Donna Shalala Detained at Ben-Gurion

[JI7]

Source: wall street journal

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala was detained and interrogated for two hours at Ben-Gurion Airport last month, according to The Chronicle for Higher Education’s blog The Ticker.

Shalala is currently serving as president of the University of Miami; she was on her way back to the U.S. following a visit to Israel as part of a delegation of U.S. university presidents. An Israeli media report stated that she was subjected to a “humiliating” security debriefing and asked “invasive” personal questions because of her last name.

Shalala, 69 years old, is of Lebanese decent.

In a statement released today, Shalala took it in stride. “While I was inconvenienced, Israel’s security and the security of travelers is far more important. I have been going in and out of Israel for many years and expect to visit again,” she told the Chronicle.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2010/08/06/donna-shalala-detained-interrogated-at-israeli-airport/

[Ken Burch]

1. Well of course...to the Israeli government, she's Arab, and that's ALL that matters.

The Israeli security people don't see Arabs or Arab-Americans as human beings.

And it's horribly sad that she felt obligated to defend the airport cops who harassed her for no reason.

[aquart]

3. She knows why she was "harassed."

And she seems to understand far better than you the daily fears those security people face and deal with. But then, she has actually been there.

I take note that the report was in the ISRAELI media which seems to have taken umbrage for her. Meanwhile whoever shepherds VIPs through the airport really screwed up. The VIP list should have precluded this nonsense.

[Ken Burch]

4. The ISRAELI media? It was in the Wall Street Journal.

And it goes without saying that a former U.S. Cabinet Secretary can be assumed to be innocent of any links with terrorism.

And are you really going to say that ANYONE with an Arabic surname is guilty until proven innocent?

[polmaven]

6. Just FYI...

You may have missed this sentence in the OP:

"An Israeli media report stated that she was subjected to a “humiliating” security debriefing and asked “invasive” personal questions because of her last name."

[Ken Burch]

7. OK. But the link was from the Wall Street Journal site.

And I salute whichever Israeli media source did report this.

It was still inexcusable. Not only was Donna Shalala a former U.S. Cabinet secretary, she was secretary of Health and Human Services, an agency that plays no role at all in foreign policy. There was never any reason at all for the Israeli airport security team to treat her as a suspicious character.

[DWinNJ]

8. Here is something to remember

Shortly after leaving his position as Secretary of State,
Colin Powell was subjected to special scrutiny by the TSA while catching a domestic flight.

[Ken Burch]

9. And THAT was insane as well.

Just as insane that they put Teddy on the "no-fly" list.

[PavePusher]

33. Why shouldn't public officials have to live under the same constraints...

as we commoners?

The outrage is in the ineptness of the entire system, not that certain otherwise "priviliged" individuals have to (even accidentally) put up with the same bullshit as the rest of us.

[The Stranger]

34. One would assume that neither public officials nor commoners should be subject to racist profiling.

[PavePusher]

38. Ummm... is Lebanese a race?

I thought it was a nationality.....

[The Stranger]

43. Then is bigoted a better term for you?

[Ken Burch]

36. The issue isn't privelege...it's the question of reasonable grounds for suspicion

Actually, if you're leaving Israel(or leaving ANY particular country, for that matter, including this one)there is no possible justification for the security forces of the country you're leaving to give you a hard time. It ought to be enough THAT you're leaving.

[PavePusher]

37. Let me get this straight....

(because this is how what you said sounds...)

If there is some reason to think a person might be a security threat, but they are intending to leave that country, they should simply be let go?

Either I'm interpreting your comment very badly, or you don't really understand how these things work...

[Ken Burch]

39. One...they knew perfectly well they had no reason to consider this person a security threat

Two...they knew she was the same person when they let her IN. If they thought she was a threat, they should have treated her as such when she ARRIVED in Israel, not on the way out. And, since they knew where she was the whole time she was IN Israel, if they'd really thought she was a threat, they could have dealt with it at any time.

