Jewish American academic denied entry to Israel ‘for being a leftwing anarchist’ |
A Jewish American man who had a three-year Israel residency visa was recently refused entry to the country by immigration authorities on the recommendation of the police for being a “left-wing anarchist” and for “nationalistic crime activity.”
Despite the allegations made by the Population and Immigration Authority (PIBA) and the police, neither provided evidence when informing the individual, who spoke with The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, that he would not be allowed to re-enter the country.
PIBA, a department of the Interior Ministry, also did not state how it defines “anarchist” or “nationalistic crime activity” for the purposes of evaluating entry rights into Israel.
In response to a request for comment by The Times of Israel on the ban, PIBA claimed that his activities “are likely to interfere with the security services, and the purpose of his stay is incommensurate with the visa he has,” without providing any evidence.
The agency refused to say on what basis it found him to be “an anarchist; to delineate what its definition of “anarchist” is; to cite sources for its claim that he has called for the destruction of Israel; to state what “nationalistic crime activities” he had committed; or to state what “anarchist activities” he had participated in.
The decision to refuse him re-entry into Israel is the latest in a series of such incidents and appears to be part of a coordinated effort between the police and PIBA to bar civil rights activists who support Palestinian civilians in the West Bank from conducting peaceful activities in the territory.
The man has never been indicted for, or convicted of, “nationalistic crime activity.”
He has appealed PIBA’s refusal to allow him entry to Israel. “My unexceptional case serves only to index a broader entrenchment of fascistic rule, wherein mechanisms of silence are invoked to obscure ongoing violence,” he said. “Colonial order rests on security from potentiality. I join a broad cohort of those preemptively banished for threatening a social order upheld through violence.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has authority over the police, said in October last year that the police and PIBA have cooperated in having such activists expelled from Israel.
Later that same month, during the olive harvest season, the