Friday 29 November 2013

Crossing Borders - The right to enter and exit the Occupied Palestinian Territories

While preventing my suitcase from slipping through my sweaty fingers I slowly proceed to the first airport line-up in order to catch my flight from Tel-Aviv to Amsterdam. When approaching I notice a divide in lineages as two Israeli airport authorizers briefly question tourists while extensively mapping through their passports. 'It is your turn', one of the authorizers says while signing me to come closer. When handing her my passport she briefly looks at me while pronouncing my name out loud. 'You're not Dutch' she says, after which she questions on my parents' names and country of origin. 'Morocco..', she mumbles while stopping to browse through my passport and looking me in the eyes. 'So you are Arabic.. then you must be carrying bombs on you.'


Ben Gurion Airport In Tel Aviv serves as an international gateway
 to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories


In the meanwhile It has been a little over a year since I have returned from my visit to Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory of the West Bank (Map 1). After return I found it rather complicated to explain the whirlpool of encountered paradoxes and countless injustices. When traveling back to the Netherlands I realized that there was a group that did not want anyone to notify nor share these collected realities; the Israeli security officials at Tel Aviv Airport. For this and other reasons they are legally allowed and internationally supported to perform any given check-up on tourists; and especially Arab originated tourists. Even though many had warned me on specific security check ups I did not expect to be treated in this manner.
Map 1
          
After the airport authorizer discovers my Moroccan roots she asks me where I exactly travelled in Israel, with who, do I speak Arabic or Hebrew, If I like Israel, what I bought there, weather I visit Morocco frequently and why I have a Dutch citizenship. After a brief silence and suspicious nod she plants yellow labelled stickers on all of my carried bags and passport while escorting me to another line. 'You wait here' she says while pointing to her colleagues a few meters in front of us: 'they will tell you what will happen next'. The line towards her colleagues proceeds slowly and I am only two hours away from catching my flight. When it is my turn her colleague asks me similar questions after which he takes away all my luggage to be scanned. He instruments me to proceed towards the baggage check point ten metres away from the scan. As I see my luggage going through the scan I move towards an island looking platform in the middle of the airport. Without any regard towards privacy or personal possessions, people's luggage are publically turned inside out. Everything that does or does not look suspicious will be put in a smaller scan or taken away for a 'special check-up' behind the scenes.
          
When my luggage arrives at the Island check-up a coordinating looking man appoints someone to perform a thorough inspection on me. I am assigned to a petit looking woman with a black pony tale and a stern look on her face. And again she askes me the same questions, while smiling I answer all of them again. When she finds out I live in Amsterdam she smiles back. 'I was there a couple of weeks ago, I really loved it. We visited the Gay parade and all other touristic spots.' It seems as if you really enjoyed yourself there, I reply to this sudden change of conversation. 'Yes, the freedom there is really amazing, you are lucky to be living there.' While thoroughly going through my luggage we talk about fashion, travelling, shopping and work.  When she sees her supervisor leaving she winks at me, 'pack up your suitcase, you're ok' she says while smiling. Briefly after I start re-packing my suitcase her supervisor returns while angrily reacting to the course of happening. He firmly looks at her while yelling in Hebrew, the woman keeps staring at the floor until he leaves. When our eyes cross she apologizes, 'I have to unpack your suitcase again'. But now with the help of a colleague the supervisor has assigned to help her.

With the help of her colleague my entire suitcase has been re-emptied. In alternation, her colleague asks me where I bought my souvenirs and If carried with me at all times. After notifying him that I have not carried all my souvenirs on me during the two weeks stay he takes all of the items with him. 'Then they are considered dangerous, I will check them in the back.' With a basket of items he leaves for 30 minutes, after return I have less then an hour to check in. The relief I feel when hearing I can pack my belongings is rapidly taken away when the female authorizer tells me the check-up is not over yet. 'Do you mind?'  - she asks. While suppressing crossing thoughts I answer that she can perform any check up, as long as I can catch the flight.
       When walking towards the final procedure we pass by the line free check-in gate I was supposed to be standing at two hours ago. The female authorizer notifies the two seated stewardesses about my check up after which they confirm to remain open until finished. In any other country or airport the registration desk would have been closed already. The final check-up entails a physical one within a camera guided cubical while male police officers guide the monitors. As she was inspecting my hair I ask weather she ever found something in someone's hair. With a smirk on her face she says 'I'm not allowed to tell you that.' When exiting the cubical I am left with a little more then 30 minutes to check-in. 'And now we have to rush' the authorizer says, 'don't worry, I'll make sure you'll catch your flight.' And through a provisional route she makes sure I arrive at the gate in time. Before our ways separate she reminds me that I am not allowed to visit the airport shops or move towards anything other then the gate. 'Have a nice flight and I am really sorry' she says before leaving. Left in a shaken state I have exactly 15 minutes left before boarding.
 

Even though problematic, I was able to enter and exit the country. However on a daily basis countless of people, Arabs and non- Arabs are denied entrance to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Even though statistics are missing, especially Palestinians living or traveling abroad are denied entrance. In the worst case one risks to be black listed out of 'security reasons', resulting to deny entrance for at least 10 years [1]. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics[2] the world counts a total of 5.3 million (registered) Palestinian refugees of which 42.1% are internally displaced people. 5.3 million people who are daily denied from the right to enter or physically move in-between and outside the territories.
         Because of Palestine's status as an occupied nation one is only able to travel towards it through Israeli security customs. In addition to the airport, internal travelling is restricted through many roadblocks, checkpoints, separation walls and armed street militaries that control the right of movement. The right of movement is based on religious background, ethnicity, citizenship or political point of view. This results to force millions of people to live in apartheid; physically and mentally separating people from the Gaza strip, West Bank and Israel from connecting with each other. In addition it obstructs externs to visit Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories to collect stories on these separations.



 


Ref.
[1]AlMonitor. Online at: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/israel-restricts-foreign-nationals-entry.html# [28-11-2013].

[2] Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Online at: http://www.pcbs.gov.ps/site/512/default.aspx?tabID=512&lang=en&ItemID=821&mid=3171&wversion=Staging [27-11-2013].



Also read:

Campaign for the right to enter the Occupied Palestinian Territory: http://www.righttoenter.ps/etemplate.php?id=154

No comments:

Post a Comment