Enemies

Demonstrators, Ministry of Defence, Tel Aviv

I almost felt sorry for the security man. Only at the end that is, as I boarded the plane and walked down the aisle and he came towards me and could not look me in the eye.

They’d taken all my things at the check-in and did not give them all back. The security supervisor, a tall balding man with blue eyes, thought I might be a terrorist. A woman asked some questions and then he came and took my passport, disappearing with it round the back of the super-duper El Al X-ray machine.

‘Wait here,’ the woman says.

‘Where’s my passport? Why has he taken it?’

‘Just wait here.’ She ushers me to one side, out of the way of the families and children standing in the security queue.

He’s back. Tall, balding and thin. He stoops, even over me.

‘But you live in England or in Israel? Where do you live?’ he asks, flicking through my passport.

‘London.’

‘When were you last in Israel? How often do you come?’

‘Like many other people’ – I stress the words many and other – ‘I make regular trips.’

He disappears again. The woman returns. ‘Because we’re delaying you,' she says, ‘we’re going to check you in.’ Delaying? There’s a big queue behind me and I’m three hours early. Plenty of time.

‘I’m going to have to take these.’ She picks up my hand luggage and laptop.

‘Why?’

‘Security.’

‘When can I have them back?’

‘At the gate.’

‘You can search them, but I want to be there when you do.’

‘Your choice – we take it, or you don't fly.’

OK, so they’ve got it all now. Passport, computer, notebooks, camera – all of it except my cash and phone. (And probably, says Eyal later, a copy of the computer hard drive too.) Oh, they’ve given my passport back, but it’s marked with a loud red tag.

At the gate, half an hour before we leave, everyone’s showing their passport and ticket again. I’m ushered to one side and asked to sit in a screened-off enclosure where I wait, alone.

A woman carries out further ‘security’ procedures, swabbing me for explosives, swabbing my shopping too. ‘May I?’ she says.

‘Yes, if you really think I’ve managed to construct a bomb in the duty free inside that whisky bottle – go ahead.’

How, exactly, is this necessary? Since I’ve already been X-rayed and stripped of all my belongings, how exactly could I have anything on me that would pose a risk to this flight? I ask this to the security man, when he arrives again, to talk to me after I object to the fact that they’re not going to be returning my ‘suspicious’ laptop charger; that my computer and notebooks – all of my personal possessions, in fact, are still nowhere to be seen.

‘Listen,’ he says. ‘I don’t have to be nice to you. I don’t have to talk to you. If that’s your attitude you can just sit there. I’m not going to talk to you. I don’t have to tell you anything.’

Nilly afterwards says that the Shabak puts a black dot by anyone’s name who’s left wing – known. ‘Who’s radical left, like you,’ she says. ‘They do it just to make you feel like shit, not because they really have to. You’re so suspicious, after all.’

When I get to the plane – finally, because it takes them another hour to find my ‘lost’ computer and bring it to the gate – and everyone’s sitting there and I’m feeling like some kind of freak, I can understand what a lifetime of bullying could do to your bitter soul.

Yet, as he passes me by for the last time and can not look me in the eye, I almost feel sorry for the security man, and I feel ashamed. What’s it come to? That’s what I want to say. What are we doing? Seventy years after our grandparents fled, yours and mine, we’ve turned each other into enemies. Suspicion and fear. How did we get to this place?

Comments

[May]

Yikes. I really hope they don't put a black dot by my name. That sounds like a pain in the ass.

People talk about leftists here as if we're lepers. I, too, am not sure how we came to this.

[Olivia Azat]

if they do that to us , it is because they fear their own shadows. they are insecure. yes I also was stopped at the airport security and was tagged only because of my name, even though I don't look middleastern they say. all we have to do is look them in the eye, and you can see the guilt and insecurity there. we will win and be granted the rights of every God given gift. most of all the freedom to be who we are and say what we think.

[Yishay Mor]

Dear Leila,

I'm proud to be on your side. I'm ashamed and sorry for the security man, and all his kind, who think they are protecting Israel by harassing you. But let us be different. He may see you or me as his enemies, let us not see him as ours.

