To All Palestinian youngsters:
Don’t ever allow a” psychopath” security guy make your life miserable!

I wasn’t in the mood yet, after an overwhelming, painful trip and the harassment which was practiced against me at Ben Gurion Airport.

As I was honored at the first “Palestinian Day dedicated to Honor People with Disability and Professionals who serve them”. Which was held under the patronage of HE Dr. Salam Fayyad, in Ramallah. During the ceremony children with special needs were performing happily, dancing, singing and dreaming of a better future, to prove to the whole world that this Nation was born to live, love, succeed, celebrate and dream of a better future.

My story started at Ben Gurion Airport when I was travelling with my daughter on November 12^th 2010, British Airways, Tel Aviv- London Heathrow, flight number 0162.  As Jerusalemite Palestinians we can travel via the Airport while other West Bank Palestinians are not allowed. As usual the security measures are so annoying long and painful to any human being and not necessarily only for Palestinians! Yet I have no objection to the process itself, as I want to travel safely. The security check is usually carried out by young Israeli officers whom, from my experience differ one from the other, some do their job with as much as possible harassment and others, the opposite.

Therefore I’m always ready with alternative plans, with my favorite music and a good book to make my waiting time easier and less stressful. I always expect the worse; living under military occupation for so long and still feeling happy that your life has a meaning and not getting psychological distressed it’s in itself a success!

My daughter who’s a successful young professional was searched by another young female officer with high level of harassment! There was no need for me to hear her complaint from the other side of the searching area since hers and the officer’s body language was enough to show that there was a competition between two young women, the oppressed and the oppressor! My daughter was so angry about the way she was treated and complained to me verbally from far, which made the officer mad and brought her to ask her superior, a young male, to come to her aid to show this Palestinian young lady “his muscles!”.He said; “try me, if you don’t behave I’ll show you, you will not be able to travel” and kept challenging her and misbehaving, till my daughter was on the edge! Ironically who is misbehaving? The oppressed or the oppressor?

I was so angry watching my precious daughter being harassed; I expressed my feelings to the security officer who was searching me politely and reasonably. I finished earlier than my daughter although I had more luggage than she had! After searching all my belongings thoroughly and going through “body check”, which they call metallic check(?) I went to see why it took my daughter so long to go through the security check; the supervisor misbehaved with me and threatened me that he would recheck me if I continue to question and that he would not allow us to travel!! Although my intention was to ask “why are you torturing my daughter who’s your age although you are supposed to find a common language to coexist”, apparently I was completely mistaken to open up such a subject with a paranoid, miserable and complicated person, who only understood the language of power and war and not at all my peaceful civilized language and attitude!

I spoke to him in his mother tongue language therefore he became even more arrogant and proud of showing the “injustice” of the system as he expressed clearly, and he continued to delay our checking  process in order to bring us to miss the flight. I tried to comfort my daughter by telling her that the minute we are in the plane, she will be just fine and forget all about this painful experience. He followed us to the airlines counter and said that he is the happiest person on earth, out of no context! So I assured him that he is totally mistaken and that he is the most miserable and the most arrogant person that I’ve ever met in my entire life and that I feel sorry for his mother to have a son like him. He got mad as I confronted him with the reality, which escalated his harassment by taking away our passport and denying us boarding!

The scene was as such in the airport; the British Airways representative (Ms. Tal Pizanti) told me that because I spoke out and expressed my opinion I’m paying the price and that she can do nothing with the security and he’s going to call the police, so we agreed to wait for the police, who never showed up. We didn’t have our passports nor could we have our boarding passes! While waiting I started listing to my favorite music and reading from my I Pad and my daughter started playing with her I phone, and he was observing, till the police would come and we were sure that we missed the flight and started planning for alternatives. We waited for forty minutes then I called my Israeli lawyer and explained to her what was happening, meanwhile the officer who checked me filled out a complain about what had happened, the body language of most of young officers, who surrounded us wondering about what happened,  were in support of us, even some of them expressed their sympathy verbally. I kept talking to the “conscience” of those youngsters as a mother and as a believer in the human side of each individual and a human right activist, as a Palestinian who truly believes in coexistence on the basis of equality, diversity, respect and freedom, a Palestinian who will never give up on her principles to express her opinion and fight for a better future of the new generation.

Finally the Airline representative decided to issue our boarding passes and called for a special transportation for us to reach the gate.

Watching her trying her best to help and reading the faces of many Israeli young officers, who also tried genuinely to help us reach the gate a few minutes before takeoff, made me cry. I cried because I felt that there are Israelis who are different and with a live conscience.

I’m in the process of following him legally because on top of his misbehaviors he tried to “steal and hide” my permanent visa, which is considered as a “criminal act”! At the same time I’ve already sent a thank you letter to the Airline to acknowledge the help of their representative and got their reply.

I want to follow him legally, even if I fail in bringing justice, because of three reasons: I want  my daughters never to give up on their rights, I want these Israeli youngsters to think and for my psychological well being to feel my life still has a meaning and I shouldn’t allow him to continue behaving like this.

Yes, it might be a drop in the ocean, yet we should never give up our rights and we should never allow any one steal our dreams.

Jumana Odeh MD, MPH
Jerusalem – December, 2010