My Day to Jerusalem: Interrogations at Ben Gurion Airport, Jerusalem Landmarks, and Crossing to Jordan

My day in Jerusalem was dotted with 4.5 hours of interrogations by Israelis at Ben Gurion Airport the day prior. The first and second screening men were not highly competent, sitting under harsh fluorescent lighting with a perfunctory manner. I was unimpressed and embarrassed on their behalf. They will lie and misrepresent you. When I asked for clarification and evidence, I was provided zero documentation or reasoning. This is common.

There are problems in Arab and Palestinian profiling and targeting of some foreign activists. Israel has been criticized for this repeatedly by rights groups. You have rights, so enforce them with calm persistence. The price of denying invasive treatment is refusal of entry. You do not have the same rights in a courtroom as in an airport. Security does not require providing detailed reasons or proof of suspicion.

You can complain and seek legal assistance if you have been treated unlawfully. At the moment, though, you are at their behest. The security staff have broad legal authority to detain, question, and search passengers in the name of security. Courts will generally support their efforts domestically.

The woman who conducted the formal interrogations—three sessions in a keypad-entrance room behind a makeshift partition on a plain desk—was competent, professional, and intelligent.

That, plus a friendly and honest demeanour, changed the prior disallowance into an allowance. I was honest. I maintained the position: If I was going to be deported, then I was going to be deported on honest terms.

I got labelled a דירוג איום: 4 מתוך 6, a “threat rating” in their internal scale. The questioning centred on whether I worked for the United Nations or if I intended to conduct interviews while travelling to or through Israel. I responded politely in the negative, given that my passport would eventually be permitted into the country, and was told, “Your luggage is by the carousel.” The zipper was 2 inches open, a silent reminder that it had been searched.

Welcome to Israel, and welcome to the Middle East, a region marked by apparent longstanding tensions, but a charming place with some of the most important and beautiful religious holy sites in the world, and excellent cuisine and people.

I met my first Jewish Ray Romano lookalike there. There are many positives, and a good sense of shared humanity is essential for navigating personal foibles in new areas of the world. That is part of learning and maturing as a global citizen.

As I travelled, there were a few landmarks, such as the Jerusalem–Yitzhak Navon railway station, upon arrival. It is the city’s sleek intercity terminal beneath Shazar Ave. and adjacent to Binyanei HaUma. The high-speed link from Ben Gurion tunnelled deep through the hills.

I started most of the real travel there at Jaffa Gate, which is the main western entrance through the Old City walls. It has direct access to the Armenian and Christian Quarters. I visited Jesus’ old purported tomb, the Golgotha, etc. It was exciting, as there was the Old City – Jewish Quarter, a southeastern district of the Old City, which was restored after 1967. It has characteristic narrow lanes and lively squares.

Another part of the Old City was the Armenian Quarter, a southwestern section of the Old City. It is centred on the Armenian Patriarchate/St. James compound. It is a quieter monastic precinct with traditional ceramics and echoes of ancient chants.

Some other bits, then it was off to the border crossing to get into Jordan to reach Amman.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.