U.S. Dancer Forced To Hoof Way Into Israel

Alvin Ailey Dancer Says Suspicious Israeli Security Made Him Dance At Jerusalem Airport

(AP)  A performer with the famed American Alvin Ailey dance troupe says he was twice forced to perform steps for Israeli airport security officers to prove his identity before he was permitted to enter the country.

Abdur-Rahim Jackson, an eight-year veteran of the African American dance ensemble, said he was singled out by Israel's renowned airport security because he has a Muslim name. He called the experience embarrassing and said at one point, one of the officers even suggested he change his name.

"To be greeted like this because of my name, it took me back a little bit," Jackson said.

Israel is the first stop on a six-nation tour celebrating the New York-based dance company's 50th anniversary. Earlier this year, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution calling the group a "vital American cultural ambassador to the world."

Jackson said he was pulled aside from other members of the troupe when they arrived at Israel's international airport on Sunday night. He said he was taken to a holding room, where he was asked about the origins of his name. When he explained he was part of the dance group, he was asked to perform.

"I stood up. I asked what type of dance?" he explained. "He said, 'Just do anything.' I just moved around."

Minutes later, he said a female officer put him through a similar interrogation and asked him to dance again.

"The only time I'm really expected to dance is when I'm performing," he said.

Jackson said he received his name because his father was a convert to Islam. Jackson said he was not raised a Muslim, does not consider himself religious and is engaged to a Jewish woman in the troupe who has relatives in Israel.

Jackson said he did not plan to press the matter further, saying the numerous apologies he has received from American dignitaries and his Israeli hosts is "enough for me." The Israel Ports Authority said it had no comment because it did not receive a formal complaint.

The incident was reported in Israel's largest newspaper and on an Israeli television news and interview program. "The security guards should be sent home or (the airport) will become a mental asylum," said Motti Kirshenbaum, a veteran commentator and host of the Channel 10 TV program.

Israel is constantly on the alert for attack because of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and extremist Islamic rejection of the Jewish state's existence. Security is strict at all entry points and inside the country.

Israel is famous for the effectiveness of its airport security. But a key element in its security checks is ethnic profiling. The practice has been criticized by Israeli human rights campaigners as racist because it singles out Arabs for tougher treatment.

Such profiling is illegal in the United States, but Jackson said that the only place he has had a similarly humiliating experience in the past was at a U.S. airport when he returned from a vacation in the Dominican Republic.

Jackson said that since the Israeli airport incident, the reception in Israel has been "amazing."

"We're only here to bring positive light to our lives and the people here," he said, calling the group's multicultural appeal "an amazing bind you can't touch, you can only experience."

[xraytwonine]

hahahah, this just further proof to muslims that america is waging a holy war along side with the jews, WWIII bring it on, let millions of young people die once more for stupid and prejudice beliefs from the past

[ramos937]

Fred Astaire used to have the same problem. The thing was that the airline security folks loved his dancing.
Cannot history repeat itself?

[rjs1955]

Get over it everyone. In airports us performing musicians are not infrequently asked to take out our instruments and prove that they are real by playing, often saxophonists whose instrument''s neckpipe looks a bit like a pistol under x-ray.

[republic1776]

Oh well, get over it.
It''s not America; it''s Israel, Abdur-Rahim.
The ace is you are probably, Gay to boot!

[neoconslayer]

He had a muslim sounding name...?
And here all this time i thought the Israelis had courage.

[neoconslayer]

rjs1955: Ummmm, why would you have to actually play the saxaphone? Isn''t the fact that when you take it out of the case it happens to be a saxaphone enough?

[imotorist]

Israeli profiling should be adopted worldwide. There would be greater security. Your civil liberties mean nothing if you are not alive to enjoy them.........

[rjs1955]

rjs1955: Ummmm, why would you have to actually play the saxaphone? Isn''''t the fact that when you take it out of the case it happens to be a saxaphone enough?

:-) Hi neoconslayer.... It isn''t enough for some of the low paid, undertrained, frankly don''t know their a$$ from a hole in the ground folks that have actually asked me, "what is that, a musical instrument??"

[greeneyes222]

A performer complaining he was embarrassed to have to perform? The guy''s looking to get his name out there, and CBS just obliged.

[summarex]

Imagine being a Palestinian and having to put up with those scumbags all year round! No wonder they want to kill them. Who wouldn''t!

[summarex]

Imagine being a Palestinian and having to put up with those scumbags all year round! No wonder they want to kill them. Who wouldn''t!

[nishaboston]

The Isrealis zionist are just as racist as anyone else. If this happend to a jew they would be screaming bloody murder.

[ajaxtheleast]

That''s like the judge who sentensed one of

Larry Craig''s "friends" to toe-tapping out

in Morse Code The King James Version

of The Holy Bible.


(Then again maybe it''s not.)

[brianbwb-2009]

"A performer complaining he was embarrassed to have to perform? The guy''s looking to get his name out there, and CBS just obliged." Posted by greeneyes222

Whatever your livlihood is would you submit to doing your job for no pay just to go through an airport?

Idiot.

[brianbwb-2009]

"There would be greater security. Your civil liberties mean nothing if you are not alive to enjoy them........." Posted by imotorist

They also mean nothing if you are alive, but don''t have them.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Such profiling is illegal in the United States, but Jackson said that the only place he has had a similarly humiliating experience in the past was at a U.S. airport when he returned from a vacation in the Dominican Republic."

LAX is the worst. I have the same problem returning, and I am an American and don''t even have a Muslim name, but share one commonality with Abdur-Rahim Jackson, ethnicity.

If it is illegal, next time, I am going to bring my handycam.