Renana Reuveni and her infant daughter, Angelica, were detained for five hours at Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada, where they had arrived for a vacation, allegedly only because they are Israeli, according to her account.
"I felt like they were treating me like a terrorist or a criminal," she recounted. "They hassled and humiliated me for hours while my baby was crying. They searched my suitcase and even checked my tampons. It’s clear to me it was because I’m Israeli. The immigration officer yelled at me and said, 'You’re in a foreign country and you’ll do as I say.' He had hate showing in his eyes and seemed determined to humiliate me," the young mother said.
Reuveni and her husband, attorney Yaron, live in Ashdod. With the start of the war in Gaza, they were evacuated to Eilat, but after a month they temporarily relocated to London and planned a month-long vacation in Toronto.
Their relative, Celeste (Tchelet) Fishbein, was murdered in Kibbutz Be'eri on October 7. The Reuveni family rented an apartment in Canada, but her husband did not receive approval for it via email for an unclear reason. Renana decided to travel ahead with her baby and wait for him to join them later. After an eight-hour flight, they landed in Toronto, and then the ordeal began.
"I was put in a queue with dozens of people, with no place to drink or change my baby’s diapers, just standing," she said. "The line didn’t move, and I was completely exhausted. The baby lost her patience; she was tired and hungry after the long flight. I told them the baby’s food and toys were in the suitcases, and only after a few hours did they allow me to get food from the suitcase.
“They took my passport and told me to go get the suitcase and food, and return. They hassled me at the airport. After that, we went back to the same queue. They didn’t care that I had a baby with me. I was the only Israeli being detained there. When I asked why they were holding me, they said it was because I had an Israeli passport. They placed me in normal queues without consideration for my baby."
"After three and a half hours of waiting, I reached the officer, who appeared to be Muslim," she continued. "He asked to see my ticket and started asking me all sorts of strange questions. I told him I had been there for several hours and needed to change the baby’s diaper."
“He silenced me and said, 'You’re in a foreign country; it’s not over until I say it’s over.' He looked at me with hate in his eyes. After that, he told me to sit outside and wait. Meanwhile, he printed the approvals and continued to harass me even though he could’ve released me," according to Reuveni.
Reuveni said that the officer and another worker later escorted her to get her luggage. "They took me to a closed area and turned my suitcases upside down, went through all the underwear and tampons I had in the bag, and counted every coin to see how much money I had," she said.
"It wasn’t normal; he turned everything upside down. I have no idea what he was looking for. He went through everything. I felt like a terrorist being subjected to a security check like I was a criminal. All this while my child was screaming after being hassled for hours. I had to stand, answer all sorts of questions, and they had the answers printed out right in front of them. They did it on purpose," she charged.
The incident ended after five hours, and Reevuni was allowed to enter Toronto, but she said the officer ruined her vacation. Her husband, Yaron, said from London, "Even though we rented the apartment for a month, my wife and the baby received a document allowing them to stay in Canada for only two weeks.
“Their visas noted that both of them, including the one-year-old baby, were not allowed to work, study or undertake academic training in Canada. It’s outrageous to treat people like this just because they’re Israeli," he said.
The Canadian Embassy in Israel has yet to respond to the incident.