1983 ~ DEFCON 3

Thanks to the blog Checkpoint Jerusalem, this week I discovered the short movie “1983”. The plot goes around what would happen if before getting into a movie you should pass a security check as those from Ben Gurion international airport. When the reporter Dion Nissenbaum asked the director why the title was “1983”, he answered: “What comes after 1983?” The short movie’s action itself, I’m sure it will be familiar to anyone who has gone through one of these random checkpoints.

Because, let’s face it, Ben Gurion controls are desperating. I remember the case of an old Russian Jew who left Israel swearing to me he will never come back again via the airport. I know as well cases of people being interrogated for hours -and consequently, losing their flights- and going through latex-gloved searches naked in separated rooms. It’s so bad that in the hotels they recommend you to give yourself a reasonable margin of hours in the airport before the flight is scheduled.

For journalists it is even worse. In my last visit to Ben Gurion airport, a French freelance photographer who was about five spaces behind me got suddenly surrounded by five security guards that started to ask him every kind of questions. His Press-labeled jacket and his cameras didn’t help him to pass unnoticed.

It’s obvious that journalists are screened harder because of our job. And trying to get unnoticed not always works. Searches for residual explosives in the clothes or the questions about if we know any Palestinian or we have travelled to other countries in the region are common. That’s why it’s not good to have your Nablus, Jenin or Ramallah sources in your agenda or your phone. Also, the trip from the security check to the plane is usually made with an -unwanted- escort.

Luckily, sometimes it gives you the chance to have a good time.

Once, in the baggage control check, my cover as tourist got blast. The beautiful girl examining my backpack didn’t believe me when she saw my cameras, lenses, laptop and all kind of notebooks with notes. Instantly she made me take all my things out of the backpack and the suitcase. All of it. Even what was on my clothes' pockets ended over the table.

When she reached the lateral pocket of my backpack, and started to put everything over the table, the fun started. Several condoms, almost a full pack -I hadn’t time to use as many as I wanted-, started to come out. As they were coming out, the girl’s face was turning more and more red and she was saying lower and lower her shameful “I’m sorries”. Of course, all that was provoking a more and more wider joker smile on me. With more shame on her side than on mine, the screening ended up much sooner than expected, putting as fast as she could everything back in my suitcase.

I was lucky, but it’s not always like that. The official reason for the screenings is that it is for our own security. Like to avoid any bad guy putting a tic-tac bomb inside the souvenir we got from Hebron or Bethlehem. But all the process is less than charming. And after a few similar experiences, you start to question yourself if it ever works.

In fact, as Dion Nissenbaum tells, is difficult to believe Ben Gurion controls are for security reasons only. You start to think if they are not to harass the travelers -especially Arabs or journalists, among others. Or even worse; just a way to gather intelligence.