| | I meant to mention this in my previous entry. So, my being a history geek almost got my in serious trouble with Israeli airport security. Let me explain. First, you must understand that Israeli security is always very tight and they hand search every bag. And when I mean hand search I don't mean rummaging through the bag like most people do, I mean they practically take everything out of the bag. Now they do this to everyone, not just to people with beards like me. However, as they were looking through my bags they found something very interest, or shall I say suspicious. It was a book (in Hebrew) called "Jewish Jerusalem in the 16th Century". Basically it is a collection of Ottoman Tukish documents translated into Hebrew. To a normal eye this may be a rather boring looking book, but not to Israeli security. This book set of a red light. When the girl checking my bag asked why I had it I said that I'm insterested in history and that I'm taking a class this semester in the history of Jerusalem. For some reason she couldn't understand when I said (in English) "history of Jerusalem". So I said it in Hebrew "historia shel Yerushalayim" (big difference, huh?). So then she found out I knew Hebrew and that was it. She then called over the security manager to begin questioning me. (I must say the girl checking my bag was quite poilite throughout the whole thing, oddly enough.) Normally when you go through security they ask all sorts of bizarre questions jsut to see how you respond. This time, however, when the manager was asking my "why I studied Hebrew? why in Israel? why...why...why?" she was serious. She really wanted to know to make sure I was safe enough to get on the plane. After a few minutes of interrogation (all in Hebrew of course) the girl asked the manager if she should continue. I thought, "should you continue? Am I that suspicious?". The manager paused for what seemed like 5 minutes but must have been only 5 seconds. She finally said (as her only response), "Have a pleasant flight". But she said it very begrudgingly as if to say, "He's a fool, but an honest fool" (Lord of the Ring quote). 10 minutes later the search was concluded and I was free to go to my flight, which I almost missed due to the prolonged search despite the fact I arrived at the airport two and a half hours before my flight. Having read all of this please don't misinterpret my attitude, I appreciate the security and am thankful for the job they do to protect us all. I just think it is funny sometimes what sets off the alarm in their heads. |
| | Posted 8/25/2006 10:55 AM - 20 views - 2 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- give stars
- votes0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
