Racial Profiling of Israeli Arabs in the Airport

Prompted by my latest experience at the airport, I decided to update an article I wrote about this a while back. Actually I was thinking of updating this article before my El-Al ordeal, but that experience gave me even more material to write about. I am also going to try to get the article published, if any of you can point me to anyone who might be interested in such article I would be grateful.

Anyway you can find the article here.

Easy Money

I finally finished publishing the remaining chapter of my fictional short story taking place in Bogotá Colombia. You can find it here.

Finally Home

It is great to make it home finally, it would have nice though if it was not spoiled by the fact that I still have to deal with the aftermath of the El-Al ordeal; my laptop have arrived one day after me, but not my: ipod speaker, ipod charger, ipod icast, Nike tennis shoes, my old digital camera and my laptop charger (What good is a laptop without a charger). My gut feeling about flying without my full luggage was justified after all. I contacted El-Al and they don't know anything at the moment about those items (just great); all these items were taken out of my luggage by El-Al security and never returned, in a normal world that would be called stealing, an airline stealing from its own passengers, how audacious can you get. OK maybe I am exaggerating, maybe they just misplaced my stuff, but their attitude is still indignant.

Anyway I have to go on with life, so I bought a new charger for my laptop, and borrowed some Tennis shoes from my cousin, and I can charge the ipod by connecting it to the usb port in my laptop. If I had just agreed to take that Air France flight, but I couldn't just let them treat like that, and let it be without a fight.

I am trying to get my biological clock adjusted to local time, and it is going well so far; during the night of my flight I only got a couple of hours of sleep on the plane, but I forced my self to stay awake the next day until midnight, and I got a good eight our sleep. Today I struggled staying awake at some points, but decided to resist the temptation and not sleep before midnight. Remember midnight for me used to be what is 7 in the morning now here, going to sleep at an hour that is far from my previous sleeping hour will probably screw my biological clock, or at least I think so. Playing tennis in the afternoon today helped me stay awake, but I needed some coffee and an XL drink (a red bull imitation) to stay awake at night, now its midnight, and I can go to sleep again.

During the morning I went to the travel agency, as they asked me to bring them some document so they can file a compensation claim for me, today was actually the last day to file the claim, how lucky that I actually managed to make it back home before the deadline. Anyway I am just hoping I get a refund for at least part of my ticket cost.

The Test Before The End

So I got my ticket home, and I boarded my flight, but I did not get home before another final ordeal. Anyway if things would have went well, I would not have anything to write about in this blog!

I made to Paris, two hours late, because of a delay to my flight from San Paolo, but I had plenty of time til my next flight, so I wasn't worried, at the contrary, it meant less waiting time between the flights. I showed up at 8 to the El Desk to check in, 2 1/2 hours before my flight to Tel-Aviv. Not surprisingly they decided I was a high security risk, and had to go though strict security checks; five security guys got busy with me and my luggage, checking every item, in fact it seemed I was the sole concern of the El-Al security staff, that evening. After an hour they got to my Nike tennis shoes and that seemed to trigger some alarms, I could hear the frantic discussions from behind the curtain were they ran my stuff through the x-ray and explosive detectors. Then when the problem with my Nike shoes seemed to be resolved, another heated discussion started, it seemed to revolve around my laptop charger, a charger that I had opened once in the past to fix, and closed it again using electric tape, and it was clear that it was opened and fiddled with. This time the head of security decided to call the french police and ordered a complete evacuation of the area.

Everybody left their posts in the El-Al area, even the check in desks were abandoned. Luckily for the rest of the passengers, they had already been checked in; I and a french women were the only remaining passengers. Eventually they decided to let the french women aboard the plane, but without her luggage (I don't think they told her that her luggage was staying). I was told to wait, I told the head of security that if the problem was the laptop charger, that we could just throw it away, that I would buy a new one when I get home, that they would just let me on the flight. My offer was not accepted, I knew by then that I was not going on that flight, and accepted my destiny. Eventually the french police arrived, with a couple of bomb experts, who took apart my laptop charger, checked some other items in my bag, ran my shows through X-ray and explosive detectors (again), asked me to follow them around airport. And of course after finding nothing in the end, they left. One of the french policemen was of Algerian descend, I could tell from his complexion and some of the words he uttered while talking on his cell phone, I asked him what was his name, it was Karim.

