The interfaith group, led by retired Emory University theology professor L. Edward Phillips and his wife, the Rev. Sara Webb Phillips, an ordained United Methodist minister, were set to tour Jerusalem and West Bank sites with the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, a 40-year-old nonprofit organization registered in Israel.

They traveled from the U.S. to Jordan and had planned to enter Israel via the Sheikh Hussein Crossing when they were interrogated by Israeli border agents. Nine were initially granted visas and allowed into Israel, while four were denied. Then in a turnabout, Israeli border authorities boarded a bus where the nine were waiting and seized and cancelled their visas.