The practices occur at Israel's international Ben Gurion airport, as well as at many foreign airports where Israeli security officials are entitled to carry out pre-flight checks on behalf of Israeli carriers.
In addition to being forced to undress for body searches, Arab passengers are often detained in secure rooms in the departure area before their flights and escorted on to planes by security staff in full view of other passengers. They may also have their hand luggage confiscated.
However, it is the first time it has been suggested that Israeli security staff are carrying out procedures that break Israeli law. Nadeem Shehadeh, an Adalah lawyer, told Al-Jazeera the organisation had written to Israel's attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, and the Israel Airports Authority demanding that strip-searches and security escorts be stopped immediately. [...]
Shlomo Harnoy, a former senior officer with Israel's secret intelligence service, the Shin Bet, which oversees airport security checks, told the Jerusalem Post newspaper in July that Israel was "unique" in profiling passengers. Israel's supreme court refused last year to outlaw racial profiling, though it expressed discomfort with the policy and urged the Airports Authority to find technological solutions to lessen its impact.
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