Arab Israelis hassled by Israeli security at Romania airport

A group of Israeli law students claimed they were delayed at a Romanian airport for three hours and subjected to questioning as well as an intrusive security check, apparently due to the fact that they were Arabs or Arabic-language speakers.

The group was interrogated by security personnel working with Israeli jetliner company Israir, which ran the flight the students were set to board.

According to the students, Arab members of the group were taken into a room with see-through glass walls for questioning, while Jewish passengers were allowed to continue the flight check-in process, according to Channel 2. One of the Jewish students from the group managed to capture the incident on video on his phone, before security personnel can be seen telling him to stop recording.

The Arab students were finally allowed to board the plane to Israel, though security personnel did not allow them to take their luggage with them. The bags arrived in Israel 36 hours later.

“We felt humiliated. Those [of us] who spoke Arabic were taken into a separate room and underwent a security check,” Badia Karem, one of the students wrote on his Facebook page after the incident.

Karem said the group underwent a humiliating body search as well as a search of their luggage. He added that the atmosphere in the room was “very difficult” and had nothing to do with security but with “oppression and humiliation.”

Israir released a statement following the incident saying the company had no control over the security check.

“Regarding flights of Israeli companies, the security check process is performed by an outside entity acting on the instructions of the relevant security officials in Israel,” the company said.