MERIDEN — The path home for a Palestinian-American mother and her son remains unclear, as Israeli officials have not offered a means of easily returning home., her family says.
On Aug. 14, Meriden residents Intifada Abdelghani and her 14-year-old son Musa, both with U.S citizenship, were barred from boarding a return flight home after a visit to see family in the occupied West Bank, and over two weeks later seem no closer to being permitted to return to the U.S.
According to Intifada’s husband, Mahar Abdelghani, she was stopped from leaving the Ben Gurion Airport because she was deemed a security risk, though the exact reason remains unknown.
Abdelghani says that Israeli security scanned his wife eight times before demanding a strip search before male security personnel, holding both her and Musa for 13 hours. When she tried to clarify they were U.S citizens, Abdelghani claims security didn’t listen and instead made disparaging remarks about the United States.
Abdelghani believes his family was intentionally targeted for being Palestinian, and for his wife’s name, Intifada. An Arabic word meaning “the act of shaking off,” it’s become associated with civilian uprisings against oppression, though critics have attempted to correlate it with incitement of terrorism against Israelis. Abdelghani says Intifada wears her name with pride, and that has led to her being targeted.
“The problem is ... that my wife is being dangled like a little toy,” Abdelghani said. “They're just trying to make her life absolutely difficult, making accusations, but not following through with what the accusations are, and trying to prolong this process to make our lives even more difficult. We've, we can't figure out what, what this could be, and the only thing this could be in our minds is a retaliation of some sort.”
U.A. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT, and U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5, have been working to spearhead the effort to return the family home, Abdelghani said, having tried to coordinate with Israeli officials as well as the Trump Administration. The pair have co-signed a letter to bring the issue to Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to resolve the dispute. Abdeghani said that the issue is in the Trump administration’s hands now, though expressed uncertainty, specifically after their recent decision to put a ban on Palestinian visas.
Abdeghani said that he’s had to take his son out of his 10th grade school year due to the uncertainty of when they’ll be able to return. While born in the West Bank, the family has lived in Meriden since 2013 and obtained their citizenship.
Many of their family members still reside within the territory, within the town of al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya. With a history dating as far back as 1112, Abdeghani says his family has resided there for hundreds of years. It’s because of that history and heritage that he and his family often make trips to return there, and will continue to do so in the future even in spite of the difficulties, he said. In the past he’s had his passport thrown on the ground and spat on when travelling through the airport, he claims.
“Somebody asked me after all this is said and done after,hopefully, your family comes home safely, is your wife planning on going back? My response is, yes, absolutely. This is a reason to make us not come back. We will continue to go back. It is our homeland. Israel does not, should not have the right to refuse us entry or exit. They should not, they should make sure that we're safe when we're traveling the land. And they should have policies that are strict and non-biased to protect people of the land. And I hope that people understand that,” Abdeghani said.
Having just spoken with his wife, he says that the experience has taken an immense toll on her, and her son. He said that, despite being directed to resources that Israeli officials claim will assist in getting them home, Intifada has been hung up on almost immediately when having called the department, leading to a lack of clarity as to what the next steps should be.
“That's why I'm being as vocal as I am. This is prejudice, it's discrimination, and nobody's doing anything about it, right? There needs to be accountability held,” Abdighani added, noting how this has all impacted his family.
“[Musa] misses his friends, he misses his family. My wife feels like a prisoner. She was crying the other day, and I was telling her what's wrong. And she was telling me that ‘I came here on my own free will. Now that I'm here against my will, I'm not happy anymore. I feel like a prisoner.’ And she is right. She is right. Because she's getting this restricted movement of any other Palestinian. They're treating her like a Palestinian.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has also demanded the State Department look into the issue, and is asking for an inquiry as to whether other Arab Americans are being deliberately targeted and discriminated against inside Israel.