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Children of Arab-Israel citizen banned at Tel Aviv

December 20, 2017 at 9:50 am

Alaa, 13, and Ali, eight, are the sons of Arab-Israeli citizen Jamal Abu-Jame, who is married to a Romanian. They were denied entry at Tel Aviv

Israeli authorities prevented two Arab children with Romanian passports from entering the country and visiting their family in the Negev, Arab48 reported yesterday.

The two children Alaa, 13, and Ali, eight, are the sons of Arab-Israeli citizen Jamal Abu-Jame, who is married to a Romanian. The two boys hold Romanian passports.

Ahead of a family visit to the occupied Negev, Jamal prepared a written agreement from his wife to say she is happy for the boys to travel with their father, and a legal agreement from Romania from where he left legally. However, when he and his sons landed in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport authorities banned the boys from entry.

No reason was given.

He was told that he would need to deposit 60,000 shekels ($17,116) to release his sons, however when he did they were not released.

“The airport received a call saying the deposit is not enough so the boys will not be released and they will be deported to Romania on the first flight heading there,” he said, noting that he was told to buy a ticket if he wanted to accompany them.

Read: Rabbi denied entry to Israel over support for BDS

Relatives in the Negev filed a complaint in an Israeli court but the court took no measure to stop the deportation.

“If I was a Jew,” Jamal told Arab48, “they would have allowed my sons to enter the country.”

He stressed that there was no reason for the ban, noting that the worse side of this story was that the airport authorities told him that “they could not help as the decision was on order from a higher authority.”