13 US citizens denied entry to Israel for weeklong trip to learn about Palestinian Christians

(RNS) — A group of 13 United States citizens who traveled to Israel to take part in a weeklong trip with a Christian organization dedicated to Palestinian liberation theology were denied entry at the border last week.

The interfaith group, led by retired Emory University theology professor L. Edward Phillips and his wife, t he Rev. Sara Webb Phillips, an ordained United Methodist minister, were set to tour Jerusalem and West Bank sites with the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, a 40-year-old nonprofit organization registered in Israel.

They traveled from the U.S. to Jordan and had planned to enter Israel via the Sheikh Hussein Crossing when they were interrogated by Israeli border agents. Nine were initially granted visas and allowed into Israel, while four were denied. Then in a turnabout, Israeli border authorities boarded a bus where the nine were waiting and seized and cancelled their visas.

“I always wanted to be first at something,” said L. Edward Phillips, 71, who taught historical theology and worship at Emory’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, speaking by phone from Jordan. “Now I’m the first person to lead a Christian delegation into the West Bank…