Americans landing in Newark after fleeing Israel tell of hardships
NEWARK — Worry, stress and canceled flights were just some of the things described by passengers coming off a flight of over 10 hours from Athens, Greece, on Sunday night after leaving Israel.
Jersey City resident Michal Schnaider Beeri anxiously waited at Newark Liberty International Airport for her daughter and 4-month-old grandson to deplane without issue. She said waiting for her daughter to come home “was just horrible in every possible way.”
On the morning of Oct. 7, Hamas attacked Israel by land, air and sea — killing more than 1,300 people, including 30 Americans, and kidnapping almost 200 hostages, some of them grandmothers, teenagers and young children.
The Israeli military called more than 300,000 reservists in response, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his country to brace for a long war after the most shocking infiltration of the Jewish state in a halfcentury.
Since the attack, Israelis have killed at least 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 9,000 more, as entire neighborhoods are leveled in airstrikes. Israel has also banned deliveries of food, fuel, water and medical supplies, which international authorities say is worsening the humanitarian crisis.
Schnaider Beeri said her daughter, Tamar Uriel-Beeri, is the managing editor of the website for The Jerusalem Post and was living in Ramat HaSharon, which borders Tel Aviv to the south.
She said there is constant fear and a layer of “horrendous sadness” that is hard to explain.
“The ambivalence of being here and knowing what’s going on there and then wanting to bring her out,” Schnaider Beeri said.
“And she feels really like a lion, protecting her little baby.”
She said they decided that UrielBeeri, who is an American citizen, and her son, Lavi, would come to New Jersey but ran into some problems because her grandson did not have a passport.
“We never, ever imagined that something like this was going to happen,” Schnaider Beeri said. “So she wasn’t rushing around and getting a passport for him.”
Schnaider Beeri said her husband and son-in-law were able to get the pair to the airport, where Lavi was issued an Israeli passport immediately. She said there was a representative from the American Embassy at the airport, and her daughter filled out a form allowing Lavi to have a waiver because of the war. They were rushed onto a plane to Athens.
But the mother and son ran into issues trying to board the United flight from Athens to Newark when officials told Uriel-Beeri they weren’t aware of any waiver for Lavi. Schnaider Beeri said they allowed them on the plane anyway.
She was worried that her daughter wouldn’t be allowed off the plane because of Lavi’s lack of a passport.
“It is likely, because she is an American citizen, they can’t send her back and he is her baby, that they will figure out something to allow him into the country,” Schnaider Beeri said. “But we are just waiting and hoping that it’s going to be OK.”
She said her daughter had been up for over 48 hours and was likely going to get off the plane exhausted. Not long after her interview with NorthJersey.com, Schnaider Beeri said, Uriel-Beeri and Lavi were allowed to get off the plane.
Marvin and Rosalyn Zweig said they had four canceled flights before they were able to get on the Athens flight. Marvin Zweig said they had to spend Shabbat in the Grecian capital.
Another passenger, Daniela, who declined to provide her last name, said the flight was scheduled originally for Monday night after the second set of Jewish holidays, but it was canceled.
She said Turkish Airlines was still flying out of Israel at the time and they were able to book tickets, but that flight was canceled as well.
Daniela said they were finally able to fly from Tel Aviv to Athens and then to Newark. She said they were staying the night in New York before heading home to Chicago.
“The airports are crazy,” Daniela said. “You had to pay for like the VIP service networks to even make it through security. It takes like six hours to get through security.”
“The airports are crazy. You had to pay for like the VIP service networks to even make it through security. It takes like six hours to get through security.”
Daniela Passenger on flight from Israel who declined to provide her last name
She said she has cousins who were at the airport in Tel Aviv and had to run into bomb shelters with their children and luggage, which she said was “pretty traumatizing” for them.
Schnaider Beeri worries for family members who are still in Israel. Her youngest daughter is in the army in the Iron Dome.
She said she is stationed in the south and there is a lot of bombing in the area.
“We’re just around the clock communicating with each other to make sure that everybody’s OK,” she said.
Her daughter lost three friends in the bombings and said life is not easy, constantly having to hide in bunkers as bombs fall overhead. Schnaider Beeri said she doesn’t know where her daughter gets her inner strength but that it helps her go on.
Schnaider Beeri said she feels for the people in Gaza and that they “live in no less fear than us.”
“I just want my people to be well,” she said. “I don’t know how long it is going to take.”