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Border Crossing into Palestine
Nine hours - that’s how long we were held up. Upon arriving at the Allenby Border Crossing, we were ordered to step out of the line, ushered inside and placed in separate holding areas where we were individually interrogated by an officer, who looked no older than 22, asking mundane, repetitive and irrelevant questions like if I thought my friend converted to Islam because of her husband?! Tourism didn’t satisfy the officer’s query about the purpose of my visit. With my fully-stamped passport in his hand, I advised him to check my passport and see all the other countries I’ve visited, 8 within the last year alone; he finally conceded. It seems like the whole purpose of these interrogations was to kill time, demoralize and intimidate us in the hopes of us not wanting to return to Palestine. Nine tedious hours and two rounds of cross-examinations later, we were finally permitted to enter Palestine; with even a stronger resolve to return.
