Lakeland Family Reunited After Kids Stuck In Israel

TAMPA - The Yacoub family is intact - well, mostly.

Six of seven children were home in Lakeland on Friday after being prohibited from boarding an airplane in Tel Aviv, Israel, more than two weeks ago because of their Palestinian heritage.

The last remaining child, 22-year-old Danny, remained in the West Bank, staying with relatives and refusing, his family said Friday afternoon, to bow to Israeli pressure to register as a Palestinian and get a Palestinian passport. All of the Yacoub children - there are 10 - were born in Lakeland and are U.S. citizens. Their mother and father were born in Palestinian territory but moved to the United States 30 years ago and obtained their citizenship more than 20 years ago.

Wedad Yacoub, the matriarch of the large family, flew to Tel Aviv on June 1 with her 10 children to visit family and attend a wedding in the West Bank. They have been making the trip every summer for five years, the family has said, and never had any problems.

On Aug. 18, the Yacoubs hit a snag. When the family tried to board an airplane at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv, they were turned away by Israeli authorities who said that because Wedad Yacoub and her husband, Steve, who was not with the family, were born in Palestinian territory, none of the Yacoubs could leave the country without registering as Palestinians.

They were told they all needed to obtain Palestinian passports, even though they were U.S. citizens, said Jamila Baraka, community relations coordinator with the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group that is helping the Yacoub family.

Israeli authorities eventually permitted Wedad Yacoub and three of her youngest children, ages 3, 5 and 10, to leave but did not allow the seven older children, ages 11 to 22, and they were sent back to the homes of relatives in the West Bank, Baraka said.

Baraka said pleas to the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem and American authorities here have fallen on deaf ears. The publicity has resulted in calls of support but no real help, she said.

Baraka said she doesn't understand why U.S. officials don't step in.

At a news conference Friday afternoon at CAIR headquarters in Temple Terrace, Yacoub and her children addressed the media.

'I'm very happy we're together, relieved,' Wedad Yacoub said afterward. 'I was stressed, upset because they were away from me.'

Several of her children said what they missed most was friends and school, which they plan to resume Monday.

'I was really sad when they sent us back,' 11-year-old Denna Yacoub said. 'We were all crying.'

Baraka said the CAIR chapter made pleas to any and all government agencies and officials. 'Unfortunately, we haven't seen any action,' merely support for their predicament, she said. CAIR established an account to help the family recoup some of the unexpected travel expenses.

The six children who were allowed to leave all registered as Palestinians and got Palestinian passports, they said. They flew from Jordan to Orlando via Chicago and arrived about 2 a.m. Friday, they said.

At the airport, 'we left the car running and we ran to each other,' said the children's mother.

The ordeal cost the Yacoub family $15,000, they said.