Senior Describes Strip-Search Experience at Israeli Border
Jaleh Taheri
Issue date: 4/3/07 Section: Forum
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We all have certain rights as human beings. We should all have the opportunity to live freely and without humiliation. Many Palestinians face harassment and attacks upon their dignity everyday. One type of humiliation is the systematic harassment and strip searches targeted specifically at women at checkpoints. I have my own story to tell. I am not Palestinian. I am not Arab. I am not Jewish. I am American, and the following story happened to me the first time I visited Israel at the northern border crossing with Jordan last spring.
Last spring, I was on a study abroad trip in Jordan with CIEE and decided to travel with seven of my fellow Americans to Israel to visit the city of Jerusalem for three days. When my friends and I were passing at the border, things were going smoothly until they reached me at the end of the line. Not expecting to have problems crossing the border, all of my friends passed through, except one who noticed that I was being harassed. They took my passport from me and told me I had to wait while they did a security check. They held me there for 10 hours. About one hour before the border was going to close, they took me to a small room where they made me remove my clothing. They took my clothing from me and ran it through the X-ray machine. I was wearing a tank top, jeans and a pair of flip-flops, so this kind of procedure was clearly not for security.
After this, a man with a briefcase came, and I was told I must leave for questioning. I was taken outside, behind barbed wire into a small cubicle pumped with exceedingly cold air. As I sat shivering and teeth chattering, I was interrogated for an hour about my entire life and everyone I knew. They repeatedly asked me if I was planning to go to Gaza or the West Bank, even though I insisted that all I wanted was to go to Jerusalem. They asked me why my friends had different kinds of names than I do and why my friends felt that they could even be with a person like me (implying that I was too "low" for them). I have an Iranian name and they repeatedly asked me why I had this name because it was a boy's name not a girl's name. They tried to humiliate me over and over again. I was terrified. I thought I was going to be raped sitting there alone with two men in this secluded cubicle.
Last spring, I was on a study abroad trip in Jordan with CIEE and decided to travel with seven of my fellow Americans to Israel to visit the city of Jerusalem for three days. When my friends and I were passing at the border, things were going smoothly until they reached me at the end of the line. Not expecting to have problems crossing the border, all of my friends passed through, except one who noticed that I was being harassed. They took my passport from me and told me I had to wait while they did a security check. They held me there for 10 hours. About one hour before the border was going to close, they took me to a small room where they made me remove my clothing. They took my clothing from me and ran it through the X-ray machine. I was wearing a tank top, jeans and a pair of flip-flops, so this kind of procedure was clearly not for security.
After this, a man with a briefcase came, and I was told I must leave for questioning. I was taken outside, behind barbed wire into a small cubicle pumped with exceedingly cold air. As I sat shivering and teeth chattering, I was interrogated for an hour about my entire life and everyone I knew. They repeatedly asked me if I was planning to go to Gaza or the West Bank, even though I insisted that all I wanted was to go to Jerusalem. They asked me why my friends had different kinds of names than I do and why my friends felt that they could even be with a person like me (implying that I was too "low" for them). I have an Iranian name and they repeatedly asked me why I had this name because it was a boy's name not a girl's name. They tried to humiliate me over and over again. I was terrified. I thought I was going to be raped sitting there alone with two men in this secluded cubicle.
Viewing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
Alan Cooper
posted 4/04/07 @ 12:16 AM EST
Please understand while what happened to her was terrible her use of language such as "I thought I was going to be raped" is egregious and wrong. It is meant to evoke sympathy for her and hatred toward Israel. (Continued…)
Jamil Zraikat
posted 4/04/07 @ 5:12 PM EST
Alan, you're a fucking idiot. Keep it up, you're really going to get far in life attributing everything to "anti-semitism".
Jamil Zraikat
Class of 2005
Marian
posted 4/07/07 @ 9:26 AM EST
What happened to this lady is terrible, and a violation of her human rights and her human dignity. As she writes, this strip search was clearly not necessary for security reasons. (Continued…)
Smadar Bakovic
posted 4/09/07 @ 3:22 PM EST
What happened is terrible, but it happens everywhere, to many different people. The same happened to me when I was passing through to Egypt and was harrassed for a long, long time, even though I was with a group of American and English people --I have an Irish passport. (Continued…)
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