Israeli Passport Sticker Raises Eyebrows At Beirut Airport

That happened to me few weeks ago. I have two citizenships. Lenanese and American. I was stopped and went to office for 3 hours questioning then they held my passports and took my phone and told me to pick up in few days from another place. I went to pick up few days later they told me come the next day after waiting one hour in the street. I went next day and they put me in a room and then questioned me for 6 hours. I was exhausted. Finally they gave me my passports and phone and let me go. It was a very bad experience for me that i never encountered in my life just because i had a sticker on back of my passport for visiting my mother in law. Hope I don’t have to go thru that again

I wish I paid attention to this before I landed in Beirut! The back of my passports is full of security stickers which I never paid attention to! They asked me if I’ve ever been to Israel and I said no. He said ok step to the side.. couple minutes later I was told to go into an office. They went through all the stickers on the back of my passport, found 2 Israeli ones, they were very offended that I lied, got banned from entering Lebanon and was sent on the first flight out. US Passport.

Yomk,
Well, at least they let you in. Of course, because you're from the enemy country make them be more cautious, even if you visited enemy country before that, that makes them even more paranoid, even if you have US citizenship. Actually US passport doesn't make any difference to them, you could have done it with Arab country passport, they would let you in most likely. But on the other hand they deny entry to Israelis. I remember I was trying to fly LHR-DXB-MLE on EK, so I called the office of EK and asked them if I can transit via DXB with israeli passport - they said no, you can't enter UAE. I say - I'm not going to enter UAE, just transit, they still said - no you can't board EK plane with Israeli passport.

I think people don't really understand the history of Lebanon and perceive that the hatred of Israel or Jews is a Lebanese trait. In actual fact Lebanon had a vibrant and prosperous Jewish community for millennia. Lebanon was a multi-cultural place, with stability preserved by a delicate balance of Christian, Muslim, and minority communities (Jews, Armenians, etc). Lebanon was not in any way infected by Arab Pan-Nationalism, and didn't even take any material role in the Six Day War in 1967 that saw all its neighbors defeated and losing territory to Israel.

This stability was destroyed by Palestinians with the arrival of Yasser Arafat in 1970. Arafat waged guerrilla warfare from within Lebanese territory, involving his guest country in a dispute it had previously avoided and reforming the politics of Lebanon into factions both for and against Arafat, destroying the status quo ante and the delicate balance of power.

Arafat and his troops also started the Lebanese Civil War and stoked hatred between Lebanese Christians and Muslims. Arafat famously said "the road to Jerusalem runs through Jounieh," which is a famously Christian Marronite town. His troops sieged and then occupied the Christian village of Damour and slaughtered 582 of its occupants. Christians began to flee Lebanon, PLO began moving more people in, and the stability Lebanon had enjoyed for ages was at an end.

With the Lebanese polity unable to stop Arafat's guerrilla warfare from Lebanon, the Israelis got fed up and invaded, which gave Arafat the opportunity to seize half of Beirut, and the situation deteriorated from there. So some of the above narratives leave out quite a bit about Lebanon's history. Of course it is convenient to blame Israel, but Lebanese know that the PLO, Arafat, and "the Butcher of Damour" Zuhayr Muhsin have the most to blame for the country's disintegration.

Fifteen countries that do not recognize the state of Israel also do not admit Israeli passport holders:
Algeria[16]
Bangladesh[17]
Brunei[18]
Iran[19][20]
Iraq[21]
Kuwait[22]
Lebanon[23]
Libya[24]
Malaysia1[25]
Pakistan[26]
Saudi Arabia[27][28]
Sudan[29]
Syria[30]
United Arab Emirates2[31]
Yemen[32][33]

In addition, eight of these countries — Iran,[34] Kuwait,[35] Lebanon,[36] Libya,[37] Saudi Arabia,[38] Sudan,[39] Syria[40] and Yemen[41] — do not allow entry to people with evidence of travel to Israel, or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa.

Saudi Arabia will not allow any Jews into the country, if they know that you're a Jew. You can pretend that you're not.

There is a lot of outdated and misinformation online regarding Israeli stamps/evidence of visits to Israel on your passport, but it's well known that Lebanon (and a few other places like Iran & Syria) are still 100% anti-Israel and it is standard practice to deny entry to anyone who has evidence of visiting Israel.

Ben you were lucky that you didn't get denied entrance. The sticker was evidence enough to deny you entry, but had they dug further and pulled up this blog and seen all your posts about your visit, it would have been even worse. I was quietly wondering if your blog would have gotten you denied, but have to say that leaving the sticker on was careless and naive indeed.

Most Arab nations have moved on and Israeli stamps are no longer a problem - I had no issues for example in Qatar, UAE, Jordan, or Oman. That said, a few countries keep up this petty policy, with Lebanon leading the pack.

@Lucky. Israeli sticker issue aside - Beirut Airport is a national embarrassment for any foreigners traveling into and out of the country.

For a country on the verge of bankruptcy and economic collapse, Lebanon's bread and butter is tourism and the airport experience leaves many tourists with such a bad taste of the country for them to reconsider coming back again and spend their much needed dollars in the local economy.

The security and immigration lines can be painfully slow, airport personnel can be quite rude, and there are frequent shouting matches between passengers who try to cut the lines. The existing facilities cannot cope with the shear volume of passengers it was designed for as it now also serves as the de facto international airport for Syria. The crowds at the airport last summer was absolute chaos.

As a foreigner living in Lebanon, I have to endure this grueling experience every time I travel from here. Works are currently being done for a new fast track lane for first and business class passengers to ease overall congestion which should open by the end of May - hopefully this will help! I am finally glad the government is doing something about the airport as its quite pathetic how it became over the recent years....

For most Islamic countries, there must be no evidence that you've visited Israel. On one trip, I went first to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. When first visiting the Islamic countries, I did not even travel with my Israel sightseeing book or any papers about my Israel hotel reservations. I mailed them ahead of my trip to my Jerusalem hotel.

As a result, I haven't had any problems visiting Islamic countries.

But, boy, have I had issues visiting Israel, including leaving Israel due to passport stamps from Islamic countries. Once when I was leaving Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, security acted flabbergasted that I had dared to visit some Islamic countries. I was repeatedly asked why would I visit such "filthy" countries. I said because I simply love to travel and see places for myself rather than just reading about them. For 3 hours, I was grilled and my luggage searched by 5 different security, including a strip search - all because of Islamic country stamps in my passport. No other reason - I'm middle aged and conservative looking, so I don't fit the profile of an international terrorist.

So beware travelers.