Leaving for Cairo

In my last post about France I mentioned how my adventures with Airport security there was only training for adventures to come. The adventures to come happened when I went to fly from Tel Aviv to Cairo.

This will be my first post without pictures--they say a picture is worth a thousand words, but even if I had tried to take a picture in the airport (and with the trouble I was already in, I don't think that would have been a very good idea), I don't know what type of picture could describe the situation.

So, instead, a copy of part of an email I sent to Roy after my trip. He had asked if they let me back into Israel after my trip. We had expected a really hard time, because if I had so much trouble getting in after Paris, what would happen if I was coming from an Arab country with which Israel really hasn't been at peace with all that long.....

"

Getting back into the country was ridiculously easy-- no extra security at all in Cairo and when I arrived in Tel Aviv only got asked "what's the purpose of your visit", they accepted my answer and I was through. Maybe they had a note in their computer saying 'we hassled this girl enough on the way out....just let her back in"

Flying into Cairo from Tel Aviv was perhaps even more ridiculous than all my adventures in the Paris airport trying to get back into Israel. I was pulled out of the pre-security line for a pre-pre-security (!) check by two security officers who, when they asked where I was going, immediately got their supervisor--I guess I answered their 45 min of questions right, because I was taken back to the beginning of the pre-security line-up to get my bags x-rayed, and then (of course) selected to get a more thorough examination of my bags.

Add on more than 1 hour there as they took absolutely everything out of my bags, unfolded all of my clothes and felt along every seams and in all the pockets, smelled all my shampoo and mosquito spray bottles, took pictures with my camera, tested the blades on my jackknife, tried my phone, plugged in my battery charger, had me demonstrate my suitcase locks, x-rayed numerous individual articles of clothing, and then I think the crowning touch was when they unrolled my towel, and had one person hold it up while the other metal detected the entire surface of the towel (what could I hide in there? It's a single piece of fabric!).

Then they took me to a back room (after re-x-raying my shoulder bag so I didn't have to leave it, with my passport and tickets, behind. This would be the third time they examined my shoulder bag. The first was the original check. Then one of them asked if I had a mobile phone (which another one of them had already tested in the first check). So I unzipped the bag, pulled out the phone and handed it to the security officer who went to check it. The other officer came over, saw my bag unzipped, and asked if I had unzipped it. When I replied, that yes, I had taken out my phone, he said "But now we have to search it again!" and proceeded to empty it for the second time) where I was searched and metal detected more thoroughly. The zipper on my pants kept setting off the metal detector, so the officerhad to go get their supervisor ( again !) to check out my pants. They determined that, yes, it was just a zipper.

Entire process = nearly 2 1/2 hours.......the 2 1/2 hours is probably a good thing because then my security escort didn't have long to wait before my flight left. Yup, that's right, security escort. They had someone take me up to get my boarding pass (jumping the line once again) then escort me through passport control, through airport security (so I got to use a back gate and not go through the metal detectors again) and then sit with me until my plane left so I couldn't talk to or accept anything from anyone. Security took over twice as long as the flight itself!"

I'd heard Roy's stories about airport security before. Long interviews, repeated questions, multiple interviewers, and even interviews of people who weren't flying (like Sara got when I left from France). But a security escort? This one was new to me. (I met a Palestinian in Cairo who had had a security escort through Tel Aviv as well. He said he had almost expected it, being Palaestinian, but couldn't see why I would get the same treatment.....). So it's this new addition to the range of Israeli airport security that made me conclude my email with:

"So......do I win? "