First I was told that I was going to be put on the next El-Al flight, which was set to leave at 7 in the morning. But then they changed their minds and told me that I would be leaving on an air France flight at 10:30 in the morning. Until that moment I decided to use the patience strategy; let them do their work and eventually they will find nothing wrong and let me on the flight, my approach had failed, I totally underestimated their paranoia of Arabic people. So I decided it was time for a change of approach, and also a time to draw a line; what is the difference between leaving at 7 or at 10:30 you might ask, I don't know, I just felt I had to draw a line somewhere. I told them that I was not going to wait tell 10:30, that I did not want any hotel voucher, that I wanted to leave on the first possible flight, I demanded it in fact, even cursed one person when he said no, the answer was still NO, my protestations were fruitless. So I tried the pleading approach instead, I talked to this young man with a black shirt, who I had a nice conversation with earlier about my travels in South America. I pleaded my case to him, told him that I was very patient during the whole security check process, and that I did not deserve to be rewarded like this. He went in and talked to the head of security and managed to convince him to let me on the 7 o'clock flight. The head of security tried to apologize for the state of my charger as well, I told him not to worry about it, that a technician could fix it in five minutes, and it was more important for me to get on the flight.

I though that was the end of the matter, but I was so wrong; it was midnight by then, but the security staff continued to work until 2 o'clock, checking the rest of my stuff. This convinced that it is a case of paranoia rather than a case of racial harassment; the flight had left at 22:30 but the security staff stayed 4 hours beyond that, just to check all my stuff, according with procedures as I was told, I doubt somebody would work four hours extra time to harass somebody else. In the end I was told that all is fine, but I that I would not be allowed to take my laptop with me on the same flight, that it would arrive on the following flight, and then be send back to my home, I should have just taken that air France flight offer, but no, I had to make point, I thought in self rapprochement. Since check in was not about to start for a couple of more hours, I had to just wait in the airport lobby, I should have taken that hotel offer as well; I reproached my self further; there was no where to sleep in the lobby, all the seats where designed for setting only, and were not comfortable for laying down, and all my luggage were left locked in the security room, so I could not take out my sleeping bag or anything. I had a couple of hours to think about the problem of not being able to take the laptop with me, and I decided I was not comfortable with the idea, but at the same time I was weary of fighting, and I did not want to start another testosterone charged argument with the head of security. Still I did not want to fly without my laptop either; I did not want my laptop to arrive several days latter; I could not imagine being without my laptop for a few days. I was also worried about how it would be handled, so I decided to plead my case when the head of security comes back, but to do it in a resigned manner, I was in fact resigned to missing on this flight as well!

After two hours of uncomfortable and anxious waiting, the deserted El-Al area came to life again. I told the head of security that I can't fly without my laptop, told him about my concerns, I did it in a wary tone of someone who is tired of fighting but still can't accept what he was being offered. Just speaking out my concerns though seem to alleviate them, and the head of security as well assured me that my laptop would be well handled, and that it will be on the next flight, and that I would receive it at my home quite soon. Then he offered me a cup of coffee, and asked one of his young guys to explain the procedures and regulations to me. I asked him if the regulation was that Arabic people are not allowed to carry laptops on flights? He said it was not only Arabic people, but he did not sound convincing. Anyway I decided I would go on the flight, and cross my fingers that my laptop would arrive safe, and that it would arrive soon. As for the state of the charger, I would know when I got it back.

I was allowed to board the flight, but I had to check in all my luggage, including my ipod, I was only allowed to carry a book with me. I was assigned a young security guy at all time, who accompanied me until I boarded the plane. I had a discussion with him about high tech jobs, and my travels in South America, and he was interested when I told him I keep a blog of my travels, and asked me for the web address. He also asked if I was going to write about my ordeal, and whether it was going to be positive or negative.

It is amazing sometime that we notice things that have been there all along, but we had failed to see them; In the first page of my passport the following text is written, both in Hebrew and English: "The Minister of Interior of the State of Israel hereby requests all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer of this passport to pass freely without let or hindrance and to afford him such assistance and protection as maybe necessary." It seems El-Al personal pay little attention to the words of their own interior minister! Until yesterday I did not pay much attention to what was written there.

Generally when a company treats you badly, you can always threaten them with not using their services again. But it seems El-Al would rather transfer an Arabic guy with gadgets to air France, and probably loose money, rather than allow him to go on their flight with his laptop. In front of that kind of attitude their is really little to do. Generally I avoid flying with El-Al, but after being stuck for several weeks in Bolivia, I just wanted to get home, and I took what ever reasonably priced flight was available at the time; I did not give the El-Al issue much thought frankly, but this experience guarantees that next time I buy a ticket, I will do my best to avoid flying with El-Al again.

The LAB affair continued

My flight affair seems to be coming to an end; I managed to buy a ticket back to Israel, but it cost me as much is my original return ticket.

