TWA884

Not in TLV, but at JFK.
From the Hebrew version:

She is a Boston area middle school teacher who is the biological daughter of an African American father and a Jewish mother. She was adopted and raised by a Jewish family.

He manages an educational institute that conducts peaceful coexistence and tolerance workshops. He is the grandson of a German Jewish refugee from the Nazis who came to British ruled Palestine in the 30's and married a Lebanese Muslim. His mother was a medical student in East Germany who married a German and moved with him to the U.S where they raised their son.

They were on the way to Israel where he was scheduled to teach at a USAID sponsored program.

The security screener asked her what church she attended and was taken aback when she answered that she was Bat Mitzvahed in a synagogue. She must have flunked her Judaism test when she did not know the name of the matzah that's is hidden during the Passover Seder (afikoman).

Both were then subjected to extensive questioning and humiliating strip searches by El Al employees at JFK airport. They were only allowed to board the flight on the condition that they place a laptop computer and two iPads, his and hers, in their checked luggage. She was also required to change her bra, jeans and shoes.

The computer and one of the iPads as well as the clothes and shoes from which she was forced to change are still missing.

Their email messages were read and they were permitted to take only their cell phones on board the plane.

She underwent another long interrogation after arrival at Ben Gurion airport after landing. She was forced to turn over names, phone numbers and email addresses of friends and acquaintances in Israel.

El Al spokesman claims that the company was only following established security protocols required by the Israeli government.

nachtnebel

The Israelis should not be allowed to do on US soil what is prohibited for everyone else. They can confine their strip searches and other nonsense to their own country.

Dovster

Wow! It's a good thing that I didn't know that in 1979. That was the year that I moved to Israel, remained a non-citizen for three years, was a journalist all that time (and for quite a few years after I became a citizen), and worked for the international press.

If I had known that I was going to be beaten and killed, I probably would have been a bit nervous about that.

Fortunately, I have never been beaten and, to the best of my knowledge, I still have not been killed.

I am certainly happy that you have been able to ask "most people who have had the misfortune of setting foot in this airport" how they feel about it. I have never had the time to do such extensive research.

There are, incidentally, no "machine gun wielding solders" at the entry to to the airport. In fact, there are not even any machine gun wielding soldiers. Those people you saw who you thought were soldiers were members of the border police and, like all other members, carry M-16 rifles. Machine guns would tend to be a bit heavy to carry around for hours on end.

I have driven into TLV many times, and more often entered in a taxi. The taxi driver has never been asked to show identification, so they have no idea of who he is, and I have never been asked anything beyond, "Where are you flying to?"

I have seen some cars pulled to the side and the bottoms checked with mirrors to make certain that there are no explosives. The occupants stayed in these cars during this process. I am yet to see a gun aimed at anyone during this (or any other process) at the airport.

No soldier will take you to a room or strip search you. That is because there are no soldiers on duty in the airport. If anybody is going to check you in the terminal it will be civilian security personnel.

My baggage is, indeed, x-rayed although I am yet to have it "re x rayed". Twice, I have been told to take it to the tables that you mentioned and to open a bag. Once was because I had a lot of chocolate it in (which is very dense and tends to look like explosives when being scanned). The second time was because of large bottle of body lotion I was bringing to someone as a gift. The chocolates were ignored after being seen. The body lotion was swabbed and allowed back in my suitcase.

Now, it is true that I am light-skinned. That, however, is not true of most Israelis. The majority of Israeli Jews are of Mizrachi extraction and have the same light brown coloring as Israeli Arabs. If all brown-skinned people were given the kind of examination I have been reading about on this thread, the passengers on the 747s I usually fly to the States would take about 15 hours to be checked.

When I am in a somber mood (rare for me) I generally am finished with Security in less than 2 minutes. When I am in a joking mood -- and especially if the young lady from Security is good-looking (as is often the case), that gets stretched to about 4 minutes.

I do, however, suspect that if while being checked by Security I were to refer to Jews using a term which FT requires to be "redacted", my Security check might take quite a bit longer.

GUWonder

That pretty much covers it. Racist profiling with a carve out for those that are seen as being amongst the state's favorites.

Thumper

Since this is a discussion about security at Ben Guron Tel Aviv Airport, could you please supply the link to the article recording the beating and killing of international press at the airport.

chollie

Actually, the OP is about special security for Israel-bound pax at JFK, an American airport.

rankourabu

I wondered about that too, my interrogation was done by two reasonably good looking young women. This must be done on purpose as well. The male agents seemed to be interrogating the non-young, non-white males.

Anyway, it was interesting to have a glimpse at how the system operates on arrival into TLV if you are not-jewish, and fit a profile.

Before this trip, like most in the world, and probably a lot of Israelis as well, I had no idea on what really goes on in the west bank, and had no idea how race and religion can play a significant role in running of a country. In that sense, my trip to Israel was quite educational.

nachtnebel

Strip searching should be illegal period in this country as a condition of boarding. At the very least, El Al should disclose, upfront and clearly, verbally tell you BEFORE you buy your ticket, that you may be strip searched both at US points of departure and at TLV before being allowed into Israel.

El Al is trying to have it both ways. Allow both Jews and non Jews onto El Al flights to get flights full, but subject non Jews to enhanced security measures, including the humiliating and immoral ones described by OP.

