Our first 24 (or so) hours

Everything I was told about what to expect when I arrived was incorrect, and I got very divergent views. Some told me to expect lines of guards meeting us at the airport guns drawn and escorting us to the terminal where soldiers would await us to grill us with questions and hold us for many hours. Others told us it was going to be a piece of cake. I think what actually happened was somewhere closer to the latter. We arrived at Ben Gurien Airport which has just been renovated into a brand new facility. We walked a long time to the immigration area and as we gave our passports, it didn’t take long for the officer to begin looking at them and then at us. “American?” she asked, as if the U.S. passport in her hand was not proof enough!!! Then she got up and left and when she returned, two unarmed guards came and stood behind us while she asked more questions. It became obvious that what tipped her off was that I was born in Pakistan, as she asked where I was born, when was the last time I was there, etc. After a while, one of the guards asked me to accompany him and to leave my family with the immigration officer. He took me to a holding area where there were a few other people. They took my passport and then I waited, and waited, for about two hours. I did ask where my family was and they had no idea, so I assumed that they cleared through, gotten the bags, and were waiting for me to come out. The only time the guards spoke to me was to ask the name of my father and my grand father. Then they let me go without anything further…… I had asked them to not stamp my passport, but of course they didn’t listen, and we’ll see what happens when I travel in a few days to Dubai…..


My grand mother and sister in law were there to pick us up and the drive was very nice. The house is about 30 minutes from Tel Aviv and we passed rolling hills (mostly limestone) till we got to village/suburb called Bait Haneena. Iman’s grand mother has a nice piece of land with a building on it that houses 3 other families other than herself and is how she covers her own expenses. As I walked into her house and then for the entire day, I had a sense of déjà vu. It wasn’t until I much later that I figured out what it was. That if I erase for a minute where I am, then I could easily replace it with a house my aunt lived-in in Pakistan. The carpet, the doors, the furniture, even the coloring of the walls was reminiscent. It was actually amazing, that even thought the two places are thousands of miles apart, and two completely different cultures, the houses would have so much in common. Her house is also literally about 4 houses away from the masjid so it gives me an opportunity to visit the masjid every salat. Just being here less than two days makes me think how much easier it is to be a Muslim in this area than if I was in the US. Not much happened the day I arrived as we were still recovering from our journey.

One last thing of note. Everyone keeps talking about the wall that is going up between Israel and the West Bank. From the house I am at, it is less than 200 yards. I am not sure what people think of when I say a wall, but I had a completely different image of it before I saw it. It is about 18 ft. high and solid gray cement. The Israelis literally put it where they found it convenient and in what areas they wanted as the one next to our house is cutting through a major thorough fare that was used by all to get to Jerusalem. Now it is undriveable for cars. Not only that, but from the veranda of the house, we can see the city on the other side, but can’t get to it. Knowing that in this part of the world families all live in one area and most times on one street, I wouldn’t be surprised if families are on opposite sides of the wall and what took one minute to go see a relative across the street now will take an hour or so, going down the length of the wall to get to a check point, crossing it, and then doubling back all the way to almost the same spot again. It has similarities of the wall built in Berlin, however, I don’t think that in Berlin they salamandered neighborhoods and families to build it. In the end, I think this idea will be a huge failure. I can imagine some time in the future when some politician gets up (be they Israeli or Palestinian) and to an excited crowed yells “Mr. President, tear down this wall”. Economically it makes no senses and will hurt as well. For importantly, however, the intent (at publicly) is to separate the West Bank from Israel to prevent terrorists from easily crossing. What it actually does is harbor deeper resentments and lets the “other” truly become the other to a point that they can plot whatever they want with now more freedom. In any case, in the short time I have been here, what I suspected is already happening, that people have dug holes underneath the wall and use it for crossing. My sister in law told me of a wedding she was at where one of the women asked her to check the back of her dress to see if it was dirty or torn. She did and found nothing and when she asked why, the women responded that she had just crossed under the wall and thought she had caught a snag. She did it for a mere wedding, so imagine how easy it would be for someone with more evil intents to do it.