Turning a corner in the back of an Israeli police van, Michael Bublè’s “Home” began to blare out of the speakers. “Let me go home / I’ve had my run / Baby, I’m done / I gotta go home,” he crooned.
We both wanted to go home, Michael and I, but I’m guessing he was in a slightly better place to do so than me. I was being driven against my will – along with a bunch of illegal workers from eastern Europe – to the removal centre at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, all for the abominable error of writing about Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
It was a few hours earlier that I’d been told I was persona non grata in Israel. A stern, hard-boiled female officer had tapped her polished red nails on a keyboard in search of incriminating cyber-evidence against me. “What is this?” she barked, turning the screen in my direction. I was sure she could see a manga sweat drop falling from my forehead as I read the title of the article she was pointing at.
“The dangers of stone throwing”, it read, my name clearly and undeniably pixellated right there, at the top of a story I’d written about Israel charging some Palestinian teenagers with attempted murder for throwing stones at a settler. My mind raced to make up a credible cover story. A namesake? A childhood mistake? A false step on my way to embracing Judaism? My cover story of spending a third holiday at my (fake) Italian cousin’s place in Haifa was beginning to unravel like the bullshit it was. Full story...
Related posts:
We both wanted to go home, Michael and I, but I’m guessing he was in a slightly better place to do so than me. I was being driven against my will – along with a bunch of illegal workers from eastern Europe – to the removal centre at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, all for the abominable error of writing about Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
It was a few hours earlier that I’d been told I was persona non grata in Israel. A stern, hard-boiled female officer had tapped her polished red nails on a keyboard in search of incriminating cyber-evidence against me. “What is this?” she barked, turning the screen in my direction. I was sure she could see a manga sweat drop falling from my forehead as I read the title of the article she was pointing at.
“The dangers of stone throwing”, it read, my name clearly and undeniably pixellated right there, at the top of a story I’d written about Israel charging some Palestinian teenagers with attempted murder for throwing stones at a settler. My mind raced to make up a credible cover story. A namesake? A childhood mistake? A false step on my way to embracing Judaism? My cover story of spending a third holiday at my (fake) Italian cousin’s place in Haifa was beginning to unravel like the bullshit it was. Full story...
Related posts:
- UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon says destruction in Gaza is 'beyond description'
- The crass and brutal approach used to keep Gaza mired in misery...
- Gaza and the 'crime of crimes'
- Obama blasts brutality and bullying, but not by Israel...
- Israel committed genocide in Gaza: EU delegation...
- Almost 430 kids killed in Israeli raids on Gaza...
- A nation of cowards...
No comments:
Post a Comment