‘I was detained in Lebanon just for being a Jewish tourist’

When 38-year-old Dan Brotman signed up for a trip to Syria to track down the last remaining Jews in the country, he never imagined he’d end up detained in Lebanese prison for six days.

The Jewish master’s student from the London School of Economics (LSE) was part of the largest Western tour group to visit the country since the fall of the Assad regime in December last year. The return trip via Lebanon would mark his fourth time in the country – with the previous visits triggering no issues.

Brotman was part of the largest Western tour group to return to Syria since the revolution. (Photo courtesy of Dan Brotman)[Missing Credit]

But on his journey from Aleppo to London, Brotman was accused of being an Israeli spy and detained in various prisons where he was denied medical care, made to urinate in a bottle and even overheard torture.

Throughout his incarceration, he kept a secret diary. He told Lebanese officials that he was merely studying for his finals – but really, he was recording his thoughts and feelings throughout the ordeal.

“What I came to learn is that we are hated by some people just for existing,” he said. “We may have had a holiday from history after the Second World War, but we’re back to an era where people openly view Jewish existence as criminal.”

Brotman has since realised that his whole tour group was asked to write down their mother’s name at border, because, he claimed, “they wanted to make sure that no one had a Jewish mother”.

Born in Boston, Brotman made Aliyah when he was 18, before returning to the US after several years. He moved to South Africa when he was 23 to write his undergraduate dissertation and wound up staying for a decade. He holds South African, American and Israeli passports, and has permanent residence in Canada, where he moved in 2020.

A keen traveler, Brotman has visited 98 countries, including Iran and Lebanon, where he previously enjoyed discovering the Beth Elamen Jewish cemetery in Beruit. But this time, when the time came to cross the Syria-Lebanon border, he was stopped at passport control.

Brotman with Bakhour Simantov, one of the last six Jews remaining in Syria, at the Jewish cemetery in Damascus. (Photo courtesy of Dan Brotman)[Missing Credit]

“I have always had a nightmare that this could happen in one of the Muslim countries that I traveled to, and I thought: ‘Could this be the actual nightmare starting?’”

Before long, Brotman was asked by one of the officials if he had ever been in the Israeli army. They told him he was “suspended” – though he didn’t know what this meant, whether he was to be detained or arrested. He was separated from the rest of the tourist group and officers took his phone, watch and wallet.

He was then escorted to a “filthy” cell, with no water or natural light. “I’m just waiting there, but I don’t know what I’m waiting for,” Brotman said. A Lebanese soldier shouted repeatedly: “Israeli soldier!”

Brotman tried to convince the official questioning him that he had to join the IDF when he made Aliyah when he was 18, that his role was purely administrative and that he left the post after only nine months. He asked to speak to the US Embassy – but this was constantly postponed to “tomorrow”.

Brotman in front of a former inn with a Star of David in Aleppo, Syria. (Photo courtesy of Dan Brotman)[Missing Credit]

Throughout his interrogation, Brotman said his Jewish identity was always viewed with suspicion.

“Many of these countries say ‘We have no problem with Jews, we just have a problem with Israel’. Based on what I saw, they have a problem with Jews,” he went on. He claimed a photograph of him wrapping tefillin in Russia was selected by the investigator as incriminating evidence.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Brotman suffered from a parasite he had picked up in Syria and lacked essential medicine for a chronic illness. After he was transferred to another cell, he mastered how to use the squat toilet and clean himself using only a bottle of water and his left hand.

During a 4pm transfer to Zahle, Brotman was handcuffed and given food for the first time since breakfast. On arrival at the city in eastern Lebanon, he claimed he was detained in the filthiest cell he had ever seen - with faeces smeared on the walls.

“That’s when the lying began,” said Brotman. He was told he would fly out of Beirut and speak to the US embassy that night. He was asked if he needed anything – and requested soap, water and dinner. Instead, he was transferred to Beirut, once again in handcuffs in the back of a van. In hindsight, he believed the offer was a sick joke.

The questioning continued, and he once again tried to convince the investigator that he wasn’t an Israeli spy – just a tourist who happens to have Israeli nationality. Officials went through his phone, sifting through every app, every message and every photo.

To get to sleep, he sang Jewish songs for comfort, like “Nyet Nyet Nikavo” - a Russian tune translates into “No, no, not to anyone,” signifying a complete rejection of reliance on anything or anyone besides God. He also thought of Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s phrase “Just survive!” which she said to her son Hirsch when he was in Hamas captivity before he was murdered in Gaza.

What kept Brotman going during those long nights was feeling connected to Jews who have been incarcerated - from Holocaust survivors to the Israeli hostages. “Throughout history, Jewish people have been held against their will because of who they are,” he said. “My situation was not as severe as many others, but ultimately I was being held against my will because of who I was.”

One afternoon in a Lebanese General Security detention facility, he noticed officials escorting in prisoners with hoods covering their faces. He alleged that he overheard officers taunting a detainee by holding a gun to his head and firing blanks. “He would scream every time they would shoot,” claimed Brotman.

Finally, when he was about to be released after a Lebanese judge finally deduced that he was not an Israeli spy, Brotman’s Magen David was found in a pouch of his luggage. He asked if he could put it back on at the airport, after keeping it off throughout his trip to Lebanon. “No, if you put it on, you’ll be back here before your flight takes off,” an official allegedly answered.

He was driven through Hezbollah territory to the airport, handcuffed and blindfolded – an anxiety-inducing experience – and was expecting someone from the US embassy to be there to greet him, as promised, but no one came. “I felt dropped like a hot potato,” said Brotman. He was told embassy officials would be there to greet him in London at Heathrow instead, but this apparently wasn’t true either.

While he is grateful to the US embassy for helping to negotiate his safe return home, he felt the aftercare in the wake of his traumatic experience was grossly inadequate, as he didn’t even receive an email acknowledging his release. “I felt so abandoned.”

Even though he’s recovered now and managed to successfully sit his finals at LSE, Brotman said he suffered with PTSD for a while back in London.

He began posting his story on social media after feeling abandoned by not only the US authorities – who didn’t provide any mental health assistance after his release – but also the US media, who didn’t seem interested in his story. “I was harmed psychologically, and I should have received more support, but I was just left to my own devices,” he claimed.

He puts the lack of US media attention about his story down to a lack of sympathy for anyone with a connection to Israel because of the war in Gaza. “If you’re American, but you’re Jewish and Israeli, you get treated differently,” he said.

For Brotman, he wants to make sure his story is heard so that he can give inspiration to others who might find themselves in a frightening situation. Watching the live release of Israeli American IDF soldier Edan Alexander on TV while in Lebanon gave him hope, and he wants to give that gift to others.

“I’m hoping that by telling my story, maybe there’s a little tidbit that I’m sharing that will help others and give them strength – like the hostages and other people in Jewish history gave me.”

A US State Department spokesperson told the JC: “The United States has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.

“When a US citizen is detained abroad, the Department works to provide consular assistance.

“The United States takes seriously all allegations of the mistreatment of US citizens in prisons and detention centers overseas, and will press foreign governments holding US citizens abroad to ensure they are protecting the detainees’ safety and security.”

The JC has contacted the Lebanese embassy in London for comment.