Borderline
I learned early in life that border crossing are shadowy precarious places so I grew up knowing to tread with the utmost care so I am rarely shocked or surprised by any given incident at any given border crossing. Now a 21 year old American has been blogging about her bad day and the ‘rough’ treatment metered out at the hands of Israeli border guards. Ha’aretz carries the outrage.
Israel Border Police officers shot at an American student’s laptop as she entered Israel via Taba, Egypt, two weeks ago. Lily Sussman, 21, wrote on her blog that border police subjected her to two hours of questioning and searches prior to shooting her Apple Macbook three times. “They had pressed every sock and scarf with a security device, ripped open soap and had me strip extra layers. They asked me tons of questions?where are you going?” Sussman wrote, describing the experience.
“Who do you know? Do you have a boyfriend? Is he Arab, Egyptian, Palestinian? Why do you live in Egypt? Why not Israel? What do you know about the ‘conflict’ here? What do you think? They quizzed me on Judaism, which I know nothing about,” she continued.
Sussman said that she then heard an announcement on the loudspeaker. “It was something along the lines of, ‘Do not to be alarmed by gunshots because the Israeli security needs to blow up suspicious passenger luggage,’” she wrote on her blog. Moments later a man came to her and introduced himself as the manager on duty. “I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop,” Sussman said he told her.
“The security officers did not ask about my laptop prior to shooting it,” Sussman told Daily News Egypt. “They used the word ‘blew up’ when they told me they destroyed my laptop. I don’t know why they shot it.” Sussman said the guards also looked through the photos saved on her camera, flipped through her journal and asked her about a map a friend had drawn for her that pointed out a main street, central bus station and the hostel where she was planning on stayig in Jerusalem. She added that she had also been carrying an Arabic phrasebook, stamps from Syria, Qatar and the UAE and a Palestinians in Palestine guidebook.
The Israeli border police did allow Sussman to retrieve her hard drive and she is being compensated for the cost of her lap top. I could say Israel lives in a tough neighbourhood wherein most of the neighbours dream of the day when the Israeli state is pushed into the sea but that’s just rationalization.
Now let’s imagine you are a Canadian attempting to leave the US border – no wait – imagine you are a Canadian Science Fiction writer named Peter Watts and you are attempting to leave the United States and return to your own country when US border officials decide to stop and detain you from leaving the country – no wait – you don’t actually have to imagine how the US border officials of Lily Sussman’s country treat you – you can actually read about it in The Toronto Star:
For Peter Watts, life can be stranger than science fiction.
Watts – who has written six such books – was on his way back to Toronto last Tuesday after helping a friend move to the U.S. Before crossing the Blue Water Bridge into Sarnia, American customs officers pulled him over. He says when they began rifling through his car and luggage, he got out. They ordered him back in the car; he asked what was going on. What happened next has become the talk of the blogosphere: Watts too has waded in on it, posting that he was assaulted, punched in the face, pepper-sprayed and thrown in jail for the night, only to find that he was the one charged – with assaulting a customs officer.
Customs officials told the Star Watts was given directions “and became non-compliant…he did not follow directions and a physical altercation” ensued. An officer with the Port Huron police told the local newspaper that Watts “angrily” got out of the rental car and when he refused to get back in, they tried to cuff him and he became “aggressive.” In the melee, police said, Watts “choked” a customs officer.
“As a result of that he was detained and turned over to local authorities,” says Ronald Smith, chief customs and border protection officer at Blue Water, adding officers were conducing “outbound operations” stopping and inspecting vehicles after the toll booths but before they hit Canadian customs.Watts empatically denies any such action. “I can state categorically that I did not choke anybody, I did not use profanity and did not raise my voice, I did not initiate any physical contact,” says Watts, who is also a marine biologist with a PhD in zoology. “All I basically did was use words to ask what was going on.”
If I had to choose between Israeli Border security shooting my Macbook and compensating me for it or taking a beating at the hands of US Border officials and then being arrested and charged with a criminal offense – I choose Israel. But hey, that’s just me.
