REJECTED AT THE BORDER TRYING TO ENTER
PALESTINE
I promise you, I did do the homeworks before leaving!
In fact I surfed the net at home trying to get as much
info as possible about the border point between West-Bank
and Israel in the northern area of Jenin, but nobody seemed
to know anything about it. Since I was suppose to pass
there on my itinerary from Northern Israel to Northern
Palestine, the only choice was to try it.
The previous night in Tsfat I was thinking about what
to say in case of being questioned: nothing came up in
my mind. I thought at least I should have been presentable
and I wore the most formal pants I had, namely some clean
white ones.
I reached the station of Afula by a comfortable big bus,
and I headed to the counter asking for the bus to Jenin.
It's been amazing how the tone of the guy changed from
kind to rough, once I asked for the bus to the border.
I had to repeat more than once to be then addressed to
the last platform of the station. Here I got encouraged
by seeing an old woman waiting for the bus; "it cannot
be so dangerous then" I thought.
After few minutes a group of M16 armed soldiers popped
up at the platform.
I thought: "at least there's still the woman"
It didn't take a while a small crappy minibus came in
and the soldiers dashed into. I was getting on when the
driver stopped me, saying I was on the wrong bus.
Again I had to repeat few times to convince him I was
really heading to the border, and, although letting me
in, he was so suspicious.
I was getting a little worried, but still encouraged by
the presence of the old woman.
The crappy minibus slowly left and 10min later, passing
through a kibbutz, the driver dropped her off.
Hence it was only me, the driver, and all the soldiers:
I stopped smiling.
One hour later the minibus pulled up aside of a road surrounded
by wide golden fields. End of the ride: all the soldiers
got off and the rough driver kicked me out.
In front of me just a huge barrack protected by concrete
high walls, irregularly interrupted only by few watch-towers.
I started walking, feeling observed, although I couldn't
see anybody around, apart of the soldiers on the watch-towers.
I couldn't even hear anything as well, but the strong
headwind of the sunny bright day.
Some hundred meters further a thick barbed-wire gate was
blocking my way, while I was surprised and worried since
nobody still popped up, so I kept on walking. When I was
almost at the border line it took less than one minute
two big 4-wheels dashed aside me, some guys came down
and, just to avoid some misunderstanding, I waved my passport
up in the air yelling:
'I'm Italian, I'm Italian!'
One guy ordered me to freeze where I was. For a moment
I got scared he could impose to get down on my knees….
I had my white pants on!
They took my passport, my bag and searched it deeply,
while radio contacting the head-quarters. After the few
moments of tensions, I stood the ground saying I was a
traveler heading to Nablus and they were supposed to let
me through the gate. He hit back that once in the other
side for sure I would have been shot and anyway I needed
a visa.
'Visa??!! Which visa, and where am I supposed to get it?'
I complained.
'At the Italian embassy…', he was purely inventing.
I kept on insisting since I could see I wasn't confident
of what he was saying. He spoke on the Radio several times
till the moment he received some kind of order and pushed
me back on my way. Few minutes later I was sadly hitch-hiking
for a lift back.
You think I gave up my idea of reaching Nablus in the
Northern area of Palestine?
Of course noooot! I then skirted the whole West- Bank
on the Israeli side and five days later I pulled into
Nablus from the south (Jerusalem) and, I promise you,
nobody shot me!
