Security

Yesterday morning I left for Nazareth with the American students. I have safely arrived at the Fauzi Azar Inn and had a full day of travelling to and around the Sea of Galilee. Before I get to the trip (in future posts) I want to talk about our journey to Nazareth.

We left just before 8am, planning to walk to and through the checkpoint and catch a bus at 9:15am. We got to the checkpoint at about 8:40am and got into a fairly short line (about 25 people). After about ten people had gone through in a reasonable fashion, we heard a muffled Hebrew message from blown out speakers. The turn-style that had been letting people through two at a time stopped. We slowly realized that the soldiers had decided to take a break: there was no one there. One white tourist pushed himself to the front of the line and shouted, "I have an appointment." Nothing happened. The break lasted about 35 minutes, which allowed the line we were in to swell from 20 to over 100 people. At this point, some people were cutting into the line. Because we did not speak enough Arabic to communicate and we did not know any better, we let these people in front of us. We quickly realized our mistake. As soon as the line started moving again, people began to shove from all sides. Gone was the community feel of Palestine, gone was the public discretion of touching strangers (especially women), gone was the friendly and welcoming nature: it was every person for themselves. As a soldier stood above us on another layer - holding his assault rifle - I felt like I was in a slaughterhouse. Each of us mindlessly pushing towards our death. About 40 people pushed in front of us until we could get to a point where we formed a basic wall of bodies to allow the members of our group to pass through without being shoved to the side. My thought as I strode through the checkpoint, defiantly keeping my passport in my pocket: If this is the only interaction you have with Palestinians, it would be impossible not to dehumanize them.

We took two buses to get to the Old City of Jerusalem and then the central bus station. A the central bus station we also had to pass through security. Like the checkpoint, it required a metal detector and an x-ray scanner for our bags. Unlike the checkpoint, there were seven metal detectors and three x-ray machines instead of one each. It also took 30 seconds instead of an hour and 10 minutes. Inside the bus station, there was a lot of military. I think that most of them were off duty, but soldiers carry their guns with them at all times. As I waiting in line for ticket information, a man in plain clothes walked past me holding his fully automatic machine gun in two hands.

From the central bus station we two buses to Nazareth. On the first and longer of the two, I asked a soldier if I could sit beside him. His name is Danny and his English was quite poor. We didn't talk much because he quickly started to play poker on his phone. I'm guessing that he was 19. At one point on the trip, he fell asleep and his Trevor Assault Rifle rested against my leg. I glanced over to check. It was fully loaded.