asked where we were from. When we replied that we were from the Nazareth area, the guard ordered us to pull over to the side and stop the vehicle. I travel abroad frequently, and every time I come to the entrance and say that I am from the Nazareth area, they instruct me to move to the side and question me. On  one occasion I told the guard at the entrance that I was from Afula, and I passed through without any questioning.

When we reached the entrance door to the terminal, several officials were standing there, inspecting the identity cards or passports of some of those entering. They asked us to identify ourselves again. We showed them our identity cards and entered the terminal. When we reached the place where passengers have to present their passports and the questioning begins, we asked an official to bring a wheelchair for the friend, but he absolutely refused. He instructed us to wait at the side for questioning. At the same time, other people who had been behind us in the line had moved on without questioning and without anyone searching their suitcases.

I noticed that they put red stickers on our suitcases. The inspection of our suitcases began with the scanner. Every time they were suspicious about something, they took the bag, emptied everything out and undertook a very detailed search, including even the most personal items. When they had finished, they did not agree to put the objects back in the suitcase. The search took two hours.

My son identified himself and they began to question him. They asked him all kinds of things, including very personal questions: “Why did you buy this present? Why are you sleeping at your aunt’s house? Who are your friends in Italy? Do you have friends from other countries? Why are you studying aeronautics?” and so on. My wife was asked questions such as: “Why are you traveling to Italy? What work does your father do?” I tried to help and translate for her during the questioning, but they would not let me do this. In the meantime, the other passengers continued to overtake us, without any questioning or search.

After searching the suitcases, the physical search began in a side room. They removed my shoes and searched my clothes. Then they removed my pants and began to feel my clothes and body, including in the most intimate places. It really disgusted me. The physical search took about fifteen minutes. They also performed an embarrassing search like this on our friend, who is barely capable of walking.

We saw that it was already 4:30 am. Because of all these delays, we asked one of the officials to take care of our check-in so that we could proceed, and to reserve a good seat on the plane for us. The official went off to see to the check-in, but returned at 5:30 am and informed us that there were no seats left on the plane. We were shocked. How it could be that there were no places left on the plane after we had arrived so early and undergone this nightmare of a search?

We had been delayed on our way to the plane by hours of humiliating and offensive searches, and after all that we did not even board the flight. By way of “compensation,” they suggested various alternatives, such as flying to Barcelona and then on to Rome, or flying to Rome via Munich. We rejected all these proposals, and asked to fly to Rome the next day with Alitalia. We each received $ 200 as compensation