On my way out of Tel Aviv, they went through every scrap of paper I had, including a notebook for directions to various places. They also scoured my bag for residues, found teargas (I was at a [protest, details deleted] and the IDF [Israeli Defense Force] teargassed us), and had me escorted onto the plane by a heavily-armed, uniformed soldier. The airport security (IDF) have been highly trained to evaluate people and how nervous they are. They rank you on your way out of Ben Gurion based on your security threat level and I was a 5 (out of 6). I'm afraid of ever trying to fly back in.
I had a friend who arrived last summer and had her laptop searched. They demanded a password to her email and found that she emailed all of her pro-Palestine information to another email address, then demanded the password to that. She got in after a seven hour interrogation and strip search.
NEEDLESS TO SAY, a lot of the horror stories are true. BUT there are a lot of ways to save yourself some grief:
- Carry NOTHING about your work, or anything political AT ALL.
- Have Jewish Israeli contacts who know you are coming and will be able to confirm you will be seeing them if called.
- Have a clear itinerary. Make a couple hostel reservations or have your contacts be ready to reaffirm the same itinerary details.
- They will be suspicious of a one-way ticket. Have an explanation for your trip. Maybe you plan to fly home through Egypt?
- Clean your laptop. Remove every Arab-sounding name from your phone and email contacts. Disable Facebook. Try to erase any kind of political past you may have online.
- Dress nicely on the plane. My travel companion was pulled off of the plane immediately for questioning because she couldn't be bothered to look decent, and they automatically assumed she was an activist (dingdingding).
- Make a friend on the flight. Chat with them as you leave the plane. It makes a big difference to be shooting the breeze with a nice Jewish lady. :)
So, part of my preperations include removing myself from the internet. You may be thinking "well then, dumbass, maybe you should not be writing about them in your blog!" Don't worry, this blog, Facebook, and everything else is going to be going away in a few days.
Anyone who wants to help can let me know if they find me on the internet, and where they found me. (Don't worry about FB or this blog, because they will be gone.)
Also, please don't email me anything pertaining to my trip for a few days. The last thing I need is an email stating "How's Palestine?" for the IDF to find when I get off the plane.
I am going to be bringing everything back up a few days after I get in. See you then!
