By Ruth Eglash

Jewish tourists who spend more than 180 days in Israel, even without violating the terms of their tourist visas, are being increasingly harassed by border patrol officials, detained at the crossings and, in some cases, deported to their port of origin or forced to make aliya against their will, according to a Tel Aviv law firm.

Kan-Tor & Acco, a global relocation law firm that specializes in immigration matters and visas to Israel and the US, said Monday that it had noted a significant increase over the past few weeks in the number of Jewish tourists being detained by authorities at the border crossings, after the Interior Ministry deemed them to have exceeded the acceptable time limit for tourist status.

"Most of the time the calls come at night - people call us from the airport's holding center, panicking and asking us to help bail them out," Amit Acco, a partner in the firm, told The Jerusalem Post. "In one case, a person was threatened with deportation because of visiting Israel too many times, and although we succeeded in posting a NIS 50,000 bail, it was contingent on the person making aliya within two weeks," he said.

Acco does not dispute the state's right to request that anyone who spends so much time in the country that the center of their lives is here adjust their status to something more permanent.

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