'Care Deeply About This Country' |
British Man in Israel Hoping to Make Aliyah Deported After Being Arrested at Protests
Sep 20, 2024
A 25-year-old British Jewish man seeking to immigrate to Israel was ordered to leave the country after being detained by police in the West Bank and at a demonstration for the release of hostages in Jerusalem.
The Israel police labeled him a "criminal provocateur" and confiscated his passport to force his departure from Israel. However, the court instructed the authorities to return the passport to him.
The police informed the Population and Immigration Authority about the detention, which then refused to extend his tourist visa or process his immigration request.
Last April, Leo Franks, from London, thought he was about to start a new chapter in his life.
After landing in Israel, Franks filed an application with the Jewish Agency to start the aliyah process in his first week. He submitted the necessary documents and had an appointment with the Population and Immigration Authority scheduled for July 10.
But he was detained in the West Bank on suspicion of obstructing a police officer after photographing the arrest of a Palestinian minor, he said, and missed the appointment when his passport was confiscated.
Two other arrests, one in the West Bank again and the other at a protest for a hostage release deal, became grounds for stopping his aliyah application, and he was instructed to leave the country. "I dreamed of making aliyah to Israel and establishing a family, and it was taken from me," Franks said.
He had moved to Israel to live with his Israeli partner in April, after starting a doctorate in history at the University of California, Berkeley a year earlier.
Franks had lived in Jerusalem's Ein Karem neighborhood as a boy, but his parents moved to London when he was 11. Two years ago, he visited Israel and enrolled in ulpan, or intensive Hebrew study.
Frank's first encounter with Israeli police was in May, when he passed through Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood on the way to his apartment. "I was walking down Azza Street and I saw four or five family members of hostages protesting outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home" as police stood nearby. "It was very hard emotionally. I cried," Franks said. "It was hard to see these people, with all that they had gone through, having to stand outside the prime minister's residence."
Three weeks later, he was arrested while leaving a protest for a hostage release and cease-fire deal and taken to a police station for questioning. He was released at 4 A.M., one of several people released that night with no criminal charges.
In June and July, Franks was questioned by the police after being detained in the South Hebron Hills. He was questioned the first time because he refused to show his passport to soldiers, and the second time because he documented events at the scene, he said. He was quickly released both times.
In his interview at Israel's Population and Immigration Authority, he said he had gone to the West Bank to visit friends in the area. "I told them that I was a Jew making aliyah, and I asked them to return my passport to me, and they didn't." When pressed further on his reasons for being there, he said that he wanted to see Jews in places where Jews and Arabs live and said "I care deeply about this country."
He added that "This is a place with a lot of tensions, a difficult and complicated place for Jews. On the day I was detained, I saw Arabs with sheep, Jews with sheep, and soldiers and police, and I felt that the situation was difficult and disappointing."
Franks told Haaretz that the second time he was detained, he "saw seven soldiers approaching a Palestinian boy. I pulled out my camera and was immediately arrested" for obstructing a public employee. A police source said that, following the arrest of a foreign national, different districts notify the National Police Headquarters, which notify the Population and Immigration Authority.
Usually, when Jews overseas want to make aliyah, they contact aliyah agencies to make arrangements in advance. But Franks, like others, first arrived in Israel on a tourist visa and began the official immigration process while in the country. Because his passport was confiscated, he could not go to his scheduled appointment.
His lawyers, Michal Pomeranz and Arie Rosina, filed a court order to return his passport to him. Chief Inspector Shmuel Ashkenazi told the court that his passport had been confiscated to encourage him to leave the country. "He has a photograph of his passport. He has to show us a ticket that shows that he intends to leave the country. This is a man who has been questioned three times by the police. He's committing a crime.
"The objective is for him to leave the country. Anyone who commits a crime – a guest in Israel who commits a crime – his place is not in Israel. If he leaves the country," Ashkenazi told Jerusalem District Court Judge Yaron Mientkavich, "I'll lift the proceedings against him." Judge Mientkavich ruled that no one has the power to confiscate a passport and, additionally, that it's not clear how confiscating a passport will result in Franks leaving the country. "The passport is almost the only form of identification that he has. I see no purpose in holding it."
Despite the return of Franks' passport, his aliyah process at the Jewish Agency was halted and the Population and Immigration Authority refused to extend his tourist visa, rendering his stay in Israel illegal. The authority's decision states that in his interview, Franks chose "not to answer questions directly, was evasive and gave generalized and generic answers. It's not clear what his main purpose is in staying in Israel and what his acts are," though Franks made it clear in the interview that he want to make aliyah to join his Israeli partner.
"Even if he has a criminal past or open indictments, the state may not demand that he leave the country without examining his status application under the Law of Return," wrote his lawyers Pomerantz and Rosino in their appeal to the District Court. Judge Einat Avman-Muller dismissed the appeal and ordered Franks to pay a fee. The appeal was dismissed on procedural grounds, because he did not file an appeal with the appellate court against the decision not to extend his visa.
"I've never had a problem entering Israel," said Franks. "I wasn't previously politically active. They're looking at someone, for whom the only thing that they have [as a record] is being arrested at a protest – the arrest of a Jew at a hostage protest."
The country is deciding "who is a Jew or not on the basis of political opinion. I'm being deported, and that's really hard emotionally. What they're doing is unbelievable," Franks said. "My relationship is over because I'm being deported from Israel. They [pro-Palestinian protesters] are saying that Jews should go back to Europe, and now the interior minister is sending a Jew back to Europe," he told Haaretz.
Under the court decision, Franks must leave Israel by Sunday. "I'll try to make aliyah remotely, but I'm hoping for a miracle and [that] I will be able to stay in Israel," he said.
Israel's Population and Immigration Authority said in response: "The individual is a British tourist who arrived in Israel about five months ago and requested an extension of his visa after it expired. Due to insufficient grounds, his request was denied, and the court ruled that he must leave the country. It was clarified that no immigration request was submitted, and he was advised to apply for immigration in his home country."
The Israel police stated that Franks was detained by soldiers for interfering with their work and had his passport confiscated. He was later arrested under similar circumstances and released with restrictions. According to the police, Frank's passport was seized as part of the procedure for detaining foreign nationals in Israel to ensure they attend investigations if required and do not evade the country.