/>Middle East Delegation Travellog – The Muslim Room
As part of our Middle East delegation 2011 travellog, Shazia Yamin reflects on her personal experience of entering Israel.
My first experience of Israel, as part of the Young Fabians Middle East Delegation, was not a positive one.
I’m accentuating the point in this blog to help provide an insight about what it feels like to be racially profiled and to have to endure a three hour long security interview process. I understand the need for Israel to contain security and terrorist risks. However, I fear that my small glimpse of ‘security assessment’, and the slight on my time and dignity, may just be the smallest fraction of what Muslims living in Israel and the OPTs endure on a regular basis.
As I sit in a little room in Ben Gurion airport, I begin to wonder about the justification for my detention. The room, as I am later told by a young Muslim man from London who joins me, is commonly referred to as the “Muslim room”. He describes passage through this room and the interrogation which accompanies it as rite of passage for any Muslim wishing to enter Israel. To my left sits Sara Ibrahim, my alleged co-conspirator and vice chair of the Young Fabians. It turns out that our co-detainee is an old hand at this; having been stopped a number of times as he travels to visit his fiancé in Ramallah. He explains that my initial interview was only the start of the process and what awaits me behind the other door is ‘Big Brother’. ‘Big Brother’, he continues, will confront me with lots of information that he will have obtained about me from their extensive ‘databases’.
As I sit in the room I reflect on my journey. The experience started at Luton airport; whilst I was still on British soil. I spent 15 minutes being asked questions about my Pakistani heritage. After being allowed to check in into the flight, I notice a large post-it note which has been stuck to the inside of my passport and the yellow tag attached to my case. I also notice that my fellow Fabians have not been allowed access to yellow tag club. I decide at this stage to remove the padlock I had lovingly applied to my case only a few short hours ago. I, after all, have nothing to hide. Predictably, when boarding the aircraft I am taken into a side room where my hand luggage is searched and my shoes are swabbed for what I assume is explosive residue.
As the hours tick away in the Muslim room, I begin to feel like more of a Muslim; almost as if an invisible nikab has started to grow across my face fertilised by the anger within me. The reasons for my detention soon become apparent to me. The only other members of the delegation who are in the room with me are those with Muslim or Muslim sounding surnames. There is no getting away from the fact that this is racial profiling, of the type that would cause an outcry on BBC Question Time were it a UK authority involved. My mind moves to consider the paranoia which no doubt underlies my treatment and the affect that living with such paranoia has upon the psyche of a nation. I also feel an overwhelming sense of empathy with those who have to deal with such treatment at the hands of the Israeli authorities on a daily basis. Whilst the Muslim room is no doubt an annoying inconvenience for me, I begin to appreciate exactly how annoying the ‘Muslim checkpoint’ would be as I go about daily life.
Sadly, I was unable to keep my date with ‘Big Brother’ as I was rescued from the Muslim room by an angel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tasked by the Israeli Embassy in London who very kindly responded to the pleas of the delegation organisers.
As I leave the Muslim room after just over three hours, I make peace with my time there and re-arrange my date with ‘Big Brother’ for the date of my departure. A heightened sense and application of security is something I’m sure we will experience more of during the visit… I’m interested to know from our meetings whether, in any way, the Israeli response to the security threat might be of a nature that actually exacerbates the very threat it seeks to contain.
Shazia Yamin is a member of the Young Fabians and a delegate on the Young Fabian Middle East trip 2011.
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Sadly your experience is not an uncommon one. And you should consider yourself lucky you got through it in 3 hours … and weren’t deported back to the UK. That has been the fate of two British Muslim friends of mine in recent years. One (a bloke in his late 20s) was on a EU-funded trip to an academic conference in Israel. He was working for a Labour peer at the time. Another (a woman in her late 20s) is a leading organiser for Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East, but was on a personal visit to Israel to visit friends. Both spent close to 24hrs in detention and under interrogation in that ‘Muslim room’ before being deported. But, as you say, will be interesting to compare with the stories of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs and their daily encounters with the security state.
I am a white British guy (I also happen to be a Catholic, but that’s neither here nor there). 22 years ago I spent several weeks in Israel backpacking; when I got to Ben Gurion Airport for my return trip, I too was put in what you call “The Muslim Room”. I was interrogated for about 3 hours by 4 different people, my stuff was taken away to be examined. They were very polite and (paraphrasing) said we’re trying to contain terror threats – you don’t have evidence (hotel receipts etc) of where you have been; you are the right age to be a potential suspect; your pattern of travel is unusual; so we are interested in you. I just stayed polite and answered their questions and eventually they let me go and said sorry for the hold up, please understand this is really also for your safety as terrorism is a real threat here.
About 10 years later I was travelling on business to Israel. On my return to the airport I had a letter of invitation from a local company, business cards of people I met, receipts from hotels & restaurants – and I still got interrogated by the security people for about 1 hour. I guess I was on a database from the last time. And you know what? I didn’t mind. Ever since passengers got slaughtered by gunmen inside the terminal at Ben Gurion in 1972 the Israelis have taken security very seriously. I would prefer they took me aside on the grounds I was suspicious, for whatever reason, than didn’t check because they were worried about being accused of racism. Because that way I am unlikely to be killed by a wingnut Islamist Jihadi or Shining Path fellow traveller on the loose. Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists, but sadly, these days, nearly all terrorists are Muslim. So profiling people and disproportionately checking Muslims makes sense – because that is where the threat is most likely to originate. Holding up 93 year old seventh day adventist grannies from Barbados because they happen to be passenger no. 422 on your random check list, while young people of (say) Saudi origin walk past unchecked, is just nuts. I daresay when Muslims stop blowing people up, security people will stop worrying about Muslims.
