9/5/07 - LAKELAND -- The summer wasn't supposed to end like this for the Yacoub family. The Lakeland family was separated on Aug. 18 at an Israeli airport as they attempted to return home from a summer visiting relatives in Palestine. Although Wedad Yacoub is a naturalized U.S. citizen and all her children were born in America, Israeli officials would not allow them to board the flight. Wedad Yacoub was forced to choose between remaining in Palestine with 10 of her 11 children or return with the three youngest children, leaving the other seven behind. The eleventh child was back home in Lakeland. After arranging for the children to be picked up by relatives, she flew home with her 10-, 5- and 3-year-olds. The other children, ranging in age from 11 to 22, were driven back to their grandmother's home in Ramallah, where they remain caught in a bureaucratic and political tangle. At a news conference Wednesday in Tampa, officials with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil-rights group, said the Yacoubs have only two options: press U.S. government officials to persuade Israel to allow the children to leave, or to send them home through Amman, Jordan, a lengthy and expensive process. Ahmed Bedier, executive director of the council's Tampa chapter, said Continental Airlines has rebooked reservations for the children today at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, but that is where they were denied permission to return, and the family is not hopeful they will be allowed to depart.
Palestinian American Citizens Banned from Israel Airports - YouTube |
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