They knew that she'd done nothing to endanger Israeli security WHILE she was in the country. If they had, they could have arrested her at any time WHILE she was in the country. It makes no sense to wait until the person in question was leaving to get confrontational.

You would concede, I assume, that Ms. Shalala had done nothing, during her visit, to justify her treatment as she sought to depart.

[PavePusher]

40. I wasn't there, so I don't know.

I would assume your supposition is correct, but hey, maybe it was just her turn in the random draw for the day.

If obnoxious intent was the purpose, I'd be more likely to think they did it for political reasons than for racism, nationalism or ethnic descent.

But heck, I've been wrong once or twice before.

[iamjoy]

12. Ain't Racial Profiling Just Grand?

:eyes:

not.

[No Elephants]

24. Yes, but, in Powell's case, special scrutiny was more than justified.

[CreekDog]

28. 3 hours?

3 HOURS!

:wtf:

sorry, not buying any justification rationalization.

[CreekDog]

27. i wonder how someone with no clout would get treated?

3 hours?

let me add a few points of credibility for stories Palestinians tell us --and I'll do it because of hearing this story.

[hlthe2b]

13. Developing trend in US as well--sadly

To criticize Israel is synonymous with antisemitism for many, which I find to be unfathomable. To them, I ask: the rise of anti-Arab sentiment is different from antisemitism, how? It is a sad, sad state of affairs....

[Ken Burch]

2. Sickeningly, the vast majority of the "comments" at the WSJ site

act like Ms. Shalala had it coming.


One of the comments even implied that it was reasonable to assume that she was trying to run guns to Gaza.

[Ricochet21]

19. I agree

I agree

[Submariner]

5. Israel has no business detaining Americans

We are the military supplier and cash cow propping up that country. Respect your benefactors, don't interrogate them.

[destes]

10. the thread's most lucid response? yours.

[Ian David]

11. Americans are the LAST people on Earth who should complain when other countries do this.

Thanks, Bush!

[Bragi]

14. Sad that this Bushite is still allowed to travel

Most of the Bush administration are unable to travel abroad due to concerns about being charged with international war crimes. Not sure how she escaped being tagged with the same well-deserved odium as the rest of this group of murderous global parahias.

[BadgerKid]

15. Link, please? Her resume seems way more (D) than (R). n/t

[Jennicut]

16. Donna Shalala was in the Clinton administration.

Donna Edna Shalala (surname pronounced /ʃəˈleɪlə/ shə-LAY-lə; born February 14, 1941), who served for eight years as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton, has been president of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida, since 2001. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President George W. Bush in June 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Shalala

[Bragi]

17. My mistake, she's not a Bushite

So she can travel wherever she likes.

[izquierdista]

20. Honest mistake

You just forgot which of the two golfing buddies she worked for.

[Ken Burch]

22. All I can say to that is

[rocktivity]

42. .

rocktivity

[No Elephants]

25. Hard to tell the difference sometimes?

[Ken Burch]

30. Clinton Administration people, whatever ELSE you could say about them,

would only risk arrest for war crimes in Libya OR the Balkans-and really, who WANTS to go to those countries/

[treestar]

18. Why should she be considered a threat?

she's American, not Lebanese, and has a known record.

[Ken Burch]

21. The other thing that's puzzling is that Ms. Shalala was LEAVING Israel

If they don't trust Arabs or Arab-Americans, shouldn't they try to get them OUT of the country as quickly as possible?

Why hassle people who are going AWAY?

