The Michigan chapter of Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), a chapter of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today voiced its deep concern over the reported harassment of an Israeli human rights advocate for Palestinians at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Monday.
Ilan Pappe who is an Israeli political scientist and author stated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was detained and harassed regarding his human rights positions pertaining to Palestinians by federal agents on Monday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Pappe reported that FBI agents held him for two hours asking “am I a Hamas supporter” and “do I regard the Israeli actions in Gaza a genocide?”
SEE: Pro-Palestine Israeli historian Ilan Pappe interrogated at US airport for two hours on Gaza views (The New Arab)
“We are deeply concerned over the reported harassment by the FBI of an Israeli intellectual merely due to his academic views about the systematic ethnic cleaning of Palestinians,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid. “It is inappropriate for federal law enforcement agents to harass foreign nationals upon entry into America based on speech that poses zero national security danger to American citizens.”
Walid also mentioned that the reported harassment of Pappe, who is Jewish, could lead to the further chilling effect of Jewish intellectuals who speak out against racist policies of the Israeli government and extremism committed by illegal settlers, some of them being American citizens.
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CONTACT: CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid, 248-842-1418, dwalid@cair.com; CAIR-MI Staff Attorney Amy Doukoure, 586-943-8823, adoukoure@cair.com