Hamas War

Monday, December 28, 2009

I Was Considered A Suspicious Character


Usually, I'm the type who is waved through security checks.  According to all the "profiling" I'm as benign as benign can be.

But even I can "slip up" when I'm not in total control of things.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to take advantage of my husband's being home, so he could take care of my father.  I went off to the Sha'ar Binyamin Commercial-Industrial Zone, just north of Jerusalem in southern Binyamin, that's the Benjamin Regional Council, of which Shiloh is close to its northern border.
There is a large discount supermarket, Rami Levi, and there's nothing like shopping to make me feel like I'm on vacation, even if I'm just buying fruit and vegetables.  Of course I prefer Machane Yehuda Market for that, but I "can do" Rami Levi in Sha'ar Binyamin in less than half the time, and on Tuesdays my daughter can sometimes pick me up on her way back from Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus.

I caught a tremp (ride) to Jerusalem which had said "no problem" about dropping me off a Sha'ar Binyamin.  The only snafu was that she forgot and dropped me off quite a distance past the junction.  I wasn't sorry when I saw those goats or whatever peacefully grazing.  I took a few pictures and then walked to the gate.  There I was stopped and questioned, very innocuously of course.  First they just wanted to hear my voice and accent.  They quickly realized that I was just me, a middle-aged trempisitit, hitchhiker, and let me proceed.

Here are some pictures I took while waiting for my daughter, after shopping:




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

better too cautious...

Unknown said...

I too am waived through without so much as a word ever spoken to me as I go through the checkpoints. The other night, however, I was stopped and mtioned to put the window down. When I did, the soldier brought out a box of sufganiyot and offered me one. I couldn't stop smiling all the way home!

Batya said...

a, yes, I didn't mind and understood immediately why I seemed suspicious. They were right. The car stopped too far for them to see the driver.

John, that's a great story!

Keli Ata said...

John--Wonderful story! Another only in Israel type of thing :)


Batya--You're right. It's good to see the soldiers were on their toes. That's the sort of thing lacking in airports and security in general.

Batya said...

keli, you'd be amazed at how good some of the security is and how many guards there are who look like ordinary people.