[Olivia Azat]

if you noticed in the article Yishay, that he was not seen as the enemy. he was pitied for the feelings that he induced. it is a shame whenever two people are living in the same lands as niegbors but seen as enemies. justice should be experienced by every human bieng. not just select few. we are fighting the occupation and humiliations, and stripping of dignity to our people. we are not fighting the people. we fight the rules that sentence us to this degredation

[Yishay Mor]

Dear Olivia, I was refering to "Seventy years after our grandparents fled, yours and mine, we’ve turned each other into enemies." As for fighting against occupation and humiliation, I'm with you on this one - all the way.

[Olivia Azat]

Yishay do you live in israel?

[Olivia Azat]

if you lived in israel and see what the palestinian have to endure on an everyday level, you will understand why they get mad and frustrated. we the palestinians are not hatefull people. but put anyone in a prision cell for a long period of time and he is eventually going to either retaliate or he is going to fold up and die. the palestinians will never fold up or die, it is in thier blood to stand up and fight for their honor and for their freedom. the people of palestine and israel don't want the war, at least the majority of the people, they want to live in peace and raise their kids in a peacefull and loving enviornment free from hatred, greed, and war.we all want that for our kids. what sadness is that the zionist movement is taking their revenge for what happened in germany to thier ancestors out on the palestinians who welcomed them amongst their midst when no one else did.

[Yishay Mor]

I am an Israeli, living in London for the last few years. Google me. And I agree with almost every word you said. Almost.

[Olivia Azat]

that is the beauty of freedom and communication we can state our opinions but we don't impose them on others.lol

maybe it shoudl be people like us doing the negotions for peace not our govt. lol

hope your day is great. stay healthy and happy

[Dorit Abramovitch]

important, beautifuly described and written

[Mohamed]

So you're a 'radical', Leila? :-)

The Israeli security establishment seems to be in a very narrow-minded, may I say Bush-esque, approach - if you don't fully agree with us, then you're against us. Apparently even if you're Israeli..

And re: your computer: it wasn't 'lost', it was being copied. They do that fairly often, so much that I've had colleagues working for NGOs in Palestine painstakingly change the names of the files on their computer to confuse the eventual policeman who'll be browsing through their hard drive.
Same for the phone - they copy your phone memory, numbers and text messages and all...

[Leila]

Mohamed - yes, 'radical' is how my friend Nilly described me, and probably they see it that way too. It's funny, isn't it, that what just seems normal and right should be so described. And yes, I suspect they copied my hard drive - this is what friends in Israel told me too.

[Olivia Azat]

maybe the next time we travel with our lap tops we should give them something juicy to copy. it'S A THOUGHT.LOL

[Leila]

PS Mohamed, I'll amend the text to reflect this as I think it's important and the implication was obviously not clear enough.

[Yishay Mor]

Olivia - Or encrypt it http://www.truecrypt.org/ so they have to ask you for your files explicitly. Although that might turbo-charge their paranoia

Leila - this may be naive, but had you considered an official complaint? through the embassy or your MP?

[Leila]

Yishay - yes, it's a good idea. My friend Uri, an Israeli activist also suggested this. I was thinking, my experience was nothing compared to what some go through - but he says every complaint makes it harder for them to continue with the abuse unchecked.

[Yishay Mor]

Suffering cannot be measured and compared. I know what you're feeling, thinking what is this compared to the daily ordeals of any Palestinian in the West bank, Gaza or even Israel. But this is your testimony, your unjustice, and your right (and as much as you can bear it, obligation) to fight. Besides, you have an advantage: your voice stands a chance of being heard. Use that advantage, and carry with you the voices of those who are silenced.

[mya]

hi leila,

recently, i was in europe and on my way back to israel, on my layover in kiev, the el al folks gave me QUITE a difficult time. my story is more or less the same as yours, with an additional twist-- there were two arab israeli passengers receiving the same treatment as i was. in fact, we were also seated together on the plane-- the three of us in a tidy line, in the second to last row in the back of the aircraft.

it was upsetting to me to be treated in this manner. and it was humiliating, as well. i've always felt upset and angry when i see police men in tel aviv checking the papers of arabs, but this experience made the feeling of indignation even more palpable... and i think that such treatment definitely doesn't do a lot to make steps towards peace...