Israeli Government: ‘Atlantic’ Editor’s Detainment Was ‘Administrative Mistake’

Peter Beinart, a contributing editor for The Atlantic, was detained in Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport due to an “administrative mistake,” according to a press release from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. According to the statement, Netanyahu “immediately spoke with forces to inquire” why Beinart was detained and questioned at the airport. The prime minister was then told it was an “administrative mistake.” “Israel is an open society that welcomes all–critics and supporters alike,” the statement read. In a column for The Forward, Beinart said he was on his way to his niece’s Bat Mitzvah in Israel on Sunday when he was pulled aside for an extra screening. His account describes how an interrogator asked him “political questions” about groups he was involved with and how he “participated in a protest” on Israeli soil in the past. “[The interrogator] established no consistent or objective standard for my detention,” Beinhart wrote. “His standard was whether I planned to cause trouble—trouble meaning whatever he and his superiors wanted it to mean.”