“You make me want to vomit.” That was how Israel’s Ambassador to Panama Reda Mansour signed off of a harsh Aug. 3 post describing the security check he and his family endured at Ben-Gurion International Airport. In the post, which was shared hundreds of times, Mansour recounted the humiliating attitude of the guard at the entrance to Israel’s main international airport after the car’s driver said in response to her question that they had come from the Druze village of Isfiya. Mansour described how in her tone and body language, the guard treated him like a “boot camp company commander.” The bizarre reaction of Airport Authority spokesperson Ofer Lefler fanned the flames. “The guard’s job is to check every vehicle entering the airport,” he said, adding, “The security inspection at Ben-Gurion Airport is carried out equally regardless of race, religion, and sex … I suggest the honorable ambassador tell his daughter that the security guard is doing everything she can to protect her and the State of Israel.”

Is that the case? Are the Ben-Gurion security checks truly equitable and impartial? It is safe to assume that almost every Arab citizen of Israel would ridicule such a claim and could provide at least one personal experience of being humiliated during border security checks. The bitter experience of Israeli Arabs clearly shows that Israel’s profiling methods used for the security inspections on people entering and exiting Israel automatically tag all Israeli Arab citizens as a high threat due to their ethnicity.

Examples are abundant. Take, for instance, the hazing experienced by Amna Freij — daughter of Knesset member Issawi Freij of the Meretz Party — who was on her way abroad in April 2018. She and her friend were the only ones pulled out of the line during the security check, taken to a side room and required to take off their clothes if they wanted to be allowed to board the flight. Or the humiliation felt by actress Samar Qupty — star of the movie “Junction 48” — on her way to a film festival in Colombia. “So dear BG Airport, I wanted to thank you … for taking the trouble to remind me every time anew how unwelcome I am here,” she wrote in a long July 2016 post describing her experience.

Let us also mention the unforgettable February 2014 incident in which Ezies Elias-Shehadeh, an Arab teacher from the Israeli Jewish town of Tirat HaCarmel, was separated from her students and strip-searched. How stupid is a system that suspects a teacher traveling with her students? Is the Airport Authority more concerned about the safety of Jewish children than their families, who had no problem with an Arab teacher accompanying their kids?