Israel Asks Arab Visitors to Open Emails to Search - Background
Tamari, who is from St. Louis, said she arrived in Israel on May 21 to participate in an interfaith conference. She described herself as a Quaker peace activist and acknowledged taking part in campaigns calling for boycotts and divestment from Israel
I was surprised at the apparent arbitrary nature of this intrusive interrogation. Knowing a little bit about how Israeli customs and immigration security operate, I decided to dig a little deeper. Sandra Tamari, it turns out, is not an unknown quantity in, shall we say, certain circles. Tamari is associated with the St. Louis area BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement and is an active member of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Biography: STL-PSC member Sandra Tamari is a Palestinian American and Quaker peace and social justice activist. She holds a Masters degree in International Development, Arab studies from Georgetown University and was a Fulbright scholar in Jordan. She has worked in the West Bank on political prisoner rights and recently completed a year in Lebanon where she focused on Palestinian refugee issues. She was the assistant director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University for five years before moving to the St. Louis-area where she is raising two children and working at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in their Center for International Programs. She is an active member of the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and traveled to Cairo, Egypt in December 2009 to take part in the Gaza Freedom March.
An anti-Israel activist who has traveled and spoken extensively on behalf of extreme anti-Israel positions was subject to additional scrutiny upon arrival in Israel. Quelle horreur! I consider it unlikely that Tamari was in Israel to go clubbing in Tel Aviv or scuba diving off of Eilat. Or even (solely) to attend some benign interfaith conference. Anybody with an analogous biography of anti-American agitation would likely have been subject to special attention upon arrival in the US, as well.
No real story here, folks. Move along.
