Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Israele tratta bene i suoi migliori amici

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/05/State/Born_in_Lakeland_deta.shtml
Born in Lakeland; detained by Israel
    A family is told seven of their children cannot leave via Tel
Aviv.
LAKELAND -- A large Lakeland family has been split in two temporarily
by complex Israeli travel restrictions that forced the mother to leave
seven of her children behind when they attempted to fly home.
On Aug. 18, Wedad Yacoub and 10 of her children -- all U.S. citizens
-- were returning from a family visit in the West Bank through Tel
Aviv, the same airport through which they had arrived more than two
months before.
Israeli officials initially tried to block the family from leaving,
saying they had to go through Jordan, a travel restriction that
applies to Palestinian residents of the West Bank. Officials finally
permitted Wedad Yacoub and her three youngest children to fly home,
but the other seven children are still in the West Bank, two weeks
later with no resolution in sight.
"I can't believe that children who were born in Lakeland could have
their American citizenship ignored by a country so friendly to the
U.S," said Wedad.
Even Israeli officials couldn't readily explain it.
"American citizens born in America can't leave through Tel Aviv, where
they came in?" asked Daniel Seaman, director of the Government Press
Office in Israel. "This has to be inaccurate. This can't be."
Seaman says it will take some research to know what happened, which is
what he, other Israeli officials, U.S. State Department officials and
Florida congressmen are doing.
"We've called the State Department and we want to solve this, but we
don't have answers yet," said Keith Rupp, a spokesman for Rep. Adam
Putnam, R-Bartow.
The journey began normally enough on June 4 when Wedad Yacoub and her
10 children entered Israel through Ben Gurion International Airport in
Tel Aviv, as they have done every summer for the past five years.
After attending family weddings and visiting with family in the West
Bank, she and the children returned on Aug. 18 to fly out of Tel Aviv.
But, to their surprise, they were stopped by Israeli security officers
who said they had to exit through Jordan because of their father's
Palestinian heritage. Steve Yacoub, 54, was born in the West Bank, but
moved to the United States 30 years ago. He became a citizen shortly
after.
"Our father's heritage can't erase that we're American citizens, born
and raised in Lakeland, Fla.," 18-year old Ramy Yacoub says he told
Israeli police.
But, he says, they disagreed.
Wedad, who began weeping, was allowed to leave with the three youngest
children. But the other kids, ages 11 to 21, were told they had to
return to the West Bank. They stayed six hours in the airport before
family members arranged for a driver to get them.
"We entertained ourselves by humming theme songs from U.S. television
shows," said Ibrahim Yacoub, 21. "Our favorite is the tune from
Jeopardy."
A month before, the children's father, who owns a Lakeland convenience
store, arrived in Tel Aviv to go to the West Bank with his U.S.
passport, as he does every year. But he was told by Israeli police
that he had to travel through Jordan because of an expired Palestinian
ID from 28 years before.
Yacoub said that he had entered as a U.S citizen for many years but
dutifully complied and embarked on a 72-hour marathon, flying back to
the United States from Tel Aviv, then flying to Jordan to enter the
West Bank in time for a wedding.
"But I didn't think Israeli officials would suddenly turn my American-
born children into Palestinians because of it," he said.
But apparently they did, at least to some degree.
The children say they were told they must get Palestinian IDs and
depart through Jordan because their Palestinian heritage trumped their
American citizenship. If they are not permitted to fly from Tel Aviv,
the children will forfeit their $9,100 in tickets and face the
prospect of buying tickets from Jordan for $16,800.
"Coming up with about $26,000 is not easy," said Wedad, who was born
in Kuwait but is a U.S. citizen.
While Israeli officials did not respond with an explanation Tuesday, a
clue to their thinking came from the U.S. State Department. A
spokesman provided what he called "observations" made in May by State
Department officials concerning Israeli travel policies.
According to these observations: "It is possible that an American
citizen born in the United States whose parents were born or lived in
the West Bank or Gaza would be considered a resident by Israeli
authorities."
But why this "possible" designation as a new resident of the West Bank
suddenly fell upon the Yacoub children, no one seems to know,
including the State Department spokesman, Steve Royster.
