Blown Up At the Airport

Current Events in Israel, from article, blog 1, 2

Sussman's destroyed laptop.

Toward the beginning of the search an officer began clicking through the photos on my camera.  She froze on a picture  of graffiti, which read “Fuck” scrawled next to the Jewish star of David. “Why do you have this picture?” She asked me rather aggressively. “Because I was disturbed by it too,” I answered. She didn’t press the subject but continued clicking…presumably looking at pictures from a photo exhibit about Israel’s January attack of Gaza.

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Among other suspicious item; an Arabic phrasebook, a journal entry that mentioned a Palestinian(yes, they even flipped through my journal), stamps from Syria, Qatar and the UAE, Palestinians in Palestine guidebook, and a map a friend had drawn with a main street in Jerusalem, the central bus station and my intended hostel. “Who are you meeting there?” They asked me.

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Moments later a man came outside and introduced himself as the manager on duty. And then, “I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop. “

What….all my client case notes and testimony, writing, pictures, music and applications. Years of work. NO!!!! What?? Are you insane?? What were you thinking? THAT’S ALL MY WORK!?

…It turned out it hadn’t been quite blown up, but rather shot through with three bullets. We were able to extract the hard drive, seemingly unscaved. Thank goodness…

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I completely agree with Freitas’s comment. “These guys shoot every day at unarmed people, even children. Why so much surprise about a simple laptop?”

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From the Comments:

hmm said, on December 15, 2009 at 7:10 pm here’s what probably happened with your laptop. at the border they use a chemical kit to detect explosives or people/things that have been in contact with explosives. your laptop probably reacted positively to the kit (which doesn’t necessarily mean you were anywhere near explosives, it may react positively to other things as well). security procedures at the border require the object be put in a “bomb pit” and then it’s shot in an attempt to trigger the explosives.

your statement about “unprovoked, unduly aggressive, a waste of government funds…” just goes you show you have lived a sheltered life, not having to deal with or even know about such things as i mentioned about.

i had a good laugh reading the comments to your previous posts by the haters and generally clueless. i hope this helps clear things up, although i doubt that from the general tone of the last couple of posts and the sort of comments you tolerate, not to mention agree with.

peace.

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Mo said, on December 15, 2009 at 7:25 pmHmmm…

-hand drawn map of downtown Jerusalem
-Arabic stickers on laptop
-”F**k Star of David” pic on phone
-passport stamps from Arab countries
-various Arab publications
-photos condemning Israeli military action in Gaza

Why didn’t she just tape road flares to your chest? Of course the guard got suspicious and called for the bomb squad. Stupid hippie…