The two heroic Israeli brothers who were subjected to aggressive questioning from ‘antisemitic’ Border Force staff as they arrived in Britain have returned home after saying they don’t ‘feel safe’.
UK Border Force were slammed for ‘demeaning’ the two Israeli survivors of the Nova Music Festival and detaining them for two hours at Manchester Airport after flying over to speak about their experience.
MailOnline previously revealed that the men are Daniel and Neria Sharabi who defended some 30 people during the carnage of the festival as they sheltered behind a tank, using unfamiliar weapons against the terrorists as a reserve commander relayed instructions over the phone.
They also treated the wounded who were hiding with them, while Daniel’s former IDF commander advised them by telephone.
Speaking of how he feels following the incident, Neria told MailOnline: ‘I don’t feel safe. If this is how the cops treats civilians, I don’t want to be here. People here are asking us to stay a little bit longer, but I don’t feel safe to stay here. I want to go home, and we’ll be taking our flight home today.
‘This is my first time in the country and my last time in the country. I don’t want to feel what I felt again.’
Daniel and Neria Sharabi defended some 30 people during the carnage of the Nova festival as they sheltered behind a tank. UK Border Force were slammed for ‘demeaning’ the brothers
Footage shows a Border Force officer (right) speaking in ‘aggressive terms’ to the brothers
In footage posted on X, the Border Force officer says ‘Knock the attitude off’
Neria continued: ‘I think he thought in the beginning that I’m Muslim, because he asked me what my religion is. After I said that I’m Jew, everything changed and I could see it in his face.
‘They separated us from everyone, and we waited one hour, one and a half hours, for the interrogation officer.’
Explaining that he feels more unsafe in the UK than in Israel, he said: ‘In Israel, not even one cop is going to tell me these kinds of things.’
Speaking in the Commons today, former Attorney-General Sir Michael Ellis said the incident at Manchester Airport was ‘the latest manifestation’ of antisemitism around the world since the October 7 attacks.
It suggested ‘Border Force apparently do not want Israeli Jews to enter this country,’ the Conservative MP for Northampton North added.
‘Blaming all Jews for the actions of their country is obviously anti-Semitic. These are people in uniform acting for this country as Border Force officers
‘It is a disgrace beyond all proportion. Their detention was clearly unlawful, for several hours.’
Responding, Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said it was an ‘absolutely, outrageous and shocking incident’.
Home Secretary James Cleverley had ordered an investigation, he added.
‘Everyone will condemn without reservation the extraordinary events which appear to have taken place at Manchester.’
Afterwards Sir Michael told the Mail: ‘I’m very concerned that this appalling incident will actually be very damaging, not only to community cohesion but also to the British economy and tourism.
‘Jewish people around the world will be seeing this and asking whether they’re welcome in the UK.’
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Daniel, 23, said he wanted an apology from the British government after the way he and his brother were treated upon their arrival on Sunday night
Daniel defended some 30 people during the Nova festival as they sheltered behind a tank
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Daniel, 23, said he wanted an apology from the British government after the way he and his brother were treated upon their arrival on Sunday night.
‘I have no doubt at all that we were detained because we were Israeli,’ he said, speaking from Manchester. ‘We kept asking the officials why they had stopped us – was it because we are Israeli or because we are Jewish?
‘Of course they never admitted it, but it was obvious to us it was the only reason.
‘We were shocked at the way we were treated. When someone comes to your country from overseas, you expect to be welcomed and treated in a friendly way, not like this.
‘I’m glad that Mr Cleverley has launched an investigation into this – I hope the people who interrogated us learn some lessons from this.
‘We told them exactly who we were and what we’d been through, why we were travelling to raise awareness of the hostages, but they didn’t seem to listen.
‘We both may have PTSD, I’m not sure, but this kind of experience does bring back the horror of that day which we will never forget. After we were finally allowed through the airport, neither of us slept much because of the way we were treated.’
Talking of his experience with UK Border Force officers, Neria Sharabi, 22, said: ‘They just started asking us what we came to do here, and I said to them that I survived the October 7 massacres and I’m here to share my stories.
‘And the second I said it, he just flipped. From that moment he just started to interrogate us. He told us to ‘sit over there, don’t move, we need to interrogate you’.
Mr Sharabi said: ‘They just started asking us a lot of weird questions, if we’re still with the army, how long we served, what we do.
‘In the end, they didn’t find anything, and the cops started to get angry and mad because they got nowhere.’
Talking of his experience with UK Border Force officers, Neria Sharabi, 22, said: ‘They just started asking us what we came to do here, and I said to them that I survived the October 7 massacres and I’m here to share my stories’
Neria said he no longer feels safe and doesn’t want to come back to the UK after the ordeal
Home Secretary James Cleverley has stepped into the row over the brothers’ treatment
James Cleverly has since put a statement up on X saying the incident is being handled
‘I said to him, ‘Why are you doing this. Is it because I’m a Jew?’
‘Then he got crazy and said to me ‘Shut the f*** up. I’m the boss, you are listening.
‘I just shut my mouth and realised that if I say more things maybe he might arrest me.
‘I realised how people are so brainwashed. I don’t feel safe.’