There were quite a few people who were hit by the collapse of LAB and remained stuck in Bolivia. Some of them got organized and managed to convince AeroSur, the other Bolivian airline, to organize a charter flight for them to Madrid, which left last Thursday. AeroSur proudly announced on TV that it had arranged solidarity flights to Madrid, and when I heard the news I decided to investigate the mater further; I went to AeroSur, who pointed to the airport where some other group of stranded passengers were to trying to organize another flight. At the airport there was a big group of people who had moved to live there, apparently in a protest to get their money back; the money they paid for the tickets. They had mattresses to sleep on, and improvised field kitchen to make food, they camped in front of the now deserted LAB desks. Somewhere there was a sign announcing that there was a different group who are trying to organize a flight to Madrid, and that they were having a meeting in the afternoon of the next day.

I returned to the airport the next day, and I met the organizers of the group, they had about 70 people by then who were in the same situation as I, most of them Bolivian with Spanish residency, who have to return to their jobs soon or risk loosing them. I added my name to the list. The idea was to gather as many people as possible and then go with the list to AeroSur, and see if they would organize another charter flight to Madrid, for the cost of 800$ per person, like the first flight, which would be cheaper than any flight to Madrid I can get through a travel agency, the cheapest quote I got there was 1400$. After that I went along with the whole group to the offices of AeroSur, were we waited for the manager. The media was there and they interviewed some of the people in the group. When the manager arrived she talked to the representatives of the group, and promised to do her best to help.

After a few days of waiting though there was still no news from AeroSur. In addition I received a definite answer from my travel agency about my flight from Madrid to Tel-Aviv on the 15^th; El-Al will not respect my ticket, because it was bought through LAB. After assessing the situation I decided to forget about the Madrid option, and just buy a complete ticket back to Tel-Aviv. I went to a travel agency here in Cochabamba, Tropical tours, where they offered me some very expensive tickets, which I declined. in the end they pointed me to Natalie, one of the other employees. Natalie turned out to be some computer wizard, and quickly managed to find me a few reasonable options to fly back to Tel-Aviv. In the end I bought a ticket to Paris for 1170$, then bought another ticket from Paris to Tel-Aviv through my travel agency in Israel. The total cost was ~1650$. A lot of money but that was the best I could find, and I can’t stay here for longer, as my money is running out, in fact I bought the ticket with money my brother sent me through western union.

Considering my luck of late, it was of no surprise that the next morning I received a call from one of the reps of the group, telling me that AeroSur has granted them their wish, and that at charter flight was going to leave to Madrid on Thursday, for a cost of 800$ per passenger; that would have saved me around 300$ (assuming I could find a flight from Madrid to Tel-Aviv for 400$). Anyway it was too late for me. My agency in Israel forwarded an email to me, apparently El-Al has allocated money to compensate those passengers who had tickets, and maybe I could apply for a refund, and maybe I well get some of my money back. I start my way back in Cochabamba on the afternoon of the 23th of April, going through Asuncion, San Paolo, Paris, and finally I should arrive to Tel-Aviv on the early morning hours of the 25^th. This means I will probably miss the Man U vs Milan champions league game, bummer.

I was under a lot of stress for the last couple of weeks; I also caught a cold during that time, and was horribly sick. I mean I had colds before but this was quite severe. I was sick for about 12 days, which was the longest I was ever sick in my life. The worst part though was that I felt so awful, just my whole body ached. I was so worried by the severity of it, that I started looking in the internet for the symptoms of more serious diseases, that are common around there, Malaria and Dengue fever mainly. I had none of the symptoms, in fact other than a slight cough, clogged nostrils, and a slight fever, I had no other symptoms. I even went to see a doctor at some point, something I don’t do for just a normal cold, usually I just rest tell it passes. The doctor gave me a Penicillin injection, and prescribed me some anti cold medication. The next day I was already feeling better, I don’t think it has anything to do with the medication, it was just about time my body managed to fend off the flue virus, I think. I am feeling much better now, back to my good health, and all systems are functioning as normal.

