Israeli historian: I was grilled about Hamas by agents at Detroit Metro Airport

A noted Israeli historian visiting Michigan who is supportive of Palestinians said he was grilled by agents or officers after he landed this week at Detroit Metro Airport.

Speaking Thursday to the Free Press, Ilan Pappé, a native of Israel who is a professor of history at the University of Exeter in England, said after an eight-hour flight, he was pulled aside by agents who then started to question him. The author of several books on Palestinians and Israeli history had flown to metro Detroit to speak at several events about his work on the mistreatment of Palestinians. He's known for being one of the first Israeli historians to argue that Palestinians were deliberately cleansed in what is called the Nakba, or catastrophe, the 76th anniversary of which was marked Wednesday.

"They asked me some bizarre questions, such as, 'Do I think that the action of Israel in Gaza is genocide? What do I think about the Hamas? ... Who are my Arab and Muslim friends in Detroit area?'" Pappé said. "I was too tired to understand. And maybe I didn't have to answer this question. I wasn't sure. But I did. The worst thing for me, they took my phone and copied everything on it."

Pappé, 69, said that during the questioning, he sometimes referred the agents to books he has written. At one point, the agents were on the phone with someone for a long time, he said. He said he was eventually released after about two hours and they returned his phone to him.

"I still don't understand exactly why they did it," he said. "But it's obviously that I was treated like someone who endangers American national security. I hope to get some explanation from them later. Why was it done?"

Pappé, who is director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at his university, has said before that Israel is committing genocide, a view that the U.S. and Israel have strongly disputed. He told the Free Press that Hamas and Israel have both committed acts of violence.

Pappé first described what happened to him in a Facebook post Wednesday that drew widespread attention on social media and criticism of the agents' actions from some Muslim civil rights advocates. In his post, Pappé said it was the FBI who interrogated him. But a spokesperson for the Detroit FBI office, Jade Carter, told the Free Press the FBI did not question him.

"Although the (Facebook) post mentions our agency directly, I can confirm that the FBI was not involved," Carter said.

Told by the Free Press that the FBI said they were not involved, Pappé said he may have confused which agency specifically questioned him. He said he didn't ask the agents which agency they belonged to.

Agents with the Department of Homeland Security usually handle security at airports. The Free Press sent emails to DHS and two other agencies that are part of it, Transportation Security Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, seeking comment.

A spokesperson for CBP did not comment on Pappe's specific claims, saying in a statement: "Respecting privacy rights of travelers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) does not disclose specific details about individual encounters during inspections at a port of entry."

The CBP said their officers have the authority to conduct searches at borders based on federal regulations. The agency says it has the right to search passengers and ask questions about their trip, personal background and citizenship.

Over the decades, Arab American advocates in Michigan have raised concerns about being profiled at airports, including being asked questions about their ethnicity and religion that they say are unwarranted and prejudiced.

Born in Israel to parents who fled Nazi Germany, Pappé has been outspoken in his criticism of Israel, where he lived until he moved to England after, he said, he was forced out of the university he taught at in Israel. Advocates for Israel and some other Israeli historians such as Benny Morris have criticized his work, while he is often supported by Palestinian advocates. Some of his books include "The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories" and "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine."

He spoke to hundreds Monday in Dearborn at the Bint Jebail Cultural Center, which is named after an area in southern Lebanon currently in conflict with Israel; Tuesday at Unitarian Universalist Church in Detroit, and Wednesday at First United Methodist Church in Ferndale. It was organized by the Dearborn Heights-based Al Nadwa Freethinking Society and other groups. He also spoke Wednesday in Ann Arbor at the tent encampment set up last month by University of Michigan students calling for the school to divest from Israel.

"I met a diversity of people from all walks of life," Pappé said. "These were three talks that try to give an historical context to the present realities in Israel, in Palestine ... very lively debates."

Michigan synagogue:Police investigate attack on members by 'Jew hater'

Asked about the concerns of Israelis who fear Hamas, which the U.S. has labeled a terrorist group, Pappé admitted that Hamas has committed acts of violence, but said they're not the root of the problem.

"It's very important as a historian to differentiate between symptoms of violence and the source of violence," he said. "Definitely also the Palestinian liberation movement committed and commit ... acts of violence. Definitely, the Israelis commit their acts of violence. But if you want to end the violence ... go to the source, and the source of violence is not Hamas. Hamas is a reaction to the Zionist violence before the creation of the State of Israel, and related to the violence of Israel, especially after the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip."

May Seikaly, a retired professor emerita of Arabic at Wayne State University who introduced Pappé at the Dearborn event, said she's known him for decades.

"Pappé is a friend of very long-standing," she said. "We were both students at Oxford University doing our PhDs. He is opposed to the policies of Israel concerning the Palestinians. He is very sympathetic with the cause of the Palestinians."

University of Michigan:Anti-Israel protest at board chair's home 'dangerous escalation'

The anniversary of the Nakba and the founding of Israel are being marked this month with several other events in local Arab American and Jewish communities.

On Sunday, several Arab American groups are to hold a rally in support of Palestinians and against President Joe Biden's policies supporting Israel on the same day Biden is to speak in Detroit at the annual Detroit NAACP dinner. And on May 28, the Detroit Zoo is to hold an event by the Jewish Federation of Detroit celebrating Israel's independence day.

Contact Niraj Warikoo:nwarikoo@freepress.com or X @nwarikoo