Home Secretary James Cleverley has stepped into the row over the brothers’ treatment at Manchester Airport after disturbing footage of their treatment was posted on X, saying ‘We do not tolerate antisemitism or any form of discrimination.’
The video showed a male Border Force officer speaking in ‘aggressive terms’ to the two men who had travelled to the UK to raise awareness for a not-for-profit organisation they established to help survivors of the terror attacks.
Both men are said to be suffering from PTSD after the murderous Hamas attack which sparked the war in Gaza, leaving more than 1,000 civilians dead and many raped or tortured.
In the clip, the Border Force officer says: ‘Knock the attitude off. We’ve made the decision that you’re coming in, so just let us do the checks we need to do, and keep quiet. ‘Look at me. Are you clear with that? Good. We’re the bosses not you.’
The two brothers ‘do not appear to have been argumentative’ towards the officer, according to Marc Levy, the Chief Executive of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region.
Mr Levy added that the officer’s tone was ‘unnecessary and demeaning’ towards the two men.
The men were allegedly detained for two hours, before the same Border Police officer reportedly said ‘they had to make sure you are not going to do what you are doing in Gaza over here’.
In a letter to Manchester Airport Group, Mr Levy wrote: ‘We unequivocally condemn the fact that Israeli nationals were detained and subjected to abuse by a Border Police Officer.’
He added: ‘The only reason for their detention and interrogation was because they are Israeli.’
One of their supporters told MailOnline: ‘These men are heroes and should have been received as such – they saved so many people and deserve nothing but respect.’
Hamas invaded Nova Music Festival in Israel on October 7 last year (pictured)
A man holding a weapon grabs another man during an attack by Hamas on October 7
The UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire
A view of destruction after Israeli attack on Deir Al-Balah, Gaza, on February 17, 2024
A group of boys inspecting a demolished building which belonged to the Palestinian Darduna family, following Israeli attacks at Jabaliya Refugee Camp
The Sharabi brothers told the Times of Israel following the October 7 massacre that they were partying at Supernova when rocket sirens started blaring at 6:30 a.m.
In a video captured by Neria, he and friends can be seen seeking shelter behind some parked cars, jokingly wondering why the terrorists in Gaza couldn’t wait until later to begin launching their missiles.
Neria said they were ordered to disperse, and he left their friend called Karin Journo — who had a broken leg prior to the event — and together with his cousin Shalev Yehoshua and a friend, Yosef-Haim Ohana, went to retrieve his car.
Minutes later, Karin was murdered. The brothers said they began to hear gunfire and immediately realized from their army service that it was the sound of Kalashnikovs, not Israeli military weapons.
Daniel was a combat medic during his service, and Neria served in the infantry.
Realising this was no regular bout of rockets from Gaza, they fled toward the highway.
Daniel administered first aid to an injured woman, when he, Neria, and his cousin Shalev Yehoshua were called upon by two IDF soldiers who were attending Nova as civilians, to help them evacuate the wounded on a stretcher.
Soon, terrorists armed with automatic weapons stormed the scene in pickup trucks, firing incessantly.
The two soldiers they had met were killed but Daniel, Neria, Shalev and Yosef managed to take cover behind some parked cars.
The car near Yosef was hit by an RPG missile. This was the last time the Sharabi brothers saw him before he was snatched by terrorists who took him to Gaza, where he is still believed to be held hostage.
A Palestinian boy has his arm measured for malnutrition at a medical tent set up by MedGlobal in cooperation with UNICEF, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 14, 2024
A man is comforted by another man as people inspect the damage to their homes following Israeli air strikes on February 18, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza
Last month the Sharabis were in New York to raise awareness for the hostages taken by Hamas and confronted a man trying tear down posters of the hostages in Times Square before police arrested him.
The brothers were holding signs reading, ‘My best friend was kidnapped in Gaza’ and ‘I survived the October 7 massacre,’ when a friend began filming the man ripping the signs, who looked directly at the camera and shouted, ‘Why don’t you go blow up another hospital? Why don’t you kill 10,000 more kids?’
The man was caught on video spitting in the direction of police and was immediately handcuffed.
Once cuffed, the brothers flashed their signs and confronted the man, saying, ‘In your face’ and challenged his accusations, asking, ‘Where do you know these lies?’
Neria, 22, and Daniel, 23, had only seen the brazen vandalism in online clips until the Thursday night incident.
‘You see it in videos, but when it happens in reality, I get p****d off. People deny our experience, but you can’t deny reality. We’re proof it happened,’ Neria told The New York Post.
‘I have video of our friends being raped, kidnapped to Gaza,’ said Neria. ‘We’re here to face them and tell them that they’re liars. If they think this never happened, they’re just brainwashed.’
During an earlier visit to Times Square, the Israeli brothers, who are dark-skinned and of Yemeni descent, were met with a sympathetic passer-by who mistook them for Gazans, telling them ‘We support Hamas,’ before the brothers brandished their stars of David necklaces to horrified stares.
‘People think Jews only look white. They’re hypocrites,’ said Neria.
The pair attributed their heroism during the Hamas attack to God, saying they went ‘into army mode as civilians’ when they took over the tank and battled ‘more than 100’ terrorists, according to Daniel.
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