I’d originally thought to add a new post earlier, but as always class responsibilities took up my writing impetus and more travel took up my energy. This will be my second post on my travels in Palestine and Israel. I actually made another trip this past weekend, going and staying in Palestine and then taking a trip to Tel Aviv, in Israel.

This post I’m going to dedicate to the border crossing. To begin the topic I’m going to first talk about racism. I’ve seen racism in different ways, with different faces. One of its worst faces, in my view, is on the face of a government employee or official of the law doing their job as their job demands. In a roundabout way I’m describing official, institutional racism. I know there is racism all over the world, with different roots and causes, and of varying “reasoning.” But I would say racism never truly has a justification: that would be to say there are circumstances where it is “just” and I don’t believe there is ever a “just racism.” There is a difference between explaining racism and justifying racism. The worst racism I think I have ever seen has been on the Israeli border, by Israeli border guards, carrying out Israeli border policy.

I’ve crossed the border three times now, twice at the King Hussein Bridge, and once more at the Sheikh Hussein crossing. The racism I have seen has been entirely directed towards Arabs; anything Arab is seen as suspect, particularly Palestinian Arab. Anyone with any level of Arab heritage is put under heightened scrutiny, and anyone with any Palestinian family is even more in question. Anyone who has citizenship in another country but has Palestinian heritage is going to have a difficult time even entering the country and can consider themself lucky if they succeed in doing so; that is true under any circumstances at any entry point. Furthermore, and this will sound bad: it’s contagious. If you have stamps from Arab countries in your passport, you’re suspect. If you have Arab friends or contacts, you’re even more suspect. I have seen the guards go through an American friend’s phone and, very accusingly, asked about every Arab name in her contact list. They then proceeded to ask her, again accusingly, if anyone had tried to convert her to Islam; the response was “absolutely not.”

As a white American with no Arab heritage, I’m lucky. I can get through the border in about two hours at King Hussein and in 15 minutes at Sheikh Hussein. Now that’s not the case for all Americans; one unlucky American friend who had gotten a concurrent passport was seen as suspect because her concurrent passport only had Jordanian stamps. She was then interrogated about her entire life by a few different people, also had her phone inspected, as well as her computer, and then was let out 6 hours later. I had already left because I thought she may have passed through during my vehicle inspection (after which I ended up having a lot of engine overheating problems). Anyone with any level of Palestinian heritage can expect to be stuck at the King Hussein crossing for an average of 4 hours if not more. A Jordanian, despite clear terms in the peace treaty, will probably find him or herself rejected at the border automatically.

I definitely have to address the issue of security. Every time I level any amount of criticism on Israeli policies, and believe me I’m not afraid to do so, even in front of uninformed but adamant colleagues, someone jumps on the security “justification.” Every country does have a right to maintain its own security, true. My first statement, I would say that pursuing security does not require degrading individuals, nor the vilification of individuals for having connections to Arabs, as I have often personally witnessed occurs at the border. Furthermore, from my own degree of experience, the policies pursued at the border are beyond the requirements of security. To put it bluntly, the policies on the border are intended to obstruct Palestinians from retaining any level of connection to Palestine. Please keep in mind that the West Bank and Gaza are not part of Israel. Even in Israeli law and most of its media, the West Bank and Gaza are referred to as occupied territories (though they often refer to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria”).

There is a useful body of knowledge amongst expats and Middle East travelers if you’re ever traveling to an Israeli entry point. First, the questions: What is your name? What is your father’s name? What is his father’s name? What is your mother’s name? And her mother’s name? Where was your father from? Where is your mother from? And your grandparents? All of these questions are aimed at identifying any Arab roots; if one is discovered, the traveler is moved into a different track and will face additional questioning and inspections. Second: No matter wha,t you are not travelling into the West Bank. If they offer to issue you a visa to travel into the West Bank, you are still not traveling there, even if you want to go to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank. There is no visa for the West Bank, it is just a trick to catch you, in which case you’ll be lucky even to be allowed into Israel. Third: You have limited ties to Arabs, and you do not speak Arabic. Yes, I have had to deny the fact that I speak Arabic, and was almost caught when they said something in Arabic and I nearly forgot to pretend I didn’t understand. This is the process for anyone, including Americans.

I just want to try to add a quick clarification of my sudden interest in writing about what I’m writing about in this little series. It’s kind of rooted in a thought after having given a presentation at an Amman hotel, to one of the Rotary clubs here. During and immediately following my presentation (and my co-scholar’s as well) I encountered a lot of criticism that we had not addressed what we have learned about the Palestinian issues in Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. To be fair, our presentation was to give some idea about our home to the people here, and was not to serve as a sort of “check on learning.” I wasted no time in making sure our hosts understood that fact, diplomatically of course, being a student of diplomacy. But I would be remiss if I didn’t give their point of view any value. So, since my goal is to share what I learn here with everyone at home, this series of posts is my attempt to share my perspective on some of the issues surrounding Palestine.