Two Israeli brothers who survived the Nova music festival massacre by Hamas are returning home early from Britain on Tuesday after they were aggressively questioned on arrival at Manchester Airport.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said he was investigating a Border Force officer’s treatment of Daniel Sharabi, 23, and Neria Sharabi, 22, which was partially captured on video.
Neria Sharabi, who says they both suffer PTSD as a result of the murderous Hamas attacks, demanded an apology from the UK Government and the dismissal of the Border Force officer after they were grilled for two hours before they were allowed into the country on Sunday.
“We’ve been through the most horrible thing in the world and we just wanted to share our story,” he told the Standard, after the brothers helped to fight off some of the gunmen and rescue other festival-goers on October 7.
“But I don’t feel safe to walk about in England if this is how the cops treat us. I never want to come back to England,” he said, explaining they were meant to be staying for a week but had decided to cut short their trip.
The brothers had flown to Manchester to share their experience with Jewish groups and raise awareness for an organisation they set up to help survivors of the terror attacks, which have resulted in months of war by Israel in Gaza.
The footage shown on social media shows a male, white Border Force officer speaking forcefully to the brothers on their arrival off a flight from Brussels. He tells them to “keep quiet, look at me…” and states: "We are the bosses, not you."
Neria Sharabi said: “When he learned we are Israeli, we are Jewish, the officer just changed his face and it became antisemitism. He took us away from other people and started to interrogate us.
“He was saying ‘did you serve in the army, how long? He said ‘we want to make sure you’re not going to do here what you are doing in Gaza’.”
The survivor said: “I want to see him not working any more and I want an apology to us and to all the Jewish people from theGovernment, from the border police.”
The Home Secretary tweeted: “We are investigating this.
“We do not tolerate antisemitism or any form of discrimination. This incident will be handled in line with our disciplinary procedures,” Mr Cleverly said.
The brothers’ experience was first highlighted by the Jewish Representative Council for Greater Manchester.
Its chief executive Marc Levy told the Standard that it was a “clear case of antisemitism” and urged the Government to intervene with the Border Force, which is part of the Home Office.
A spokesperson for Manchester Airport stressed that immigration responsibility at its entry points lay with Border Force but underlined: “This incident was clearly really serious and we support the Home Office in its investigation.”
