Former HHS Secretary Questioned at Israeli Airport

posted on: Aug 8, 2010

A former secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department says she was interrogated at the Ben-Gurion International Airport in Israel last month.

Donna Shalala, who is of Lebanese descent, is now the president of the University of Miami. She was visiting Israel in July as part of a delegation of university leaders invited by the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange. Shalala stayed after the convention to meet with a group setting up a new medical school in Israel.

University spokeswoman Margot Winick said in an e-mail that Shalala was delayed as she was leaving Israel with security questions and a luggage search that took nearly 3 hours. But she didn’t miss her flight.

Israeli airport authority officials said there was no record of the search.

Associated Press