@Sebastian Weetabix You state that, “Obviously not all Muslims are terrorists, but sadly, these days, nearly all terrorists are Muslim.” Do you have any quantitative evidence to support this statement? It’s just that most of the evidence out there would suggest the complete opposite is true.
Shazia,
Perhaps you could change your “Muslim-Sounding” name to a Jewish one and attempt to travel around the world’s Islamic nations? I’d love to hear a whiney report about that experience, if you make back alive that is.
Winston nails Shazia the hypocrite.
[...] and understanding of Fatah and calling Israel a blighted democracy. Perhaps most offensive was the thousand word diatribe against Israeli airport security by one Fabian who pulled reigns with the British Embassy over [...]
“As I sit in a little room in Ben Gurion airport, I begin to wonder about the justification for my detention”
The justification for your detention is that you are a guest in another country. As a guest in another country its generally considered polite to abide by their rules and customs even where they differ from your own, and to which you might not agree.
If the Isreali security services wish to interview you to ascertain whether you are a threat or not before allowing you entry to their country then they are entitled to do this.
I wish our immigration services did the same and where, like the Isrealis appear to be, not particularily concerned with how their actions might look on Question Time. Guess what, not everyone in the UK dances to the BBC/guardian leftie tune.
You might particularily shocked to learn that not every country is a Politically Correct paradise where your ‘precious’ feelings as a muslim take precedence over everything including the physical security of that countires population. You are entering a nation whose entire history is that of being continuously attacked by their muslim neighbours.
This particular story of your terrible ‘victimhood’ is pathetic. Grow up.
Oh, grow up. What did you expect? A nice cup of tea and a free map with directions to the dome of the rock? Honestly, how daft can you be?
So you visit the only country in the region which is both a functioning democracy and has press freedom. Amongst the reasons that this is a functioning democracy with press freedom is commitment to internal security.
Funnily enough I flew back from Tel Aviv last night. I was asked all the same questions. It took me about 3 hours.
I answered with smiles and honestly. It was about the same time and effort / ballache as flying to Istanbul.
Of course they profle people entering in the country. For exactly the same reasons that muslim arabs don’t do national service. The risk is higher.
You seem rather put out that a country should use such techniques to try to improve it’s own security. That’s pathetic ignorance of the reality on the ground.
Maybe you should wake up. Israel isn’t bound by the good code of the BBC or the guardian. They are playing big boys games.
I was stopped and questioned about 6 times in 4 days whilst there.
I am pleased to see that the Israelis take security seriously.
It took my south american wife longer to get back into the UK through heathrow that it took you to get through Ben Gurion. And you think you are persecuted?
When was the last time the saudis let jewish tourists visit mecca?
I am sick and tired of people moaning on about how Israel treats people so badly. During your trip I hope you took time to meet people living in fear of the terrorists totally committed to destroying Israel. I hope that you reflect on your experience and ask wht you could do to persuade certain Muslim preachers that murdering and terrorising people will never solve anything – and will always result in you being questioned as suspicious. I have no doubt that you were treated with courtesy and respect. I would question whetehr the same would be true in certain countries if someone with an Israeli stamp in their passport was stopped at the airport.
Read this, Shazia: http://www.thecommentator.com/article/418/profile_me
Did you know that most Arab countries will not even admit anyone who has an Israeli visa stamp in his or her passport?
Is that kind of profiling/exclusion/discrimination more to your liking?
You bet Israeli security profiles. They know it’s highly unlikely that the elderly ladies in stretch pants are wearing suicide belts. And the safety statistics for El Al suggest that they are very, very good at what they do. So you can thank them for keeping Muslims safe from terrorists along with everyone else.
How terrible Shaz! Don’t the Israelis know that the perpetrators of 9/11 and 7/7 were Buddhists?
Blimey, give her a break!! She’s been asked to write about her experience in entering the country, which she has done openly and candidly. No need for this backlash – flipping hell!! She actually makes some very important points, which you choose to ignore in your rush to slate her.
‘Give her a break’, eh?
In the West (which includes genuine democracies like Israel and excludes monstrosities like Iran) we live comfortably – too comfortably, if this post is any evidence. Commentators here have pointed out how Jews would be treated disgustingly in Muslim countries; yet this only scratches the surface. One of the most curious cosmic ‘jokes’ is why, in the C19th, when we at last could foresee an end to poverty and suffering, we invented totalitarianism. Deep down we felt we weren’t entitled to so much freedom. And this is what’s happening here – the writer applies the same utopian standards to her Israel trip as the socialists once used to bring down Russia and Italy. Since we are prone to dreams of perfection, she finds a ready audience, especially amongst the infantile Western intelligentsia, which is altogether seized of the same idea.