Royster could offer only this broad statement: "We are committed to
ensuring that all American travelers receive fair and equal
treatment. ... We are having a positive dialogue with the government
of Israel on travel and security issues."
Meanwhile, the Yacoub kids, who are staying with family in Silwad, a
hilly farm town outside of Ramallah, say they sleep most of the day,
play cards at night and wait for a phone call telling them to get to
the airport. Their luggage, which had been checked through to Tampa,
is unopened in their Lakeland home.
Jeanine, 16, worries that her 4.0 average at Lake Gibson High School
will drop. Enam, 13, misses her afternoon soccer games, and Deena, 11,
misses her school pals.
"We're all totally stressed out," said Ibrahim, 21, in a phone call
from Silwad.
It's the first time in many years that Lake Gibson Middle School
hasn't had a Yacoub in school, principal John Barber said Tuesday.
"They're smart, well-behaved kids and we want them back," he said.

 
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/05/State/Born_in_Lakeland_deta.shtml
Aggiornati
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/08/Worldandnation/Family_finally_reunit.shtml
Family finally reunited
Six siblings come home from Israel. A brother stays behind. 
By MEG LAUGHLIN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 8, 2007
After a three-week struggle to leave the West Bank, six exhausted
children of the Yacoub family in Lakeland were reunited with their
parents and siblings during the wee hours Friday morning. 
"Our main feeling is relief to be back," said Ibrahim Yacoub, 22. 
Their ordeal in the Middle East began Aug. 18 when they returned with
their mother and three young siblings to Tel Aviv, Israel, to fly home
after spending the summer with relatives in Silwad, a small town in the
West Bank. But after their luggage was checked, they were stopped by
Israeli security officials and told they could not fly through Tel Aviv
because their father, Steve Yacoub, an American citizen, had once held a
Palestinian ID. 
Israeli officials said this ID made the Lakeland-born children
Palestinian, not American, in the eyes of Israel. 
Their mother, Wedad, also a U.S. citizen, began crying and saying they
were all Americans. As a partial concession, the security officers
allowed her and her three youngest children to leave as U.S. citizens
from Tel Aviv, but told her that her seven other children could not
leave. They had to stay behind, obtain Palestinian IDs and leave through
Jordan. 
Since then negotiations involving officials from the United States and
Israel have been ongoing. 
On Friday, six of the Yacoub children arrived at their Lakeland home 48
hours after leaving the West Bank for the airport in Amman, Jordan. 
"It would have taken much longer to get through the Israeli checkpoints
to cross into Jordan but we got VIP treatment," said Ramy Yacoub, 18. 
"It didn't hurt that our uncle, who escorted us, speaks Hebrew," said
Jeanine, 16. 
Ibrahim's twin, Danny, refused to get a Palestinian ID because of his
U.S. citizenship. He stayed behind in the West Bank with relatives,
intending to leave Tel Aviv eventually with his U.S. passport. 
"We're hoping my brother will be treated like any other American when he
does try to leave," Ibrahim said. 
The six tickets for the flight out of Jordan cost the family more than
$15,000 beyond the $9,500 they forfeited on the Tel Aviv flight. Yacoub,
a convenience store owner, borrowed most of the money, his wife said. 
Keith Rupp, a spokesman for Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, said that the
congressman's office was working with the State Department "trying to
get a refund from Continental Airlines" for the Tel Aviv tickets. 
"We're doing what we can to encourage them to do the right thing," Rupp
said. 
For years the Yacoub family has traveled each summer to the West Bank
through Tel Aviv. If they return next summer, the mother and three
youngest children, 3, 5 and 10, expect to be able to fly into Tel Aviv
because they were not assigned Palestinian IDs. But the father and older
siblings, ages 11 to 22, will have to fly into Jordan. 
Denna, 11, sees this separation in identity as "strange." Like her
brother, Rany, 10, she was born at a Lakeland hospital. Unlike him,
however, when traveling to the West Bank she will not have the rights of
an American citizen from now on. 
"It makes me sad to be different," she said.