Palestine Travel Forum

stuyding arabic in the WB, concerned about protocal at the Ben G. Airport. Travelled to one ME country before for arabic study but wil be arriving on a new passport this time. Does telling airport security my plans guarantee me a quick flight out of the country or at least a few hours of questioning? How naieve is it to prefer being straitforward with airport security?

I assume that you won't be staying for longer than 3 months, for visa exemption in Israel as a Canadian tourist. If it was longer than that, you would need an Israeli visa anyway and would then have to be careful about lying about your plans. Akthough it is not illegal to enter Israel to go to the WB, so I don't see why you would be deported!
I wouldn't have thought it was airport security you needed to worry about (they are the guys who x-ray baggage), so much as Israeli border police (passport control). Unless you are a bad liar or don't look the part for some reason, it should be easy enough to tell them you are just travelling around Israel if you don't want to admit that you are headed for the WB, although you had better have some idea of where you are pretending to stay. However, lone travellers seem to raise suspicions - in my case I got grilled for almost 30 minutes upon departure, not arrival, at Eilat, and so stupidly that I will never go back: they actually wanted to know whether I had spoken to any Palestinians and if so, who (and I was only travelling around Israel on a standard package tour)!

I do not understand what the problem if they are questioning you for half an hour? Israel has tight security and there is no need to explain why. Airlines departed from Ben Gurion airport have been safe for decades. Same about the border check, some they ask more questions, some they ask less. Some they want to search as well. But this is a possibility going to any country. Most tourists get in and out in matter of seconds, if you have nothing to hide or worry about, just tell the truth and you will be all right. If you try to play smart, I can promise you more hassle.

"I do not understand what the problem if they are questioning you for half an hour? Israel has tight security and there is no need to explain why."
Firstly, this was a couple of years before 2001 and the situation was different then. Secondly, I am a middle-aged, female civil servant and was on my way OUT of Israel, on a holiday charter flight - so this was nothing to do with lengthy El Al or other security checks required before boarding which of course already applied in those days. Thirdly, I have professional experience of customs, immigration and police matters (so do not think I have anything whatsoever against an official doing a job I have done myself!) and the questions they asked - and the number of times they asked them - were just plain ridiculous in terms of ferreting out would-be terrorists. For example, they asked repeatedly if I had spoken to any Palestinians; now I had just been on a package tour including Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, so how could I not? I hardly think dealing with locals in tourist shops etc. was on a par with meeting Arafat (and I expect they would have known if I had done anyone like that), but if I had been a would-be terrorist, I would surely have denied it! Not only were their questions stupid, but their attitude was extremely aggressive and rude, and they kept me behind after all my group had gone through and then tried to argue that I wasn't with a group... Mind you, they asked a Jewish Belgian colleague who went a few years later how come she didn't have an Israeli passport since she spoke Hebrew. Having heard the official concerned speaking English, she responded by asking him why HE didn't have an American one...
With some knowledge of security issues, I cannot see how the actual questions - too long to go into here - that they addressed to me contributed in any way to increasing Israel's security. What they did do was to give me a very bad impression of Israeli authorities and make me vow never to take my tourist dollar (or euro) to that country again. Which I have no doubt is no loss to Israel, so maybe that is what they intended!

What all of that have to do with 9/11? Or 2001? The terror in Israel started long time before that, and the questions they ask, maybe seems stupid to you but they know what they are doing. Other airlines and security are training their staff in similar way these days. Maybe if in US airports & airlines was security as in El Al, maybe there was no 9/11, as we know it. However, also the age or being a woman has nothing to do with this either, if you do not know, an Irish innocent women passed already the Heathrow security on her way to Tel-Aviv many years ago and it was El Al security who find bomb that would explode during the flight in her handbag. Of course she was innocent and never been charged. I think her ex boyfriend who sent her is still in jail.
I was just wondering why from all the group it was only you that had the hassle? I do not blame you of course, but there is a way of screening the people and I guess you were the misfortune that time and maybe being experience traveller and professional with customs you behave different then the average tourist. I suspect from what I see in your reply that you might be a bit impatient and maybe that was the case. If they miss treat you and being impolite, that is another issue which I agree about, it is known problem and not surprising me, they could have few lessons of good culture and how to behave. Anyway, you did not mentioned if you enjoyed your holiday, but I would not let bad case, which I might have in any country to change the general good opinion that I have in ALL the countries I have visited so far.

absolutely horrible liar, that's the problem, as well as how believeable my story is when there are stamps for other ME countries on my passport.... then there is the return trip which, I am told, involves a lot more questions etc. I would prefer to be honest about my intentions as i feel I have nothing to hide, but quite frankly that might be a stupid move on my part.
suggestions?

I was hopping that you will get the idea already. Tourists can visit Israel regardless where they have visited before or what stamps they have in their passport. They might ask you questions, that's all.

Just tell them you want to travel around Israel. Stay absolutely calm and be very careful what you tell them. Make sure that getting things out of you is like pulling teeth.

I had the joy of being grilled by Israel airport security for 4 hours when coming to Isreal in 2000 because I was

1) obviously muslim (headscarf)
2) intending to stay in the WB (An-Najah University in Nablus)
3) intending to travel to Jordan to see a friend I had met in Germany

It is no fun getting treated like that. I also had to go through a similar procedure on my way out. (Had an armed guard watching over all my moves for the whole 3 hours I waited for my flight home.) But as somebody already pointed out you will get questioned anyway. My advice:

Say "yes", "no", smile and don't budge an inch on your story. You are going to travel through Israel, you arrived on this and this flight which you took for such and such reasons, there is nothing wrong with you, ask "why are you keeping me?" in a nice and curious manner, you don't know any Palestinians at home or elsewhere, yes you have been in other ME countries, etc.

Don't lie. It is better to say nothing/ omit parts of your story and look dumb. They will try to make you nervous and get you to babble. Absolutely beware of this. Clamp your mouth shut, take a deep breath and think before every word you say. Also remember the worst that can happen is that they will send you back on the next plane. There isn't much they can do to you. They cannot kill you, they cannot hurt you, they can only deny you entry.

Yes, Maia giving you good points here. There security asks lots of questions, but and after all, she did travel around Israel and Palestine, I assume without a problem. Something I cannot count on if I will be arriving tomorrow to Iran or Syria, they will obviously will not give me visa and let me in just because I already have Israeli stamp in my passport.
And by the way, I was questioned the same by the security in Munich airport before boarding a Lufthansa flight to Tel-Aviv, and they search any item in my suitcase. Same was in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. At list I know my flights were safe.