Laptop at Ben Gurion Airport

I exited from Ben Gurion Airport in May 2009, having entered Israel via Jordan, by way of Syria and Lebanon. My laptop was neither inspected nor retained. If it helps you, Israel happens to be awash with first rate fast internet cafes. It's one less thing to travel around with, if you choose not to bring your laptop.

For reasons I'd care not to expound upon here, I've had a similar situation happen to me. I can confirm that they can/will search the laptop, and confiscate it for at least a day. I was denied boarding, so they didn't have to mail it back...they kept it until I was allowed to leave, and when I eventually flew out, I got to take the laptop with me, but they insisted it be in my checked baggage.

For general advice, a laptop on a single, young male is likely to attract more attention. If that's you, I'd probably think twice about taking it with me, especially if you have your passport littered with stamps from "hostile countries" or Arab/Middle Eastern countries in general.

I believe this is more a matter of flying El Al in particular than flying out of TLV in general. On other airlines I have never had the annoying issues that I had when flying El Al.

On the occasion when I had an El Al ticket and they wanted me to either put it in checked baggage or leave it behind to be sent later, I eventually persuaded them to sign my ticket over to another airline, and was able to bring my laptop with me in the cabin.

Yes I can confirm that this can happen and I have one friend who had is camera confiscated and it never made it back to him. I can't for the life of me figure why this happened to him as he is an oldr man and comes to visit me here who is a citizen. I avoid ElAl always-- I don't pay people to harrass me like they do but Ben Gurion Airport is another matter entirely. It's not just Israel though, look at what they are doing in Canada:
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/94193

It's sheer luck - or bad luck. Sometimes they'll check your labtop and may even retain it, sometimes they won't, it depends on their mood. On departing Ben Gurion airport, they can retain your computer, no matter which conpany you fly (when departing from abroad and flying to Israel, only El Al has the "right" to confiscate your labtop, it is illegal for all other companies to do so).

If they retain your labtop, they may ask you to put it in your checked luggage, or tell you they'll send it by another flight departing a few days later. It is not uncommon to never see one's labtop again, unhappily there are quite a number of cases when the labtop gets "lost" in the process. Usually no compensation can be claimed. It's up to you to decide that you wanna do.

It's question of luck. Sometimes they don't take your computer, sometimes they take your computer. If they take computer, sometimes they give it back two days after, sometimes they never give it back and tis lost. If you take computer, better to have copied everything inside on a USB key or external flashdrive that you leave at your home.