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Who said that traveling around is fun? Think again!

So, you told me that you a living in the land of honey, freedom and democracy? Well, I don’t envy you if this is what your country endorse:

Starting with the light story; six Muslim academics (Imams) were taken off a plane in the US and evidently placed on the no fly list. Why? A passenger raised concerns about the imams - three of whom said their normal evening prayers in the airport terminal before boarding the Phoenix-bound plane! [Hat tip: Robin]

On the other side of the world, Israel has a new racist law that does not allow Palestinians to travel in Israeli cars (yellow Israeli license plates). Israelis who want to transport Palestinians in cars have to get a special permit.

The law is not as simple as it looks, it is not direct towards Palestinians only, this is another effort to discourage Israeli activists, after the wall and lots of obstructions at check points didn’t discourage ALL of them.

Following this news, an Israeli activist sent this email:

Dear All,
I was shocked at midnight to hear on the radio news the information in the first item (of 3). It’s not the first time that Israelis have been notified that they will not be allowed to transport Palestinians in the OPTs. But on the previous occasion, none of us who tried (including lawyers) was able to find a written order. Ultimately, it was rescinded. But now it’s being publicly announced some 6 weeks before it goes into effect. I presume that this time we will be able to see the order in writing. We’ll have to fight it. The newscaster said that Israelis would be allowed to drive Palestinians with permits to enter Israel. But it won’t surprise me if that will end, too. Every effort will be made in the future to separate Israeli activists from Palestinians, and to separate Palestinians and settlers by walls. We’ll fight this, but without help from Europe, Asia, and Africa there’s little hope that we’ll turn the tide. The US is a hopeless case for the time being, although that could some day change…
Dorothy

(Ben Heine © Cartoons)

Following this small bit of information carrying a big wallop is a link to the American plans for airport travel, to begin roughly about the same time as the edict against transporting Palestinians. It is about the difficulty US activists are finding regarding air travel, very similar to what is going on Israel.

The Department of Homeland Security proposed new rules(PDF File) back in July that would fundamentally undermine the right of American citizens to travel abroad. Public carriers–airlines, cruise lines, even fishing boats–will be required to submit the names of all passengers to Homeland Security prior to departure and to obtain permission from Homeland Security to board those passengers. These new rules will take effect January 14, 2007.
[...]
The “no-fly list” was reported to have contained around 1,000 names by the end of 2001. In December, 2005, a Swedish airline leaked that the list had grown from 1,000 to over 80,000.

Who will be on the list? That’s a secret. What criteria will determine who is on and who is off the list? That’s a secret. How many people will be approved and how many will not? That’s a secret. If you’re not on the approved list, how can you petition the government to change your status? You can’t. [ICH]

Long live democracy!

The fourth item is also about transportation and airports: it’s about the horrific experience that one would-be traveler had at the hands of the Israeli General Security Service (shabak) at Ben Gurion airport. We really need to publicize these incidents far and wide! Will help tourists to think twice before spending hard-earned money on going to Israel. [Hat tip: Editerette]

Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2006 08:56:34 +0200
From: Ruth Hiller
Subject: More abuse at the airport

Dear Friends,

Below is another incident that came over the Israeli Feminist Forum and while this is not the complete email with all the responses, I thought that you might be interested in reading about one more incident.

It is clear to me that this could have been any of us as activists.

Yom Rov,
Ruti

—————————
Dear friends,

It is time that victims start to speak up about their humiliations and abuse…. every non-Jew who has lived in Israel has gone through one form of humiliation or another in many contexts by the leading Israeli power. This is not an e-mail against Jews or the Israeli people, it’s an e-mail against an abusive authority, it’s an e-mail to voice out the stories of victims, of the unheard…. in hopes of changing the way things are now.

Yesterday, my mother who is a Hebrew University professor of Criminology in Israel, an Israeli citizen no less, went to the airport to fly to Tunisia to attend a conference on women’s rights. What happened to her in the airport is a humiliating experience that many of us non-Jews have gone through in the Israeli airport, but always kept quiet about it and did not let them pay for their abuse towards us. It’s time to say ENOUGH! It’s time for the voices of the muted to be heard…. abuse is not only physical, there is also mental and emotional abuse that can be more painful in the long run… please read the letter that my mother has sent to her friends that were waiting for her in Tunisia….

Dear friends,

I am so sad to inform you that the Israeli security forces in the airport prevented me from participating in the conference on: “Women and Sexual Reproductive Rights” held in Tunis.

The process of humiliation by the Israeli security forces started when we reached the airport at the gate. As you all know I live in the Old City of Jerusalem, and I use transportation from my area. The moment they learned that both the driver and myself live in East Jerusalem, they asked us to park the car on the side, take all our/my luggage and follow them for body and luggage search. A young soldier in a small room in the airport gate searched me, asked me to take off my shoes, took mine and the driver’s mobile phones and asked us to wait for almost 40 minutes until they finished checking the car’s body and engine. After all this process, I managed to get inside the airport, and there continued the process of humiliation. I was the only one to wait for a long time. I knew that they were doing a security check on my name, address, and other information. A young female soldier tried to help out and started convincing her superior to allow me to pass. It took her a while then she came, asked me to put my luggage in the x-ray machines and pass. Afterward another security agent asked me to bring all my belongings and follow him up for an additional search. Here, something like 3-4 security personnel were checking my one small bag, my computer bag and my carry-on purse.