If El Al disclosed as they should, for sure many would opt out and fly another carrier that didn't perform these reprehensible procedures. Of course, once you're in Israel, good luck. Those strip searches and humiliations should also be disclosed.

That Dovester sails through their security is no shock. I'm sure he can answer the questions appropriately and they probably already know he was in the IDF. It's everyone else that does not fall into the right patterns who is at risk. By the way, are not those M16s capable of fully automatic weapons fire, Dovester, or at least in 3 round bursts? If you had such a weapon in the US, it would be classified as a machine gun by the authorities.

Dovster

Upon arrival at TLV, you go to one of two lines:

First Class/Business Class
Economy Class

Both of these lines go to the exact same Security people, but one puts you near the front of the line.

However, if you go to the Economy Class line you are asked if you have an Israeli passport (not if you are Jewish. Most Jews do not have Israeli passports and many Israelis are not Jewish).

If you do have an Israeli passport you are put in a faster-moving line.

However, in the end, as noted, you get to speak to the same Security people. Sometimes, they are men. Sometimes they are women. It all depends on who is the next available person.

Assuming that your name is not on a list of suspicious people, what happens from there is dependent on many factors. Yes, race (or to be more accurate, nationality) is a factor. What is a bigger factor, however, is the answers you give.

Despite being light-skinned, having an Israeli passport, and even having an identity card showing that I am (or was at that time) an officer in the Israeli Army reserves, I raised some eyebrows when being questioned by El Al in Milan.

Why? Because I said, "Let's save some time. I packed these bags myself about 3 hours ago. They have been with me ever since. I am not carrying anything which someone gave me".

The Security man (yes, this time it was a man), replied, "A kibbutznik who is a frequent flyer?" and proceeded to ask me quite a few more questions before he was satisfied.

One of the things that they look for is anything which is unusual and, no, most kibbutzniks are not frequent flyers.

Note that the "unusual" can be something which you would consider to be "good". For example: A friend of mine was a LTC in the American Air Force, stationed in Naples. She had credentials showing her to be in NATO Intelligence.

Had she gotten on a flight JFK-TLV, and not shown these credentials, she would have been cleared with no problem. However, she was getting on the flight in Rome. On top of all of that, she is Black.

How many high-ranking, Black, female, American Air Force officers with NATO Intelligence credentials do you think that El Al Security in Rome sees? Hint: Not very many.

They asked her why she was coming to Israel, she told them to visit me, they asked for my phone number and they called me to verify her. (I am going to presume, but I don't know, that they ran a records check on me before calling.)

"Aha," I hear you say. "It was because she is Black. It would not have happened if she were white."

Not so. Some time after that, I hosted an FT Do in TLV. Most people who came had no problems at all. However, one FTer decided to spend a few days in Athens first. When she was questioned by El Al there, they found it unusual that an American woman would be getting on a flight in Greece, flying to Tel Aviv, going to meet a bunch of people who she did not know, and then would fly home three days later.

This woman was middle-aged and white and fit no terrorist profile at all. Still, her situation was an unusual one. Fortunately, she, too, was armed with my telephone number. Even more fortunately, I was able to confirm that I had met her several times in the past (at other Do's) and that her story was true.

Like my Air Force friend, she was immediately cleared after they spoke with me.

nachtnebel

sounds so reasonable. yet innocent people get humiliated all the same. and it's not always so impersonal and benign, is it? When reporters of the New York Times who wrote unfavorably about Israel went there, they were denied entrance, but not before getting as much humiliation as possible, including strip searches and then immediately sent out on the next flight. Having authorities questioning people while those being interrogated are naked, to increase the intimidation factor, gee, just what does that remind you of? The Israelis ought to know better than this.

rankourabu

I was talking about being detained upon landing in TLV.

Not a pleasant situation, but interesting glimpse into the system and how it operates based on "profiling"

You can defend TLV and security all you want, but you are on the preferred list, you are Israeli, Jewish and white. You are not really a reliable source of info on the harassment faced by those different than you.

Dovster

Please provide a link to support that. I do know of one case where a NY Times reporter was strip searched at a roadblock when she wanted to enter Gaza (for which Israel apologized) but that was not at the airport, not by Israel Security (it was done by soldiers), she was not sent home, and I do not know if she has any record of having written pro or anti Israel reports.

NYTA

My blonde, blue eyed, good looking British girlfriend was detained for 3 hours by El Al security in London, not because she was hot or because they are racist, but because single British women have been caught in the past with bombs given to them by their Palestinian boyfriends.

As long as Muslim terrorists want to kill Jews just for being Jews, El Al will sadly be forced to continue with their policies, and rightly so. When the Muslims accept the existence of a Jewish state in the land of Israel and stop trying to kill the Jews who live there, then El Al may re-examine its policies.

Until then - don't like it? Fly another airline. Some people prefer to fly El Al because of their security.

Dovster

Israel has a major tourist industry. Most people who come here are not Israeli or Jewish. A great number are not white. Do you really believe that they are all being harassed (or even a substantial number)?

Among these are American Christian tour groups who visit Israel year after year. Do you think that they agree to be repeatedly harassed?

SeriouslyLost

You realize that the response you'll get back is a sarcastic, 'So all I need to fly to Israel without hassle is to know an Israeli who lives there, who used to be in the IDF, and is available at all hours to take phone calls?", followed by a rollyeyes?