RE: entering israel with many arabic stamps?

Hi, just wondering if there would be some troubles if my passport is filled with stamps from Arab countries? I have been to the UAE 3 times, Egypt twice, Jordan twice, Iran once, as well as Oman, Morocco, Syria, and Lebanon...I am planning to visit my girlfriend in Tel Aviv, and then fly back to Paris with her...the ticket is really cheap now, but I don't know if I should buy it, because what if I am denied entry?

Cheers,
A

Sigh, here we go again. This is asked once a week on average. Israel does not+ deny entry based on where you have been, but expect some +very stiff questioning. Answer everything truthfully, no matter how stupid or irrelevant it may seem. The questions are designed to find out whether you were in those countries simply as a tourist, or for more sinister reasons.

Read this thread to get an idea. It applies to all entry points, not just the Jordan/Israel border.

You sound like a good candidate for passport cloning - so take care ... lol!

Don't let your passport out of your sight ........

Egypt, Jordan and Morocco shouldn't be too much of a problem but as #2 says you should be prepared for a very thorough grilling - especially with regards to your time in Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

You might be able to speed up the interrogation a little by having with you all the details of where exactly you stayed in those countries (I mean hotel names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses etc), as well as full names/addresses/phone numbers of ALL friends/contacts or associates you have there. If you are able to show this "evidence" of your innocent movements/itinerary in those countries it may help you. Just to give you an idea - I entered Israel with an Uzbek visa and made the mistake of NOT having ALL details of my Uzbek trip to hand (it had been several months since I returned from Uzbekistan) - so was unable to remember things like hotel addresses, names of hotel employees, numbers of buses that I travelled on whilst in Uzbekistan, names of shops I visited etc and the Israel interrogators made a big deal of this and seemed to find it quite "suspicious" - it added an extra hour or so onto my interrogation time so I strongly advise you to arrive with as much information about those trips as possible, even small details like taxi drivers' names that you might consider unimportant. You have been warned! :-)

Speaking from experience I was 'detained' and questioned at the Jordan/Israeli border for over 4hrs as I tried to enter Eilat. I had numerous stamps form Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The only one they had an issue with was the Syrian stamps. I found it ironic but unsurprising that the staff at the border crossing were unable to read simple Arabic as they could not read the dates I was in Syria as the stamp uses Arabic numbers.

Just be patient and expect a wait. Take some food and water with you as in our case we hadn't eaten all day and ran out of water only to be told we could leave the holding room to get anything to eat, frustrating to say the least. However a nice young Israeli girl working there provided us with some bread and hummus.

As has been said above answer all their questions, they are all simple and very straight forward, you should not need excessive information as mentioned above. The questions do seem irrelevant at times, when I was asked my grandfathers name I enquired as to why I needed to answer seemingly unrelated questions, I was simply told in no uncertain terms that 'to enter Israel you must answer the questions.'

I hope this is of some help, it'll be grand.

Peace.

which boarder crossing are you going to use?
Be preparred for questiions, finally they will let you in..

You say you're visiting your girlfriend? Is she Israeli? If so get all her details, phone number, id number etc. and explain this quickly on in the questioning - it will speed things up.

#5 they do normally allow you food, in the airport I have been bought and brought food, at Allenby I was allowed to buy food and when crossing in the heat staff have been very obliging about bringing me water when I ask nicely, so sounds like you had a bad experience :(

There's no reason why they would refuse you entry, but you can be sure you'll spend several hours on the grill when arriving at Ben Gurion and when departing (you'll need to come to the airport several hours before taking-off). I suggest you get a new, clean passport to avoid such hassle.

come 3 hours befor scheduled flight to the airport.