Dear Friends, colleagues, and brothers and sisters in humanity:
Coming back home from Cairo on the 10th of February 2005, after I had participated in a one-week Moslem-Christian dialogue which the Churches arranged, I experienced a severe humiliation and harassment by the Israeli security.
I went to the El Al check-in counters; a security woman greeted me, and started asking routine questions (In what language would you like to speak? Is that your bag? Did anybody use it? Who packed it? …and so on.) Everything went well until she realized I had just participated in a Muslim-Christian dialogue which included people from Arab countries. Then her whole demeanor changed. She took my passport, ticket, and itinerary and disappeared for 15 minutes. When she returned, she asked me "Who is Munib Younan? Is he related to you?" I told her "Yes, he's my father." Then she told me, "We must check your bag and your person." I replied, "It is not a problem. I know you care for my security." But I was fully aware that what was to come was designed only to intimidate and humiliate me.
I followed her and entered a part of a room covered with curtains. It was very cold there; behind it was an open area connecting the check-in counters with the porters. I was forced to remove all my jewelry, including my cross, the symbol of my Christian faith. She then checked every part of my body with her instruments. I was even checked between my legs in a most uncomfortable manner.
What was, at first, an annoyance became an outrage when this woman told me that I had to take off my trousers because she had to check the buttons of my jeans. I refused. I explained that I have my dignity and it is barbaric and inhuman to force me to disrobe. She disregarded my refusal and, in spite of my continued objection, persisted in the demand that I remove my jeans. I confronted her racist behavior. She knew that I am Arab and treated me in this manner simply because of my race, even though I am an Israeli citizen. I then asked for the names of all those involved. Subsequently, I asked to talk with her supervisor who was Mr. Beni Meir. I explained to him my point of view, but he was equally adamant: Either I removed my pants or I would be detained and would not be allowed on the plane to return home.
Faced with these two equally unacceptable options I began to feel a sense of panic, and began to shake physically. The security person then closed the curtains and, once more, ordered me to strip off my trousers. Realizing that I was completely at her mercy, I complied. I felt physically and emotionally ill. I am a 23 year-old woman reduced to tears by the brutality of a so-called security woman. Words cannot express to you my inmost feelings, standing half naked in front of a security person whose actions were designed specifically to humiliate me under the guise of security. It was a grave affront to my dignity and an attack upon and a denial of my human rights. As an Arab woman, to be forced to strip, even if the offending person is female, is an offense to both my honor and my values.
They are either not sensitive to that or deliberately wanted to humiliate me simply because I am an Israeli Arab. After this part of my ordeal was finished, I was visibly shaken. I felt that the people who perpetrated these indignities were not only behaving in an inhuman manner, but also seemed to take pleasure in handing out degrading orders and watching me suffer.
After I had re-dressed, the security people decided to check my suitcase, in the same disgusting fashion, checking and nosing into absolutely everything, including my personal Holy Bible. Then they checked my bag and decided that I couldn't be allowed to keep it with me. Since they had already checked through the bag, it was readily apparent that they confiscated my bag only to increase my discomfort, telling me that they would bring it to the boarding gate.
By that time I was even beginning to question myself, asking if I could possibly have innocently done something to trigger suspicion. Of course I had not, but the treatment I had received so far was having a serious negative effect.
My depression and sadness became deeper. I walked to the boarding gate holding only my purse and my passport. Once there I was ordered to stand away from the queue like a criminal, and wait until they called me. Again I walked through a metal detector, and was checked by a security woman. Once more I was taken to a special room and was ordered to take off my jacket, shoes, and jewelry and to submit to yet another bodily search. My bag was finally returned to me, but my boarding pass was withheld when I sought to enter the shuttle bus to the plane. They informed me that I could not board the bus, because they had to check my boarding pass, for what reason one can only guess! By virtue of this tactic I was the last to get onto the bus…eyed by the security men and women as if I were a common criminal, although, in truth, it was they who had demonstrated their utter disregard for the laws of human decency. I was humiliated, insulted, affronted, and disgraced in front of those people, who claim that they are caring for our security. It is eminently clear that "security" is only the transparent cover for their crude attempts to steal from others their dignity.
The almost sadistic methods and attitudes exhibited by those to whom society entrusts their safety is an outrage. It was apparent that they enjoy seeing people vulnerable and suffering in front of them. But the fact of the matter is that, at the end of this most distasteful incident, they had succeeded in stripping the dignity from themselves alone. Mine was intact. However, the matter can never end there. People who treat others in such a reprehensible fashion must be made to answer for their deeds. I protest their behavior in the strongest terms possible. Nothing less than a formal apology for their actions will suffice. Such treatment must cease. My suffering and my sacrifice will be well spent only if others are relieved of the burden of treatment which is clearly outside the boundaries of civilized society.
May God forgive them.