The administration of Donald Trump resorted to a private jet property of Florida real estate magnate Gil Dezer to execute a sensitive operation deportation of Palestinians detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICEfor its acronym in English) towards Tel Aviv, Israelfrom where they were transferred to the Occupied West Bank. A new investigation by the English newspaper Guardian maintains that the plane, a 16-seat Gulfstream, was used on at least two recent occasions to transport groups of men arrested in the United States.
According to the investigation, the first documented flight took off on the morning of January 21 from a nearby airport to an expulsion center in Arizona and arrived in Israel after three refueling stops: New Jersey, Ireland y Bulgaria. Upon arrival, a group of eight Palestinians was received by security personnel at Ben Gurion Airport and later transferred to a checkpoint near the village of Ni’linwhere, according to testimonies collected, they were left on the road with prison clothes and few belongings.
Stopovers in Europe
The second use of the same aircraft for this operation occurred on Monday of this weekwhen another batch of Palestinian deportees was transported to Tel Aviv and, according to the same sources, also later taken to the West Bank. Aircraft tracking data cited in the report indicate that both journeys included stopovers in Shannon (Ireland) and Sofia (Bulgaria), a point that could raise questions about the legal status of passengers during transit through third countries.
Former US officials and immigration lawyers consulted interpret these flights – and Israeli collaboration in the final transfer to occupied territory – as a sign of policy change within the framework of a campaign mass deportations more aggressive. The operation also stands out for the use of high-end private aviation in a procedure usually managed with less exposed charter flights.
The owner of the plane and the charter broker
The jet bears the logo of This Developmenta company founded by Michael Dezer and currently managed by his son Gil. The Dezers maintain a historic business relationship with Trump: participated in the construction of Trump-branded residential towers in Miami and, according to financing records cited in the investigation, have contributed more than 1.3 million dollars to the former president’s presidential campaigns.
Furthermore, Gil Dezer is campaign donor and maintains personal ties with the president’s family circle: he is a friend of Donald Trump and member of the Miami branch of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. The aircraft was contracted by ICE through Journey Aviationa Florida company dedicated to renting private planes that declined to comment on the operation.
Dezer, for his part, maintained in an email that he does not know the identity of those who fly when his plane is rented through an intermediary and that he only receives notification of the dates of use. He did not respond to additional questions about the use of his jet in deportations of Palestinians via Israel, according to the report.
Handcuffed and separated from their families
One of the deportees identified is Maher Awad24 years old, originally from the West Bank and resident in the US for almost a decade. Awad and another named passenger, Sameer Isam Aziz Zeidanthey described that they traveled handcuffed and handcuffed; Awad stated that they also placed a body restraint on him that made it difficult to eat. After being dropped off near Ni’lin, local residents helped them, gave them food and made calls to relatives who, according to the testimony collected, had not been in contact for some time and considered them missing.
In Zeidan’s case, his family explained that he lived in Louisiana, in the USA, with his wife and five children and who was detained by ICE more than a year ago after not renewing his green card (permanent residence permit). Awad, for his part, assured that his life was in Michigan: he studied there, worked in family businesses and started a family with an American couple, who gave birth while he was detained. He also reported that an arrest related to a complaint that was later withdrawn led to his capture by ICE upon leaving the local jail.
Regarding the cost of flights, the investigation indicates that ICE has indicated in the past that the price of charter flights ranges from almost 7.000 and more than $26,000 per hourand that sector sources estimated between 400,000 and 500,000 dollars the cost of a round trip to Israel.
A spokesperson for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) avoided responding to the English media about these specific flights, but defended the general policy: if a judge determines that a person does not have the right to remain in the country, “we are going to expel them.” He State Department He limited himself to saying that he coordinates with DHS the repatriation of people in an irregular situation. Neither the Israeli Foreign Ministry nor the Israeli prison service commented on their role in the operation, according to the Guardian.
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