Security check compels Arab Catholic journalist to abandon state trip

Published: 2004-02-17

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- An Arab Catholic journalist abandoned a state trip to France with Israeli President Moshe Katsav after being singled out for a special airport security check. Lutfy Mashour, editor of the As-Sennara biweekly Arabic paper in Nazareth, refused to undergo the security check at Ben Gurion International Airport and withdrew from the trip Feb. 16. "It's not just incredible, it is dangerous. This is fascism," Mashour said in a telephone interview from his Nazareth office. He said he has undergone worse security checks on private trips but never on state trips. Mashour, an Arab-Israeli, was part of an entourage of local and international journalists that was to accompany Katsav to Paris for a four-day state visit in which the president was to discuss racism and anti-Semitism in France. As the only Arab member of the group, Mashour was subjected to the extra security checks before getting on the plane. The president was not aware of the situation at the time, but Mashour said the president's staff unsuccessfully tried to prevent the extra security checks. "This is not only a humiliation to me but an insult to the president. They showed no respect to their president. I feel sorry for him. Here he is going to France to talk about racism, and they send him off with this racist incident," Mashour said.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .