Never Have I Ever

I never claimed (even in my thoughts) that I would come here and have a better experience just because I had an American passport. I knew that there would be some issues considering it contains a Pakistani visa, and multiple stamps from my previous two / three visits there for family weddings. But I could not imagine the extent to which I was going to be harassed by the Israelis. Why? Just because I’m clearly not white. Talk about racial profiling at it’s height. Good to know that the checkpoints don’t even trust the American government.

Today, as I attempted to go back to Jerusalem from the university in Abu Dis (pronounced abu deees, as I found out today) I was removed from the bus because they couldn’t find my Israeli visa. Why don’t I have one? Because I was repeatedly told that I didn’t need one because I had an American passport and that was adequate. In addition, upon other people’s advice I had them stamp my passport on a separate sheet of paper, which when I showed the security before entering the baggage area, the women quickly removed it, ripped it in half and threw it away. It all happened so fast, and I was so mentally exhausted at that point, that it was only after the fact that I realized what she had done, and it was too late.

At this checkpoint today I was refused entry into Jerusalem. I was probably asked 8 or 9 times for an ID when I’m showing them my passport and driver’s license, and AU ID. The guards kept telling me that I needed an ID, that the paper meant nothing, and that I had to go back and wouldn’t be allowed in Jerusalem. I can’t deny, I was getting worried. I haven’t experienced anything like this before, and it was a bit unnerving to be scrutinized like some sort of a criminal. I think I got lucky that neither was I Arab nor spoke Arabic, It helped validate the fact that I wasn’t lying about being a citizen.

Eventually a higher guard came out of the woodworks, looked at the paper, and then said something to the guards who were detaining me. They proceeded to look through my bag, explore my makeup, camera, books, phones. Even asked me whose picture was on my phone. It was just so surreal. They were casual about going through my stuff, like as though they were just curious little kids. My little box of Motrin tablets were stared at like they’ve never seen medicine before.

I’m just not sure what to make of all this. It is angering, no one in this position can deny that. All someone needs is to be in the shoes of an accused, a ‘suspect’ because of what they look like, or a mistake the accusing government made, in order to understand what these people go through. Not to say I didn’t understand racial profiling before, but now I do more than ever.

Not only does it anger me, it hurts every time I look at my passport. With all those good relations that America has with Israel, I wonder why just because I wear a scarf, they go out the window. I guess this is where some would say, “You should know that as a Muslim it doesn’t matter anymore which country you may belong to. You will be scrutinized regardless.” Point taken and proven the hard way. Ya Allah give me strength to be civilized in the face of adversity. This is going to be one hell of a time.

ps, thanks to the encouraging comments from my previous post guys, they help :-)