[Arrowhead2k1]

23. To atleast discourage them from ever coming back.

:sarcasm:

[mmonk]

29. Thanks for the catch. I was wondering if anyone would.

[LibertyLover]

31. Something like to this happened to me once on my way out of Israel

It was years ago. I was in college at the time and my mom had decided to go to the Middle East that year for vacation. She took me along so that she didn't have to bring her reading glasses. :rofl: Anyway the tour we were on went to Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, Israel, Turkey and Greece. At the time, Israel was not permitting entry from any Arab country, so we flew from Lebanon to Cyprus, which was classed as a European country, then on to Israel. On landing our passports were collected by the El Al flight attendants and shortly thereafter, before anyone was let off the plane, our tour guide, a young German national named Rolf, along with one or two other people, were taken from the jet by armed military personnel. Then the rest of us were allowed to deplane. As we went down the stairway, we could see a flatbed truck with military markings on it, surrounded by soldiers with weapons drawn and the people taken from the plane, Rolf included, being questioned on the truck by the IDF. We got our luggage, went through Customs and Immigration and then had to wait about an hour for Rolf to be released. He said that it happened almost every time he got to Israel and was because of his West German passport.

On our way out of Israel I got lucky :sarcasm: We checked our luggage and headed to Passport Control and the Departure area. Prior to being allowed on the bus out to the plane we had to go through security, which involved a pat down. There were small cubicles and IDF personnel manned them. Male IDF for male passengers and female IDF for female passengers. I was called into one of the booths and was in there for an hour. My security person opened and tested just about every item in my carry-on, which given that I was 20 at the time, had a lot of make-up. I rarely used any of course, but hey, you never know. The whole time she made disparaging remarks about the US. Not only did she pat me down, but I was instructed to raise my dress over my head and turn around in front of her with my arms over my head holding my dress. Meanwhile my mom, whose security search had lasted all of about a minute and a half, was outside demanding to know where I was. Airline officials were trying to get her to board the bus to the plane and she refused to leave without me. After the quasi strip search and looking at all the make-up in my bag, the security person finally turned to the books I had with me. I had a few historical romances, a book on underwater UFOs, some histories of the area and some books on Egyptian history that I'd gotten in Cairo. Those set her off and she demanded to know why I had them. I replied, truthfully, that my major in college was Ancient Near Eastern History and Culture and they were for research.

By this time my mother was getting really upset. The plane was being held for us and a few stragglers. Airline officials were frantically trying to get her on the bus. She opened the exit door to the cubicle I was in and in a true, time-tested "mother voice" told me to come out of there immediately. The security person actually barred me from moving. Well, mom saw that move and decided that she HAD HAD ENOUGH. She went and got a manager and demanded that I be released. The manager came in, asked the security person a question or two in Hebrew and then spoke very sharply to her. He then told me he was sorry for the delay and that I could leave immediately. The security person was not happy. But she had her orders. I grabbed my stuff which was spread out all over the cubicle and threw it into my carry-on while she was stamping my passport. During this whole time the only time I spoke to her was to politely answer her questions. But as she handed me my passport, she said that she had noticed I had recently had a birthday. I smiled, told her yes, I had and had celebrated it in Cairo and that it had been one of the best birthdays I'd ever had. That was a slight exaggeration, but not by much.

I never found out why I'd been singled out for the treatment I got. I don't have an Arabic sounding name and frankly have the map of Ireland on my face, as my grandmother used to say. As best any of us could figure out in discussing it afterwards, a couple of the younger people on the tour had similar experiences as I had with over zealous security guards and we decided it was just a way of them "showing" us that Israel was its own country and not America's lap dog. But who knows?

[PavePusher]

41. If they mistakenly thought she had done something they hadn't seen...

or was bearing sensitive information....

[activa8tr]

26. Israel doesn't like open-minded university types prancing through their

country, giving speeches, being fair-minded,

Israel's government has gone off the deep end of right-wing belligerence, and and just doesn't want American lefty peaceniks with Lebanese names opening their mouths in Isreal. They don't want her to ever come back!

[LTX]

32. Just taking the opportunity to add

some fact free, broad-brush slander to the story? Those Israelis sure are evil. They eat babies, you know.

[Ken Burch]

35. Nobody WAS slandering Israel.

It's just that is simply goes without saying that it's absurd to treat someone like Ms. Shalala was treated just because she happened to have an Arabic surname, and it's even more absurd to hassle people when they're LEAVING.

They knew perfectly well Ms. Shalala was harmless.

[TexasObserver]

44. It's a shameful regime.