Law School In Discussion Regarding Deportation of HLS Student

Harvard Law School officials are still in discussion regarding potential responses to the deportation of an Egyptian-American HLS student from Israel in December.

Hebah M. Ismail ’06 had planned to work with Law School clinical instructor Ahmad Amara in Israel for eight days for a research project on Bedouin land rights, but Ismail was detained in Tel Aviv’s airport for two days and then deported. Now Amara is considering suing for compensation, he said.

Amara, who was not able to complete his research due to Ismail’s absence, said that he hopes to work with the Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic to help ensure that Law School students will not have trouble entering foreign countries in the future.

Tyler R. Giannini, the clinical director of the Law School’s Human Rights Program, wrote in an e-mailed statement that the clinic is “considering the most appropriate response in light of the circumstances and the best interests of Hebah [Ismail] and our future students.”

Amara hopes that HLS Dean Martha L. Minow will write a letter to the Israeli consulate to protest the “discrimination, humiliation, and mistreatment of [Ismail],” he said.

Though Ismail wears a hijab, she said she has traveled freely to Egypt and South Africa without any issues. She was raised in New Jersey and is an American citizen.

But upon entering Israel, Ismail was quickly taken aside for questioning. Israeli security officials interrogated her and searched her belongings for eight hours before clearing her for border control and immigration, according to Ismail.

After refusing to let an immigration officer read her e-mails, Ismail was told she would never be allowed to enter the country. Ismail was then taken to a detainment room in a separate part of the airport, where she was held the next day. When she asked to call her family and Amara, Ismail was repeatedly told to wait.

Amara was able to track down and visit Ismail the next day—but as her lawyer, not her professor. They discussed her options, including raising media awareness or contacting Israeli government officials for help.

Ismail said she returned to the United States as she was followed by Israeli security officials.

“I was nervous before she traveled,” Amara said. “I knew that they would give her a hard time and that she would be interrogated. But I did believe that she would be let into the country.”

—Staff writer Zoe A. Y. Weinberg can be reached at zoe.weinberg@college.harvard.edu.