Testimony of Ibtisam Mar`anah, resident of Fureidis

I am a television and cinema producer. I come from Fureidis originally, but I now live in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Last year, 2005, I traveled to an international film festival in Holland that intended to screen one of my films. I traveled together with Jewish colleagues to represent the State of Israel. I was the only Arab in the group. From my previous experience at the airport, and from comments I had heard from friends and relatives about the way Arabs are maltreated at the airport, I was mentally prepared to be treated badly. But even so, I did not expect that it would prove to be so offensive and humiliating.

After we entered the airport and handed over our passports to the inspectors, all my Jewish colleagues passed on without any searches or questions. The guards moved me to one side and began to interrogate me. “Where are you going? With who? Who put these things in your suitcase and arranged them” and lots of other personal questions. Then they began to inspect my suitcases and bags. I opened all the bags. They searched everything and tipped all the items out of the suitcase. They insolently demanded that I sort it all out again. I refused point blank and argued with them. In the end, they sorted my things out.

After the search, I examined my hand baggage and found a hard piece if green plastic fixed firmly onto the bag. This piece of plastic had not been there before. I asked my Jewish colleagues if they also had a piece of plastic like that in their bags – I thought perhaps everyone went through the same procedure. They checked their bags and did not find anything. I felt really humiliated that something had been put in my bag to single me out as a special case, so that at every stage of the inspection and search they would see this and treat me accordingly. Then they told me to go through the scanner, after removing all my jewelry, my shoes and watch, and so on. I did what they told me, and then the machine beeped, indicating that there was something suspicious. It turned out to be a clip in my hair. The guard demanded that I remove it. I refused, and tried to challenge him. “If you admit that you are searching and humiliating me because I am Arab, I will remove it.” I was amazed at his cold reply. He simply said, “I am searching you because you are Arab, so take it off.” At that point I could not stand this attitude any longer. We argued fiercely and began to shout, and I even began to think about abandoning the idea of flying to Holland.

However, if I had not got on the flight, I would have embarrassed the Israeli delegation. One of the Jewish members of the delegation, Ms. Osnat Trebilsi, who is also a director, intervened and tried to convince me to change my mind. After she had a long discussion with the people in charge there, they released me and I boarded the plane. While my Jewish colleagues went round the duty free shop, I underwent an insulting and humiliating search. The search and the delay lasted over an hour.

Unfortunately, the humiliation didn’t end there. When I arrived at the Dutch airport to fly back to Israel, I went through the inspection by the Dutch security guards without any problem. The hair clip also beeped in the scanner, but they did not demand that I remove it. When I reached the Israeli guards from El-Al – the airline I was traveling with – they stopped me at Gate No. 8 and told me to move over to Gate No. 10. I went there, and found that this gate did not lead to the plane, but to a lower level of the airport. I went down the stairs and found a group of foreign passengers on their way to Israel. There were seven people there, and I was the only one with an Israeli passport. They began to inspect us one by one.

They put my bags to one side and took me into an area enclosed with curtains, I could not see what was going on around me. A woman guard from El-Al came in and told me to remove some of my clothes, and suddenly I found myself topless. This was the most humiliating and offensive part. I was representing Israel at an international festival – how could they treat me in such a humiliating way?

Then I took my bags and went to the plane. One of the guards accompanied me to Gate No. 8 and then to the boarding ramp. I returned to Israel. I didn’t argue with any of the guards about the humiliating inspection and search. I just put myself in their hands. I felt helpless. I felt that I couldn’t refuse. They were searching me underground, out of sight.

Someone who hasn’t undergone this kind of search can’t imagine how humiliating it is. You aren’t worth anything in this situation. At the time I thought about the Palestinians who go through checkpoints every day – I thought about the daily searches and humiliation. I considered handing in my passport and identity card – what meaning does citizenship have if it makes me a victim to this kind of treatment?

I have been invited many times to travel to the United States on work-related visits. I have not gone, because I constantly think about the humiliating inspection and search I would have to undergo at the airport. The experience has even affected my career.