Airports... Airplanes... and Israeli Security

I started my journey to the Israel on Saturday, January 7^th, 2012. We took off from Minneapolis Saint Paul International at 3:50 pm, and flew to New York City. The flight from MSP to NYC was very nice, and quiet. We even landed about ½ an hour early!

We landed in NYC at 7:00 on Saturday night. We all spread out throughout the airport to look for dinner and a little time to relax. At 8:30, were to meet back up near the ticket gate so that we could start preparing for security and ticketing.

You might think that security for a flight headed to Israel is the same as if you were traveling to any other place abroad, but it’s not. El Al (Israeli Airlines) provides its own security screening for all flights in and out of Israel. So about 8:45, we all got in line to start the security process. To set the scene: the front of the airport at the ticket counters in the airport is nearly empty at this time, except for the area around the El Al ticket counter, where there are roughly 500 people who must go through Israeli security before they get on the plane.

If you have an Israeli passport, you need only go through ‘basic security’. If you have a foreign passport, you are required to go through the ‘foreign security’ line. In the ticket counter area, there were extremely long lines that started at the security check point, which was located about 100 feet from the ticket counter that went far down the ticket counter area. At the security checkpoint there stands 8 Israeli security agents with black music stands, long lists of expected passengers, and handheld scanners for passports.

When it was my turn to go through security, I walked up to one of the agents and handed her my passport. She began by asking questions like: what is your name, where did you come from today, where are you going in Israel, how long are you staying, etc. Then she asked some more obscure questions such as: do you know anyone in Israel? … I paused for a slight moment… I said yes (mistakenly saying I knew someone from Israel, when in fact I know someone from Occupied Palestine). She then asked for the name of the person (Martha Younan). This immediately aroused suspicions. She left me standing at the music stand and walked over to a very large man in all black with sun glasses on (I started to get nervous as this started happening).

She came back and immediately started with more questions. How did you meet her (the National Lutheran Youth Gathering in 2009), how long have you known her (2.5 years), did she know you were coming to Israel or did you tell her (I told her), have we kept in touch since we first met (yes I have, over Facebook), do you know where she lives (Jerusalem). She left abruptly, returning to the large man in all black. She then returned with a barrage of questions. Did you contact her about your visit or did she ask if you were coming to Israel (I contacted her), where did you pack your bags (home), who packed them (me), was anyone with you (no), are you carrying anything from someone else (no), did someone else put anything in your bags (no), are you carrying any weapons, sharp objects, or anything that can be used as a weapon or tool to bring down the aircraft (no), do you know where she lives in Jerusalem (no), do you know her family or friends (no), do you know her address or phone number (no), did you make any plans to meet (no), are you going to be in contact with her while in Israel (I’m not sure)? By this time, I was getting very concerned because the rest of my group had been long gone through security and were waiting past the ticket counter.

The security woman left the stand again, this time I couldn’t see where she went and she was gone for about 10 minutes. Finally, she returned with my passport and said have a nice flight to Israel, sir.

Finally, I caught up with my group and we got through the rest of security to our gate. I thought that security and everything was over when one of the men I had seen behind the 8 security agents came running across the gate area and shouted that everyone needed to move out of the area… We all moved very quickly away from him, when we saw 2 men coming over with poles and ropes to cordon of the area around a backpack that had been left unattended in the gate area.

Just before we were supposed to board the airplane, a man appeared and claimed the bag as his own. Whew, we all thought, now we can finally get on the plane, but that’s when one of the security agents came up to a member of our group and told her that they needed to take her carry-on bags and search them. They said she could remover her passport, money and computer and that they would be taking the rest. The security agent disappeared until about 10 minutes before the plane was to take off. We later discovered that Sarah (the girl whose bags were taken) has family in Iran, so she too was grilled by the security agents and her bags were thoroughly searched.

Now we finally got on the plane and started the 11 hour flight to Tel Aviv. We left the gate at 11:50, and took off at exactly midnight on Sunday. The pilot told us that we flew up the eastern sea board to Newfoundland, east to Denmark, where we turned southeast towards Greece, turning south into the Mediterranean and east towards Israel. The route we took actually saved us time and we landed 40 minutes early at 5:05 pm Israeli time.

The Austrian Alps. Flying over at about 2:30 Israeli time... at least that's what I had marked down.  Who knows I was out of my mind tired! I didn't sleep much on the plane because they served meals at 4 hour intervals, and in between meals for  an hour and a half at a time, the religious Jews moved back and forth from the back of the plane to pray. 2ish hours of sleep, weeeeeeee!

Then it finally hit all of us… we were FINALLY IN ISRAEL! We made our way through customs and found our luggage. We met our tour guide for the trip, Amir, a good friend of my professor and her husband.

We are staying at the Yizhak Rabin Guest House and Youth Hostel in Jerusalem. We are within walking distance of the Israeli Knesset (House of Parliament), The Israeli Museum, The Israeli Supreme Court, several Ministries (Finance, Defense, Foreign Affairs, Immigration Absorption, just to name a few).

A night time view of the new city (Jerusalem) from the accidentally trespassed back courtyard of the Israeli Supreme Court building. :) We wanted to explore and the boundaries are not clearly marked like they are here... Well they are, except we can't read Hebrew (see next photo).

The sign telling Angela, Sarah, and me that the Supreme court is open from 8:30-1:30, and that we probably shouldn't be trespassing on Israeli Governmental property, especially the Supreme Court of Israel. Oopsies.

I’ll be writing a blog post after today’s tour, which will also count as my first blog post for our group’s blog: hamlinetohaifa.blogspot.com. The next post on my blog, and the first post on the group blog will be the same.

Picture of my room at the Yitzhak Rabin Guest House and Youth Hostel.  My bed is on the left, and my roommate Gavin's on the right. Out the window, though you cannot see it, there is a scene of the Israeli Museum on the top of the ridge across the street.

Thanks for reading this everyone, I hope you enjoy!