DENIED ENTRY issue in US State Dept press briefing

This was sent to us by a friend of the Campaign.  Now, more than ever, we need those in solidarity with this issue on the U.S. side to act and place the issue squarely in front of their elected reps and the state department.

For more info see: www.righttoenter.ps

For full transcript of this State Dept briefing (text and audio) see:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2006/73962.htm

——- Forwarded message follows ——-

From the State Department’s October 12 Press briefing

…

QUESTION: One other thing, then. She [Condoleeza Rice at ATFP] made some reference to travel by Palestinian Americans having difficulty I suppose getting to either Israel or  the territories. Can you elaborate on that at all?

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. There have been some cases, more than a handful, where there have been some difficulties of people that previously have been able to  freely cross between Israeli areas and Palestinian areas aren’t able to do so. 

QUESTION: U.S. citizens?                                     

MR. MCCORMACK: Yes. Well, they may be –                                  

QUESTION: Or whatever.                                     

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, maybe dual citizens. Regardless, they hold U.S. passports as American citizens, so it doesn’t make a difference.          

QUESTION: Right.                                     

MR. MCCORMACK: And this was brought to the attention of the Secretary, and it’s something that she’s looking into and she’s going to raise with Israeli officials.                                     

QUESTION: Has she reached any temporary conclusions? Is it some discrimination or is it based on thin suspicions of terrorism? Is it –   

MR. MCCORMACK: You know, I think –                                     

QUESTION: Is it generic bigotry? What is it?                              

MR. MCCORMACK: I’m not going to try to, you know, characterize and broad-brush, Barry. I think that each — obviously, each individual case will be different. But the fact is there’s more than a handful of these cases, and it is something that has got her attention. We’re talking about American citizens here.        

QUESTION: Passport holders?                                     

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah.                                     

QUESTION: Thank you.                                     

(The briefing was concluded at 1:25 p.m.)                                 

DPB # 165

Released on October 12, 2006

——- End of forwarded message ——-

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