Indian pilgrims accuse Israeli authorities of bias

Israeli authorities on Tuesday were accused of "name discrimination" after a group of Goan Christians were denied visa to Jerusalem.

A batch of 97 Christians, last month, had embarked on a pilgrimage tour to Jordan, Egypt and Israel. Among them 14 Christians were denied entry to Israel after the authorities allegedly "went by names".

The "Israeli interior ministry clearly went by names," says Edmund Antao, their tour operator.

"Even a name like Fatima was enough for them to deny the pilgrim a visa. They denied one of our fellow pilgrims a visa because he was named Albuquerque," he said, pointing that the surname was wrongly perceived as Al-buquerque' that has Arabic overtones.

The Indian Ambassador to Israel Navtej Sarna has been ordered to check with his Israeli counterpart on the reason for denying visa.

"We have insisted that the interior ministry give us a cogent reply as to why the pilgrims were denied visas. They only intended to visit the holy land for pilgrimage," said Eduardo Faleiro, commissioner for NRI affairs of the Goa government.

Faleiro has also ordered a probe into the nexus between travel agents in Goa and Israel.

"Applications for visas have to be submitted to an Israeli mission based in India. Travel agents in India straightway contact their counterparts in Israel for visas, which is blatantly illegal and calls for a high level probe," IANS quoted Faleiro saying.

"They realised their visa had been rejected when they reached the borders of Israel at the end of a 17 day pilgrimage to Jordan and Egypt," the former union minister of state for foreign affairs said.