Flying out of TLV - questioning on Israel/Palestine itinerary

In the thread below entitled "Any restrictions travelling into the West Bank from Jerusalem", thomasmaes states, in respect of travellers who go into the West Bank from Israel:

"The most trouble you are likely to run into is when you fly back from TLV: the (airport security) checks before you are allowed to proceed to check-in are VERY thorough and you are highly unlikely to get away with any lies here. But since they obviously can't stop you from returning home (even if you did sign a pledge and 'broke' it) this means a few hours unpleasantly spent at the airport but nothing more."

Can anyone give more details on the types of questioning one is likely to face? Also, while I'm not a lying type, I'm very curious as to why tourists are unlikely to get away with not mentioning travelling to the West Bank (assuming no abject stupidity such as donning a keffiyeh and having things in your bag making it obvious that you've been there).

What happens if you say that you were in the West Bank?

Thanks
Elizabeth

Edited by: ElizabethK

Security officers working at Ben Gurion are very young and not always very intelligent, for lack of experience. They are totally paranoiad and believe anyone aged less than 50, travelling alone and not having a Jewish surname has been in the West Bank.

No need to worry. Just go to the airport three hours before your flight to have time to go through the security checks, and be aware that they may search your suitcase item by item and take you to a closed room to body search you. They'll ask tons of questions about what you've done, just answer honestly if you can. They do it for security reasons but also in the hope of gathering intelligence, for instance they will copy the hard drive of journalists, hoping to know who they talked to, even though it's illegal.

ElizabethK Security officers working at Ben Gurion are very young and not always very intelligent,As alluded to by catw. If these multi-lingual self starters are the duffers in Israel's defence forces. Then the bright ones must be awesome.

The security officers are there to ask you an honest question. Who you are? Where you have been? Why did you go there? All they expect is to keep you, and your fellow passengers safely air-side, is an honest reply from you. That way you and your fellow passengers, arrive at your destination safely.

They 're about 20 years old maximum and not very bright indeed. One of them thought Morocco had a border in common with Iraq, another one though Darfour was in India. No kidding. He did not believe me when I told him it was a part of Sudan and a region devastated by war and hosting one of the biggest humanitarian operations in the world. The guy called his supervisor and asked him in front of me whether he had ever heard about Darfur... The supervisor told him to go and speak to someone else in the line. When I told the guy it was a bit weird never to have heard about Darfur, he said: "I know, I know".

I can only hope the youngsters working at Ben Gurion plan on going to university later on.

Well, for a start, I wasn't travelling alone but with a group of 6 people. Therefore, the dumb ones immediately called a smart one in to help, who kept asking questions as to what relation we were of each other ("just friends" won't help, she asked where and when we met, and so on), why we were in Israel ("just touring" won't help, she asked what exactly we visited and when, and so on), if we met anyone there (she asked names and phone numbers) and finally if we received any gifts. Now, my suitcase was absolutely chock-full of Palestinian junk, so I knew any lies on this one were basically useless, and from there on at least half the truth (or enough to warrant the most stringent security code 6 anyway) came out.

I would nonetheless like to add that all the security officers I met were extremely polite and courteous and that they eventually gave me all the Palestinian junk back. I don't know what will happen if I try to go back, but local (Israel-based) friends tell me it will be the same story all over again: basically no questions on entering, lots of hassle on leaving.

I was questioned for around 1 hour (also by a girl who looked about 18) and they never asked me directly if I had visited the West Bank. They did ask at one stage what I did each day in Israel but got bored with this after I described in detail the first 4 days in Jerusalem. They asked a whole lot of stupid questions that didn't seem to have anything to do with security. Luckily they didn't decide to search my bag otherwise they would have found a brochure from one of the companies running West Bank tours which I had forgotten to throw away which might have led to more questioning.

My husband was questioned for longer than I was and made to unpack his bag. The person doing the questioning kept asking about why he had been to Morocco as they couldn't seem to understand why anyone would want to go there.