They, started taking off the clothes from the luggage, my shoes, underwear, make up, medicine, and placed them in such a messy manner on a long counter. I was the only one that was searched. I did not know what to look at or follow up. My reading material was all over the counter, mixed with my clothes and shoes. Young men were emptying my make up kit and spreading my medication, when one took a picture of my girls, and the other security guy pulled my shoes out of the laggage and put them on the picture… My visit cards, my papers, everything was scattered with all my belongings in such a disrespectful manner… I stood there not knowing what to do, I was about to cry when I saw my reading materials falling on the floor, and the pages scattered… I asked the female security personnel that was checking my printed material not to mix between the various articles, she replied (with so much valgarity) that I could find the pages and organize them later on. While I was trying to explain to her that my reading and printing material should be kept intact, I saw another security man fetching my wallet while pulling off all the credit cards and putting them on the counter, and emptying my purse in such a humiliating manner. His friend on the other side was picking up my underwear one after the other and joking about my bras to his friends in Hebrew thinking that I don’t speak the language. They also took my cell phones and I was unable to call anyone for help. At one point, the phone was ringing and I asked one of them to give it to me, and he did but I missed the call; and he took it back.

The whole seen of people mixing all my things together, while I am standing mesmerized captivated by their inhumanity, failing to follow up who is doing what, where and how, was horrible and painful. I could not hold my tears, wondering how much one could accept humiliation, dishonor and degradation in the name of _Security reasoning_; and went to get me a tissue to wipe my tears from my purse, when a security officer screamed at me that I can’t touch the purse. While I am in this state, and while my belongings were so dispersed and scattered all over the long counter, the security officer in charge came and told me that I can’t take my reading material to the plane. I started explaining -with tears and so much anger- to him that I need to read on my way, and it is a 5 hour flight, and my reading material is crucial to me. It took me a while arguing with him and another security officer until I managed to get the approval to take all the pages that they scattered and messed up with me to the plane. The time was flying and I was about to miss my flight, when a very polite young security officer told me that she will book me a seat, so as to be ready. She actually did book me a window seat. In a short time, the head of the security officers came and told me that I can’t take my laptop with me to the plane. Again, and while being so hurt, while seeing them joking when looking at my clothes, ridiculing me while dropping my tooth brush on the floor, my money scattered on the counter and much much more I started explaining to them that I can’t leave without the laptop. In trying to calm myself down, and decrease my feeling of hurt, I asked the head of the security to call his superior. His superior, in the name of Tal Vardi # 14544 came (he gave me this name following my request). He was so disrespectful, so rude and abrasive. I was explaining to him how important my laptop is to me, I told him that I need to prepare my lecture, and that a laptop from Israel will never reach Tunisia (there is a high probability that it will be lost or stolen). He kept on telling me that I can’t take the laptop with me. Then I told him that if that is a rule, they should inform people that laptops are not allowed on the planes and that security forces can’t do it without prior notice. Tal Vardi with such a humiliating and sarcastic manner replied (while having all his staff around him): “So next time I need to call you and talk to you before you fly ??? Do you think that we have time for you??”

At that moment I decided that I should call for additional help, for Tal Vardi refused to talk to me totally, and left me alone. At that time, three security people were packing my stuff in such a mess, pulling the computer’s battery, wrapping the laptop without even getting my approval. I called Bilha Cohen the secretary at the institute of Criminology, she then gave me the phone number of the Dean’s office. I called Aliza, the Dean’s secretary, she gave me his home number, and I called, his wife gave him to me, and he said that he can’t do anything and that I should call his deputy, she is the one that could help me out. By that time I was 20 minutes from my flight. I called his deputy, and there was no one in the office, and my computer was wrapped out about to be sent to Tunisia- as they planned. I then started yelling while trying to explain _ but this time with so much anger _ and told them that their way of [treating people is not human, that I allowed them to check everything in my luggage, that I cooperated, but they treated me with such a rude and inhumane manner. Their refusal to allow me to take my laptop with me, even when I was willing it to them if they give it to me in the airplane; and following their refusal to even talk to me or calm me down- they all left me sitting on that long counter alone, 15 minutes from my flight, trying to find a way out. Their talks, their methods of poking fun at me, and their disrespect made me tell them _I am not flying_. I pulled my luggage, unwrapped the laptop, and left the place.

This whole process of humiliation took between 1:40- 4:30 pm. I ended up with bad chest pains, dizziness and illness which led to vomiting and the feeling of such humiliattion. I called some friends to help me out, such as Einas from Mada Organization, and Mr. Jaafar Farah and Adella from Musawa Organization. They both called me over 7-10 times trying to calm me down, asking some activists from the office and the airport to help out. I also called my friend Dorit Roer-Streir, but no one was able to change the situation. I left the airport, unable to breath, walk or function.

I am sorry again to miss you, miss learning from the conference and miss sharing with you my work, but must state that there is a limit to the amount of humiliation that one could take, and I felt that the whole process of turning me as a Palestinian woman into a naked entity, with no value, no voice, no respect and no power to fight this demonization back, made me refuse to fly. How could I fly as a human, when all they wanted to do is to strip me from my humanity, using all the power they have, while stealing from me even my ability to protect my girls’ picture, my writings, my reading material, my laptop and my other personal belongings? It was indeed horrible; the way a system of oppression tries to turn us from humans to metamorphosis homo scares… Please accept my apologies, and please write back to my university and to the Israeli state and ask them to stop depriving us from our ability to participate in conferences, to aquire knowledge, to get each others’ support, and stop using our bodies/lives and their _security reasoning_ to marginalize, ostracize, and humiliate us.
Love to all,
N ( November, 16,2006)

Need I say more?

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