JPost: Did you pack your Jewish identity yourself?

Jerusalem Post
Mar 15, 2009 22:06 -- Updated Mar 16, 2009 13:47

Did you pack your Jewish identity yourself?

By SHELLY PAZ

What kind of a Jew are you? Can you sing Lecha Dodi? And do you fast
on Yom Kippur?

These are just some of the questions Israeli security personnel at the
country's airports and border crossings ask tourists whose names,
passports or replies to other queries indicate they may be Jewish.

A Jerusalem-based US journalist who returned not long ago from a work
trip to Egypt was asked by security officials at the Eilat border
crossing not only about the origin of her last name, but when she had
last attended synagogue. The journalist responded that she had last
been there during Yom Kippur, and the security official then asked
whether she had fasted on the holiday.

Another American-based Jewess, who visits Israel at least once a year,
was asked upon leaving Ben-Gurion Airport if she knew the Shabbat
prayer Lecha Dodi, - and if so, would she please sing it. She did and
found the experience amusing.

Others were less amused.

Anna Hajkova, 30, a Czech citizen who is a Holocaust researcher and a
doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, told The Jerusalem
Post about "a dreadful experience" with the security staff at Ben-
Gurion ahead of her last flight to Berlin on February 17.


"Security selected me for a check, and after a short examination, they
decided - without bothering to tell me the reason - to proceed with a
closer check. I was helpful and let them do whatever they needed with
my luggage, only pointing out that I had a business meeting in Berlin
for which I had to keep my clothes in order. The team was not polite
and I had to insist to be given a seat, and not to have to stand for
the one hour [that the check took]," Hajkova said.

"Not only is it a fairly humiliating experience to have one's
underwear examined piece by piece by two male security people, what
was much worse was that once the check was finished, my suitcase was
returned to me in a [state] of complete chaos," she recounted.

When Hajkova protested about the security team's conduct, they told
her in response that they were not a "packing service."

Hajkova said that this was not the only bad experience she'd had with
the security staff at the airport.

"I object to this racist criteria, selecting single female travelers
who look gentile in the eyes of the selecting security worker. It's
always people who look like me who are selected," she said.

"I don't criticize the system, [but] I strongly disagree with the way
it is exercised. It's humiliating, abusive and arbitrary," she said.

The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) said in response that "the IAA is
responsible for the safety and security of more than 12 million
passengers a year. The IAA conducts security checks in accordance with
the instructions of the relevant offices."

Regarding Hajkova's complaint, the IAA said the incident had been
examined and that "no failure or deviation from the regular standards
was found. We apologize for Ms. Hajkova's feelings, and a letter in
that spirit was sent to her."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1237114833728

wrote:
Jerusalem Post
Mar 15, 2009 22:06 -- Updated Mar 16, 2009 13:47

snip

I remember being a little irritated when they dumped out the contents of
my carefully packed suitcase then crammed everything back in, and
muttering something like "damn it" and the security person looking at me
and saying "why you say those words?" It has nothing to do with how you
look. They do that kind of thing to lots of people.