In a Limbo

I was extremely distraught when my flight date was changed without my concession, but things have just gone from bad to worst; since the last few days of march the LAB flights to Madrid have been canceled, followed by the rest of LAB flights; LAB offices are shut down now and company is on the brink of bankruptcy. I have resigned to loosing my ticket to Madrid, and now I am looking for other options, which will cost me at least 1200$, probably more. Things got even worst my travel agency in Israel (Issta good bless them), told me that El-Al will not respect my flight from Madrid to Tel-Aviv, unless I have some sticker from LAB confirming my flight. I have no such sticker, and no possibility for getting one since LAB is dead, gone, does not exist anymore. This is just absolutely ridiculous, their using the bankruptcy of another company to declare their part of the ticket void, even though they got there money 6 month ago. My brother will go to tomorrow to the agency to try to resolve this, but if they will not respect, then I have not other option but to buy a complete new ticket from Bolivia to Israel, which will probably cost me more than my original return ticket. Of course once I get to Israel I will have my lawyer sue the El-Al and the agency; what there doing is absurd, I paid for my ticket and I called to make a reservation for the 15 of April, what can a person do more to get his ticket respected by an airline?

But leaving the cocoon of my plight for a moment, this is a tragedy at a larger scale; there are many passengers stranded in the airport, some going on a hunger strike, mostly people from abroad who have no means of going back home now, others are Bolivian who had vacation packages to Madrid, vacations that now turned into nightmares. The worst part though is that 1200 employees of LAB will be jobless soon, not that it is a sudden shock for them; many of them have not been receiving their salaries for 11 month now, they still hanged on though((good employment is scarce in Bolivia,), they did it in hope that the company will turn things around, the company did not.

Rurrenabaqui & El Parque Madidi

After some hesitating and budget considerations, I decided to go on a trip to Rurrenabaqui, the jumping point for visiting the Madidi national park. I decided to fly there, as the other option was to take a bus to La Paz, a 7 hour bus ride, then another bus to Rurre, a 17 hour trip on some bad roads. I decided I did not even want to do the bus trip to La Paz either, so I bought a flight ticket from Cochabamba, with a connection in La Paz going to Rurre. Just as I packed my stuff on Wednesday to leave to the airport, I received a phone call from Amazonas airline, telling me that the flight to Rurre has been cancelled due to bad weather, and that I could fly the next day instead. Later, after I arrived to Rurre, I found out that there was no bad weather, it had not even been raining for a few days already, the true reason behind the cancellation was that some people from the government needed to travel and they took all the Amazonas flights. I had to reschedule my flight to La Paz as well, and I paid an 80 Bolivanos penalty to reschedule it to the next day at 8:30 in the morning. I woke early the next day to catch my flight, only to find out that the flight has been delayed, the flight eventually left at one in the afternoon, luckily I had plenty of time between my flight, since my flight to Rurre from La Paz was scheduled for 15:00 in the afternoon, but I could have slept a couple of hours more, instead of waking up at 7 in the morning.

Eventually I made to Rurre at around 17:30, one day late. At the airport I met a group of Australians who were going the other way; boarding the plane back to La Paz. I asked them which tour agency they went with and they told the name of the agency was Indians, and that they liked their tour. The representative of the agency was at the airport, and I told her I am interested in the tour, she told me that they had a group going out the next morning, they had 7 people in the group and that I would be number 8 if I decide to join, and she promised me a special price if I do. I took a ride in their jeep back to their office in town, where she quoted me a 50$ price for a 3 day tour of the pampas, and she was going to give me an explanation of the tour, but I stopped her; I told her I will take the tour, and the I would rather keep everything as a surprise. Later I found out I paid less than everybody else, and I did not even need to haggle much for it, I guess they just need one more person to complete the numbers, as their jeep can fit 8 people.

I went back to town to check into a hotel, one that the girl from the agency recommended. An 8 year old girl and her younger brother were the only people at the front desk when I entered. The girl greeted me and I asked her who was attending, the little girl replied that she was. I hesitated for a moment but then, thought what the heck, I asked her for a room. She went on to explain to me the room rates, showed me my room, asked for my passport and registered my details in the check in register! By that time her mother had arrived, I told her that I was taken care of quite well.

The next morning our tour started from town, and then we ran into our first problem, there was no gas in the gas stations at the town. The problem was resolved as the driver found out that there is gas at the next town, and we drove there to fill up the jeep before heading to the Pampas, a three hour drive on a dirt road. The Pampas are swamp lands, covered by low vegetation, as opposed to the jungle were the trees grow on dry land. The jeep took us to a small port on the river, where we boarded a long narrow boat. A two hour ride in the boat through the river, going up stream, took us to our lodge. The scenery was just amazing on the way, and we stopped whenever we spotted wild life on the banks; monkeys, a large Capebwara, different species of birds, a green snake. We also spotted quite a few pink dolphins on the way, and things looked very promising with respect to wild life viewing.

