getting from syria to israel

You can't cross from Syria to Israel, either by land or flying.

You can go from Syria to Jordan, and from Jordan to Israel.

You will be given a thorough interrogation by the Israeli immigration officer. The immigration officers are trained to read body language, and they know what they are looking for. You will be asked all kinds of seemingly irrelevant questions. Answer truthfully, no matter how idiotic the questions may seem. For example, if you are 19 years old and recently left school, you might be asked what school you went to and the headmaster's name. The immigration officer doesn't care - he has never heard of the school anyway - but if you "fluff" the answer it would be a sign that you have something to hide.

Assuming you were in Syria only as a tourist, and not engaged in any kind of hostile activity, you will be allowed into Israel.

Do not take with you to Syria anything that is evidence that you are planning to go to Israel (a return plane ticket from Tel Aviv, a guidebook to Israel...) If you turn up at the Syrian border, or Damascus airport, with anything like that, you won't be allowed into Syria.

For example, if you are 19 years old and recently left school, you might be asked what school you went to and the headmaster's name. The immigration officer doesn't care - he has never heard of the school anyway - but if you "fluff" the answer it would be a sign that you have something to hide.

sometimes they deliberately set it up so as to try and catch you out into saying 'yes' to one of the large number of questions they ask you, in my case being British the conversation got round to English soccer and when asked I told the guy what club I supported. They happened to have an Israeli player at the time, the officer obviously kew this, and next he asked if I was big and tall. I said yes, because when someone is asking you 50 questions every couple of minutes, it sometimes seems to be the easiest thing to say 'yes'.

the player wasn't big and tall, but short, and instantly he was suspicious that I even supported the club like I said I did, as if I was prepared to lie about something like that, then maybe I could be trying to deceive him about something more important. However it was only a temporary mishap, and shortly afterwards it became obvious I had 'passed', and he said 'enjoy your time in Israel' by way of leave-taking. I shot back 'you too', which he thought was kind of amusing without being insolent.

have to go thru jordan. no, israel will let you in with syria stamp, although you will get questioned longer. they let me in via the allenby bridge from jordan w/ a syria and lebanon stamp.

julie