[Infowarrior] - Israel launches email checks at the border

[Richard Forno]

Israel steps up email border checks

	• From: AP
	• June 06, 2012 7:55AM

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/israel-steps-up-email-border-checks/story-e6frgakx-1226385584079

ISRAEL has introduced "email checks" at its airport as a means of helping to identify Arab terrorists.

In a cyber-age twist on Israel's vaunted history of airport security, the country has begun to force incoming travelers deemed suspicious to open personal email accounts for inspection, visitors say.

Targeting mainly Muslims or Arabs, the practice appears to be aimed at rooting out visitors who have histories of pro-Palestinian activism, and in recent weeks, has led to the expulsion of at least three American women.

It remains unclear how widespread the practice is.

Israel has a long history of using ethnic profiling, calling it a necessary evil resulting from its bitter experience with terrorist attacks. Arab travelers and anyone else seen as a risk are often subjected to intense questioning and invasive inspections, including strip searches.


Diana Butto, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian Authority and a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said the policy of email checks, once used sporadically, appears to have become more widespread over the past year.

Butto said she has led three tour groups to the region over the past year, and in each case, at least one member of the group was asked to open their email. She said Muslims, Arabs and Indians were typically targeted, and in most cases, were denied entry.

Butto said that in the case of journalsists, agents typically wanted to see people's itineraries, articles they have written or Facebook status updates.

"The problem is there's no way to honestly say you're coming to visit the West Bank without falling into some type of security trap," she said. "Either you lie and risk being caught in a lie, or you tell the truth ... and it's not clear whether you'll be allowed in."

US visitor Sandra 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.

Given her activism, Tamari said she expected some security delays. But she was caught off guard by the order to open her email account. She said the agents discovered her address while rifling through her personal papers.

"That's when they turned their (computer) screens around to me and said, 'Log in," she said. When she refused, an interrogator said, "'Well you must be a terrorist. You are hiding something.'"

Tamari said she was searched, placed in a holding cell and flown back to the US the following day.

Najwa Doughman, a 25-year-old Palestinian American from New York City, said she underwent a similar experience when she arrived for a one-week vacation on May 26.

A female interrogator ordered Doughman to open her Gmail account, threatening she would be deported if she didn't.

"She typed in gmail.com and she turned the keyboard toward me and said, 'Log in. Log in now,'" Doughman recounted. "I asked, 'Is this legal?' She said, 'Log in.'"

Israel has become increasingly strict following a series of run-ins with international activists in recent years, highlighted by a deadly clash two years ago between Israeli naval commandos and a flotilla trying to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Both sides accused the other of provoking the violence in which nine Turkish activists were killed.


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