Our group was diverse as well: Trevor and Julia a young married couple from California, Kfeer an Israeli guy, Ira a half Jewish American guy, Christian and Australian lad, Erica a young American women and Carla, an Australian woman. Back at the lodge, we spotted a couple of crocs around the lodge; apparently they just live around the lodge. We wanted to go for a swim, as we felt so hot because of the boat ride under the burning sun, Sabino our guide told us that the crocs were harmless and that we could go for a swim in front of the lodge. But no body dared to go in with a 2.5 meter croc setting just out there. So Sabino went into the water and patted the croc, and to our amazement the croc just got annoyed and walked away. We felt more assured after this, and we all went in for a swim in the river, all of us except Christian, who is used to a much more aggressive species of croc in his country, and he could not get himself to go into the water when with a croc around, despite Sabino’s assurances that he posed no danger to us.

Then Sabino, our guide, gave us a briefing of our tour agenda. Sabino has been working for 12 years as a guide in the Pampas, and besides guiding tourists, he had worked with a few scientists as well. After that we went to watch the sunset and have a drink at the local bar, the bar is connected to our lodge through a wooden ramp, which runs over the water for a couple of hundred meters. Then we went back to the lodge for our dinner, the food was delicious as it was going to be for our whole stay at the lodge. At night we went on a Caiman watching boat ride, but we saw none, Sabino already warned us that it will difficult because of the full moon. But then we had our worst mosquito attack, and even several layers of repellent did not keep away the bites; mosquitoes are the curse of the pampas.

Next morning we went on a snake searching hike; after a short boat ride, we walked through a long stretch of swamp land, covered with 2 meter long grass, and knee deep water. Our destination was a small island of dry land, where we were to look for snakes; we found none. Sabino has already warned us that it was going to be difficult to find snakes in this season, especially Anacondas; it was the period of transition from the rainy season to the dry season, and the water level was still high, and the water covers large areas, providing the Anacondas with a plenty of habitat. In the dry season when the plains get dry, the Anacondas recedes to the small lakes and streams, where there is still water, and then it is guaranteed to be able to see Anacondas.

After another delicious meal we had a siesta, and then went to look for dolphins; we found some in a small tranquil side lake. The idea was to swim with the dolphins, but it is really up to them to decide if they want to swim with us. We went into the water, but the dolphins did not seem to like us that much, they were still hanging around, but they did not get very close to us, nor allowed us to get very close to them. They were playing us, every time we got close they would dive and reappear on some other corner of the little lake.

On our way back to the lodge, we spotted a large Caiman, we could only see its head actually, which was quite big. Sabino told us it was probably 4-5 meters long, and unlike the crocs, Caimans are aggressive and they will attack humans, even in a boat. We then went for a different bar to watch the sunset, this time we had to use the boat to get there. Our next day was supposed to start at 5:30, to experience the sunrise in the pampas, but it was all dependent on the weather, and the weather did not cooperate this time, it was raining in the morning, and in the rain one cannot see the sunrise, nor enjoy the sounds of the jungle, so Sabino just let us sleep until breakfast. Then we went Piranha fishing, unfortunately it was drizzling and we could not catch any. Back at the lodge we had an early launch, and then we were to head back to the port. The boat ride was great again, the rain had stopped, and the clouds dissipated, but not completely; there remained a layer of haze, which dimmed the burning sun, making it quite pleasant instead.

Back at the port we had to wait for our Jeep. There were a few dolphins around, and I decided to go for another attempt at swimming with them. I was in the water for about an hour, first the dolphins stayed away, then they started to come closer, and every once in a while they would suddenly appear close to me, startling me, and then they would dive again, hiding under the murky waters. Since we had some rain, the road back to Rurre was in a worst condition, and we saw a couple of vehicles stuck on the way. We though managed to go through it with out getting stuck, the credits go to our four wheal drive and some experienced driving by our driver.

I wish I had planned for more time in Rurre, I would have if I had known it was so cheap there, it is only flying there that costs a lot, and once I am there I might is well take advantage and stay longer, especially if the weather is dry, as it generally was during my stay. I could have done a day tour in the jungle, and also done the canopy adventure, where you see the jungle from above, by sliding on ropes stretched between tree tops. But I had bought my flight back before arriving to Rurre, and I did not want the hassle of changing my flight back, especially because I had to deal with two different airlines, and I had a bad experience lately when trying to make changes with these kinds of tickets. Anyway Amazonas decided to tinker was my flight times anyway, with out asking me, putting me on the 18:15 back to La Paz, which meant I would have not been able to make my connection flight to Cochabamba. I was not going to take anymore of it though; I went to there office, and demanded I be put back on the three o’clock flight, which they did. All went well after that and I made back to Cochabamba.