DETROIT - Israel has denied entry to a Detroit university student of Palestinian descent travelling there for a study-abroad program. Arab-American and civil rights groups plan to protest the decision Thursday.
Abeer Afana, a 21-year-old Wayne State University student, was detained May 16 at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv as she tried to enter the country on her U.S. passport. She was then returned to the United States.
U.S.-born Afana of the Detroit suburb of Novi was part of a monthlong program designed to examine conflict and co-operation among Israelis and Palestinians. Seven other American students were admitted, including Jews and Arabs.
Afana was sent home because her parents were from the Gaza Strip and she had once held a Palestinian passport.
In Tel Aviv, Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told The Associated Press that Afana was told she had to enter Israel from Jordan, via the Allenby Crossing, because she is a Palestinian with a Palestinian identity number. She said it does not matter that the student was born in the U.S.
"Anyone with an active Palestinian identity number ... has to go through Allenby," Haddad said. "It was not a denial of entry in principle," she said, adding that the rule has been in effect for "many years."
The U.S. Department of State's consular affairs website warns travellers that Israel will "consider as Palestinian anyone who has a Palestinian identification number, was born in the West Bank or Gaza, or was born in the United States but has parents or grandparents who were born or lived in the West Bank or Gaza."
It says such Americans must travel to Israel using their Palestinian passports, regardless of their U.S. citizenship, and that they "may be barred from entering or exiting Israel, the West Bank or Gaza."
The Palestine Cultural Office, Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, National Lawyers Guild and other organizations said they would hold a news conference Thursday afternoon at Detroit's U.S. courthouse. Afana is expected to attend.
Bob Thomas, Wayne State's dean of liberal arts and sciences, said the university is "meticulous" about ensuring that students are travelling on valid passports.
"We want to do things correctly. We are trying to do things in good faith," Thomas said.
Thomas said Afana is an ideal candidate for the program, which has students interacting with Israelis and Palestinians.
"She's exactly the kind of student we hope will be involved," he said.
"We've consciously tried to involve students from the various backgrounds that are representative of our region and that region," he said.
Two messages were left by The Associated Press for Afana.
"The issue itself, the whole conflict, is so complex and hard to understand," Afana told the Detroit Free Press. "But I feel like you can't understand it unless you see for yourself what's going on."
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