Ben Gurion blues

One of the worst things about living in Jerusalem is having to fly in and out of Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. Using Israel's international airport is, more often than not, a nightmare.

And, earlier this week, I went through one of the worst Israeli security checks in years.

Israel has serious security concerns, and the airport itself was the target of a high profile attack 35 years ago when the Japanese Red Army militant group killed 24 people.

These days, Israel's airport security screening system can leave you with the impression that it is either inept or deliberately set up to harass travelers.

Just this week, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi's plane was delayed as he left Israel because he was carrying gifts he received while visiting a Palestinian refugee camp.

While Israeli security won't admit it, it is a widely accepted secret that Palestinians and Arabs get the worst of it. Arab travelers are routinely subjected to intense, hours long questioning that can include strip searches.

Earlier this year, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized to Rania Joubran, a young Arab-Israeli diplomat-in-training who said she was humiliated and treated as if she was the enemy when she left and returned to Israel for a holiday.

Such stories don't end with Arabs, though. Aid workers who work with Palestinians, travelers who visit the West Bank, human rights workers and many others routinely get pulled aside for intense questioning.

One taxi driver who regularly takes me to the airport has urged me several times to shave off my goatee to make things easier.

One airport security screener admitted to me recently that journalists are also subjected to extra questioning merely because we are journalists working in the region. Often, journalists are asked why we have gone to neighboring Jordan or Egypt. We are asked if we know Palestinians. We are asked for their names. We are asked to open our computers and show screeners stories we have written.

The process can drag on, and having to brace for such interrogations every time you fly makes leaving an unnecessary ordeal.

The Israeli press office tried to make things easier for a while by issuing letters for journalists to take to the airport to speed up the process. Sometimes it helped. Sometimes not.

Recently, the press office said it would be enough for us to show our government-issued press cards.

This week, though, having the press card didn't help.

The airport screeners didn't care that I had the press card or that I had an Israeli work visa in my passport.

Instead, they took me aside for extra screening, pulled most of the clothes out of my bag to seach for explosive residue and brought me into a side room to be searched. They spent nearly half an hour examining a Krups espresso maker I was bringing with me and then had one of the young security guards escort me through passport control.

Israel's argument is that it has to be vigilant about security. But the airport screening process leaves much to be desired.

After decades of dealing with terrorism, you would think Israel would have developed a sophisticated way to deal with threats. At the very least, you would think that Israel would have a database that would allow them to clear the way for its own diplomats, like Rania Joubran, Arab-Israeli citizens who regularly use the airport, aid workers who pose no threat, and journalists.

In the case of reporters, we are vetted by the Israeli government when we get our work visa and when we get our press card. If we were a security threat, it's unlikely Israel would give us either the visa or a press card.

The fact that they can't, or won't, make things easier makes many question whether the screening is done merely to harass travelers or, even worse, as a tool to gain intelligence.

After so many trips through Ben Gurion, though, it is difficult to believe that the only reason for their procedures is security.

Comments

[tsedek]

it can be that someone is 'clean' and later becomes 'dirty'.

[Edie]

You're right about many things. Israel has legitimate security concerns, but their 'security checks' leave much to be desired and are often used to harass.

It's especially insulting when a young, Russian Israeli, who has obviously only immigrated to Israel recently, harasses elderly Palestinians whose family has lived there for generations. I've seen this myself.

I was put through the ringer back in 1987 in Paris going into Tel Aviv simply because I carried a letter home from a classmate of mine to his mother in Gaza City. It was in Arabic, therefore, cause for an intense search of all items and a plane seat between two air marshalls (I swear).

Only one question: What the heck does your goatee have to do with whether security stops you or not?

[Dion Nissenbaum]

Hi Edie. The taxi driver was suggesting that having facial hair is one of the things that makes security suspicious, so it would make things easier if I simply shaved it off.

[Mark]

In most cases, incompetence, ignorance, and stupidity are the underlying reasons for a lot of things that government organizations do that don't make sense or are counter-productive -- and not "conspiracy theories," broadly defined, or even "intelligence gathering" fishing expeditions. Having been through the arduous security procedures at Ben Gurion myself as a student and then as a journalist, I think I can safely say that incompetence, ignorance, and stupidity are the simplest and most logical "reasons" for some of the idiotic procedures and practices. Why should the people in charge of security at Ben Gurion Airport be any different from the typical bureaucrats at any other Israeli government organization? However, I would add and emphasize that the inspection people need to be trained to treat Arab passengers with greater respect and dignity. There is no excuse for any of the behavior that routinely goes on -- and the stupidity, incompetence, and ignorance that allows this to go on (with all its counterproductive impacts) starts at the top.

[zcat]

If you are supposedly "clean" because you are an aid worker, the terror trolls will expoit that and sign up and dress up to take advantage of that. The same can be said for many supposedly trustworthy groups, although diplomats should get some "pre-screening and pre-clearance same as the police and politicians do. Journalists know their position can be used for cover and there are instances of this being used as a way to move laptop stored code or to get out of a country where they are being hunted. The questioning tries to ferret out the liars. Most other contries say "Whay can't we have airports as secure as Israel", ...until they go thorugh Ben Gurion and see how much hassle it can be. The tradeoff is worth the hassle politically, if you don't think so you can always make your connections through the Baghdad airport. BTW, why aren't they starting to do Israeili type security checks? Probably because they are being far more strict and nobody wants to go to the airport.

[Mark H. Schwartz]

I hold both Israeli and American citizenship and I live in Tel Aviv. I have many maddening stories to tell about the security measures which have affected visitors and friends of mine.

The latest one is that the young, inept security people do not know enough about its country and ethnic groups.

Case in point, a Druze friend of mine, who is a member of an ethnic group which is fiercely loyal to Israel. They serve in the army along with Jewish Israelis, and do reserve duty. The Druze I know love Israel more than most Jews I know, and are not dying to get out of here like most young people.

The one time and only time he flew El Al, he was subject to many indiginities, too many to mention here. I think in this case it was more El Al security than Ben Gurion Airport security, but I am not sure.

I also have a Cuban American friend from Miami who was so horrible treated, that he after he got home to Miami, he started a smear campaign. He has encouraged travel agencies, not just individuals, not to travel to Israel because of what happened to him. I think that this already has cost Israel millions of tourist dollars.

Israel needs to fine tune its security measures and know whom they are questioning and humiliating and who is an enemy of the state or not.

[Rawan]

I am an Arab living in israel (Palestine) and everytime i travel, I get really really humiliated in Ben gorion, and I'm treated like an enemy. It doesn't matter who you are, what you do, if you're an Arab, then you will be treated in the most humiliating way, and trust me, they do a very good job in that!

[Carine]

The security searches and questionnings at ben Gurion are pure harassment. The USA have never resorted in such techniques in their own aiports, even though they are threatened as well. I read in the American press some years ago that the Israeli methods were seen as too humiliating and not efficient enough by American security services.

I am an aid worker with a valid work visa for Israel and a Gaza permit which was delivered by the Israeli army, meaning I've been checked many times by the Israeli authorities. So why treat me as a potential terrorist any time I exit Israel through Ben Gurion? When I began working here I was rather pro-Israeli, feeling sympathy for Israel as my own country is also being targeted by Islamists. Now I've changed my mind and began to think that if the Israeli authorities are that paranoiad in Ben Gurion, maybe they are equally paranoid in Occupied Palestinian territories.