Two Palestinian cousins, whose travel to San Francisco a synagogue leader sponsored, had their visas revoked when they arrived in the United States on Wednesday.
Eid Hathaleen, an artist and photographer, and Awdah Hathaleen, an English teacher who writes for the anti-Israel +972 Magazine, were scheduled to visit several houses of worship, including the Kehilla Community Synagogue in the East Bay city of Piedmont, Calif.
At the synagogues, including Kehilla which is unaffiliated with a Jewish denomination and whose website identifies it as being “on the indigenous Lisjan-Ohlone territory of Huchiun” and being a “synagogue for ceasefire,” the cousins were slated to discuss living in the Judea and Samaria villages of Masafer Yatta featured in the controversial film “No Other Land.”
Critics of the film have called it fabricated, libelous and Palestinian propaganda for its depictions of Israeli security practices in the area.
The two men were also scheduled to speak in other areas, including Seattle, Boston and New York, but never cleared customs after flying into San Francisco, according to sponsor Phillip Weintraub, who leads a Palestinian solidarity committee at Kehilla. Conflicting reports state that the men flew in either from Jordan or Qatar.
Weintraub, an immigration attorney, told Mission Local, a news site, that one of the cousins had an existing visa, issued last year, and the other received a new one last month.
“Everything about their visit was straightforward, aboveboard,” Weintraub told the site,” adding that it is a “rather laudable, wonderful thing” to cultivate “relationships between Christians and Jews and the Palestinian community.”
A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official reportedly confirmed that both men were in custody and set to be returned to the Middle East on Thursday afternoon, with reports again conflicting about whether they would fly into Doha or Amman.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman told JNS that “after an interview by CBP, the individuals failed to establish they were admissible to the United States.”
“As such, they withdrew their applications for admission and departed the United States,” the spokesman said.
About 100 protestors, organized by the synagogue, positioned themselves outside the airport’s international terminal on Thursday, chanting “let them go,” Mission Local reported. Those protesting reportedly also held signs stating that “Jews say stop the genocide of Palestinians.”
