TEL AVIV // Yara Mashour got her first bitter taste of Israel's airport screening for the country's Palestinian citizens three decades ago.
Twelve years old, at a New York airport ahead of her family's return flight to Israel, she said agents from the Israeli airline El Al searched through her hair and looked into her father's underwear. Suitcases were torn and several bags went missing following a security check. Finally, a security officer escorted the family to their plane seats and then to a closed room during the London stopover.
Ms Mashour vowed to avoid such treatment again. In February she was interrogated for almost two hours by El Al officers at an Italian airport and separated from her two travel companions. When she was ordered to undergo a full-body search, she refused. The editor of a women's magazine from the Israeli city of Nazareth instead paid €250 (Dh1,220) to return to Israel with Turkish Airways, publicised her ordeal in local media and is seeking to sue El Al.
"It was humiliating," she said during a recent interview at a Tel Aviv cafe ahead of a nearby photo shoot for her publication. "Arab citizens are immediately viewed as a security threat at airports. But we should go through the same procedures as Jewish citizens."
That airport discrimination is at the heart of a five-year-old petition to the Israeli Supreme Court that challenges the harsh security measures targeting Palestinian citizens at airports within Israel as well as by the flagship Israeli airline, El Al, abroad. The court is expected to make a decision on the issue in the next two months.
In legal documents and court hearings, Israel has indicated that it intensifies security checks for Arab citizens in a bid to prevent terror attacks, said Auni Banna, a lawyer for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which had filed the petition.
According to Mr Banna, other countries may also be implementing such harsh aviation security measures against certain citizens.
However, Israel is the only country in the world to officially guide its airport security personnel to treat one group of citizens - in this case, Arabs - more aggressively solely due to their nationality. Israeli Palestinians, accounting for a fifth of Israel's population, view their nationality as Arab or Palestinian and their citizenship as Israeli.
The court ruling is likely to be watched by authorities in other western countries mulling stricter aviation security methods against certain groups such as citizens of Arab origin, Mr Banna said.
Israel says in court documents that its only option for unifying security checks is to toughen them for all its citizens, but that would be too costly and spur long lines. Officials add that technological advances in the airport would minimise contact between passengers and agents and ease the checks for Arab citizens. The Israeli Airport Authority and El Al airline both told The National they "act according to Israeli security authorities' guidelines".
In the meantime, the measures are spurring further hostility among Israeli Palestinians towards the country's Jewish authorities. They are also driving many of them to forgo El Al or even skip flying altogether out of the main Ben-Gurion International airport. Instead, they are opting to reach neighbouring Jordan, a peace partner of Israel, through a land crossing and fly from there.
Some Palestinian citizens have successfully sued El Al. In mid-March, a small claims court in Haifa ruled that the airline pay 9,000 shekels (Dh8,890) to a woman who was ordered by a female security agent last year to stand only in her underwear for an hour and a half at the Israeli airport in the resort city of Eilat while her clothes were screened. The agent then ripped apart the woman's bra and cut off pieces from it.
Adeeb Awad, a 42-year-old marketing consultant from Tel Aviv who flies frequently for business, said he is "fed up" with the intensive checks that took place during each of the 10 times that he has travelled in the past year. Mr Awad, who refuses to fly with El Al, said he has already learnt that airport agents avoid publicly saying the word "Arab" when discovering his nationality and instead use the nickname "kilo" when speaking to each other about his security check. He said the targeting of Arabs at airports is a non-issue among most Israeli Jews.
"It's horrible how normal and legitimate it has become here to discriminate against Arabs in airports," he said. "Jewish people don't see it as a big deal."
Some Israeli Palestinian travellers say their screening verged on sexual harassment.
Mona Bawardi, a 35-year-old high-school teacher from Nazareth and a former Israeli national basketball player, flew with El Al for a two-week holiday in Thailand in December. On her return, female El Al agents in the Thai capital of Bangkok ordered her to strip - including removing her bra - and searched with a cloth-covered stick inside her pants.
Ms Bawardi, also a swimming teacher seeking to organise a Jewish-Arab swimming class for toddlers, said: "Every time I speak about that experience, my whole body shakes. I won't give up on peace between Jews and Arabs, but the coexistence efforts seem to end every time Arabs try to cross a border."
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
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THE DETAILS
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Director: Ron Howard
2/5
Herc's Adventures
Developer: Big Ape Productions
Publisher: LucasArts
Console: PlayStation 1 & 5, Sega Saturn
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More coverage from the Future Forum
Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
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THE SPECS
2020 Toyota Corolla Hybrid LE
Engine: 1.8 litre combined with 16-volt electric motors
Transmission: Automatic with manual shifting mode
Power: 121hp
Torque: 142Nm
Price: Dh95,900
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England Test squad
Joe Root (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Dawid Malan, Jamie Porter, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes.
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
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The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
Race card for Super Saturday
4pm: Al Bastakiya Listed US$250,000 (Dh918,125) (Dirt) 1,900m.
4.35pm: Mahab Al Shimaal Group 3 $200,000 (D) 1,200m.
5.10pm: Nad Al Sheba Conditions $200,000 (Turf) 1,200m.
5.45pm: Burj Nahaar Group 3 $200,000 (D) 1,600m.
6.20pm: Jebel Hatta Group 1 $300,000 (T) 1,800m.
6.55pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 Group 1 $400,000 (D) 2,000m.
7.30pm: Dubai City of Gold Group 2 $250,000 (T) 2,410m.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km
Price: Dh133,900
On sale: now
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Gulf rugby
Who’s won what so far in 2018/19
Western Clubs Champions League: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens: Dubai Hurricanes
West Asia Premiership: Bahrain
What’s left
UAE Conference
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Hurricanes II v Al Ain Amblers, Jebel Ali Dragons II v Dubai Tigers
March 29, final
UAE Premiership
March 22, play-offs:
Dubai Exiles v Jebel Ali Dragons, Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Dubai Hurricanes
March 29, final
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Schedule for Asia Cup
Sept 15: Bangladesh v Sri Lanka (Dubai)
Sept 16: Pakistan v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 17: Sri Lanka v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 18: India v Qualifier (Dubai)
Sept 19: India v Pakistan (Dubai)
Sept 20: Bangladesh v Afghanistan (Abu Dhabi) Super Four
Sept 21: Group A Winner v Group B Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 21: Group B Winner v Group A Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 23: Group A Winner v Group A Runner-up (Dubai)
Sept 23: Group B Winner v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 25: Group A Winner v Group B Winner (Dubai)
Sept 26: Group A Runner-up v Group B Runner-up (Abu Dhabi)
Sept 28: Final (Dubai)