On the morning of January 21, eight Palestinian men arrived at a checkpoint in the Palestinian territories. They were wearing U.S. prison-issued athletic clothing and carrying their few belongings in plastic bags. Hours earlier, they had been sitting in plush leather seats aboard a private jet owned by Florida real estate magnate Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of U.S. President Donald Trump.
That same plane, The Guardian reported Sunday, was used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport Palestinians from the United States, making several such flights from Arizona to Tel Aviv. Dezer is a donor to Trump, a friend of Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., and a member of the Miami chapter of Friends of the IDF. According to the British newspaper, Dezer’s sleek Gulfstream jet, which he dubbed “my little rocket ship,” was used to transport the men from an airport near a well-known deportation center in Arizona, making three refueling stops along the way: in New Jersey, Ireland and Bulgaria.
The Guardian investigation found that the flight was part of a secretive and politically sensitive operation by the U.S. administration to deport Palestinians detained by immigration authorities. One of those deported on the January flight was Maher Awad, 24, originally from the Palestinian territories, who had lived in the United States for nearly a decade. Awad told The Guardian: “I grew up in America. It was paradise for me.” He added that his wife and daughter remain in the United States and that he is looking for a way to return.
According to the report, last Monday Dezer’s luxury jet, which seats 16 passengers, was used a second time to transport another group of deported Palestinians. They landed at Ben Gurion International Airport and also appeared to have been taken to the West Bank. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the deportees arrived at Ben Gurion accompanied by a group of Israeli security personnel. From there, Awad said, armed guards took them to a checkpoint near the village of Naalin in the Ramallah area. “They dropped us off like animals on the side of the road,” Awad said. “We went to one of the houses, knocked on the door and asked for help.”
Mohammad Kanaan, a university professor whose home is near the checkpoint, recalled the moment they appeared in the village. “I was shocked to see them walking toward my home and my village. The Israeli army usually does not release prisoners at this checkpoint,” Kanaan told The Guardian. “They stayed with me only two hours. During that time we gave them food. They called their families, who came to pick them up or arranged transportation.”
According to the human rights group Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights, Dezer’s plane made four additional flights to Africa starting in October, before its two most recent flights to Israel.
Dezer told The Guardian that he was not aware of the identities of those aboard his plane when it was privately chartered. “The only thing I’m notified about is the dates of use,” he said. He did not respond to further questions about the use of his aircraft by the Trump administration to deport Palestinians from the United States to the Palestinian territories.
U.S. officials did not answer questions about the cost of the two most recent flights to Israel. In the past, charter flight costs have ranged from nearly $7,000 to more than $26,000 per flight hour. Aviation industry sources estimated that the flights to and from Israel cost ICE between $400,000 and $500,000.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security also did not respond to The Guardian’s questions about the deportation flights to Israel but said: “If a judge determines that an individual has no right to be in this country, we will deport them. Period.” The State Department declined to comment beyond saying it works “in close coordination with the Department of Homeland Security regarding efforts to return individuals who are unlawfully present to their home countries.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Prison Service declined to comment on their involvement.
The operation took place amid months of turmoil in the United States surrounding the federal agency, which Trump sent to operate in city centers across the country. In Minneapolis, among other places, agents were involved in shooting incidents involving civilians that ended in fatalities.
As noted, the plane made refueling stops in Ireland, where officials condemned the use of Shannon Airport for deporting Palestinians from the United States. The Irish government said in a statement that because the flights stopped in the country for “non-traffic purposes” and “did not embark or disembark passengers,” they did not require prior approval from its Department of Transport.
Duncan Smith, the Labour Party’s foreign affairs spokesman in Ireland, said it was “deeply outrageous that ICE deportation flights are allowed to stop and refuel at Shannon. The prime minister and the transport minister must intervene to ensure this stops. Ireland cannot, under any circumstances, be complicit in these ICE flights.”
Roderic O’Gorman, leader of Ireland’s Green Party, said it was “deeply disturbing to know that Shannon Airport is being used to assist the cruel actions of Donald Trump’s ICE.”