This may cause alarm bells to go off somewhere in an airport somewhere. OK, so be it.
We knew that there would be lines at the airport near Tel Aviv, at the end of our trip. There were 6 of us all going to Newark so we hopped into a group security line. This was pre-checkin, pre-anything.
After waiting for about 20 minutes someone asked how many in our group and took my Sister in law forward to a desk to interview her. The person apparently was Head of Security so he kept getting phone calls and interruptions. He talked to SIL for about 10 minutes. "Oh, you visited Palestine. Did you talk to any Palestinians?" I wonder how you spend 5 days in a country without talking to anyone so it is a good thing they did not ask me. Lilli had her travel itinerary ready to give to them to show them where we had travelled, including home visits. Good thing we did not send her forward. He then came back to our group, and Judy said, My husband, by brother in law, my sister in law, my friend, my friend to identify our group. Then Cindy was chosen to go forward. "How long have you known these folks?" etc. Cindy was a regulatory person in her career, so she knew to just answer the question, nothing else. Again Lilli or I would not have been good to send forward. He would have heard stories about our home visits, or about the day we viewed Nablus from an overlook in Hwara.
This took us 1 hour to get through. Then we went through the security checkpoint. They literally wanted everything in our carry-ons. Yup dirty underwear, every bottle in our cosmetic bag. When Rod went through he was asked if he had any coins. He throws extra coins from every trip we have ever been on. That person found everyone in Rod's bag. I really wonder what the value add it to this extent of security check. While waiting to be checked the woman looked at our boarding time to queue us up. The poor guy behind us, did not have one for an hour after us, and had to keep going back in line.
Did I feel safer after all this? Mildly. I wonder if Israel is just sending the message to the rest of the world that they maintain this level of security.
Entering Israel 3 weeks earlier than this from Jordan was an interesting story as well. Our Jordan guide had to leave us 2 miles from the border. The bus driver drove us to the terminal that was immigration into Israel. Nad said to us "Jordan does not do that much security because we know Israel will." "Hands on passports" were his last words to us.
A person among us who will go unnamed and it was not me, got up to the desk at immigration and could not find her passport. 2 of our party had their bags pulled out to go through the scanner and the other 5 of us went through. They would not allow the person without the passport to have anyone accompany her so we all kept our eye on her. They finally let her go through without finding her passport. We had an elementary school teacher among us who calmed us all down and gave us small tasks "You check her purse" "You go through her suitcase pockets" "Breath, and you go through your carryon".
After 20 minutes and just as Rod was about to hit the send to let our Jordan guide know to check the bus, it was found in her pocket in her carry on.
The picture of the top was of us just after we found the passport with two very important negotiators watching over us.
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