A private jet owned by Florida real estate developer and Trump associate Gil Dezer was used to deport Palestinian detainees from the United States to Israel and then to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as part of a U.S. government removal operation, according to a Guardian investigation.
The report found that on January 21 eight Palestinian men arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were flown from Arizona to Tel Aviv aboard Dezer’s Gulfstream jet, chartered through a Florida-based company that frequently contracts with federal agencies.
Flight tracking data reviewed by the Guardian shows the aircraft made refueling stops in New Jersey, Ireland, and Bulgaria before landing in Israel. A second deportation flight using the same jet took place on February 1.
Former U.S. officials and immigration lawyers told the Guardian the flights appear to reflect a shift in deportation practice, involving third-country coordination and transfers into occupied territory, which they said could raise due process and jurisdictional questions.
One deportee, Maher Awad, 24, who had lived in the United States for nearly a decade, told the Guardian he and others were transported in restraints and later left at a West Bank checkpoint by Israeli authorities. “They dropped us off like animals on the side of the road,” Awad said. “We went to a local house, we knocked on the door, we were like: ‘Please help us out.'”
Mohammad Kanaan, a university professor living near the checkpoint, said the men appeared without prior notice. “The Israeli army usually doesn’t release prisoners at this checkpoint,” he said, adding that families believed some detainees were missing due to lack of contact.
Human Rights First, which monitors deportation flights, told the Guardian the use of privately chartered aircraft is part of what it called “an opaque system” supporting large-scale removals with limited public visibility and accountability. The group reported that Dezer’s jet had conducted several other deportation missions to African countries in recent months.
Dezer told the Guardian by email he was “never privy to the names” or purposes of charter flights arranged through brokers and said he is only notified of dates of use. Journey Aviation, the charter broker identified in the report, declined to comment. U.S. officials did not answer questions about flight costs, which aviation sources estimated at up to $500,000 per trip.
The report also showed that refueling stops in Ireland and Bulgaria may prompt scrutiny from transit-country authorities regarding the legal status and handling of restrained deportees passing through their airports.
Originally published on Latin Times
