the way you cross

wednesday 5:10 am Jerusalem

may Allah subhanahu wata bless Palestine. may He bless her, and all the Muslims who live inside Palestine. may He increase them in numbers, in strength, in patience, and in deen. may He accept their good deeds and be their Guide and Protector.

about 36 hours ago, i was still at an israeli border crossing -- at what they call the Allenby Bridge.

about an hour after the israelis took Abdur Rahman, at about 2:30 pm, i saw one of the plain clothes agents carrying my passport. i recognized it by the stickers put on the back cover by various travel agencies.

so i walked up to him and identified myself as the owner of the passport. he asked me to wait on the side. he went to get the owner of the other passport he was carrying.

when he found him, he token both of us past the immigration counters and up to a door that had a keypad entry. it was a heavy metal door and it clanged shut after letting us into a hallway.

the hallway ran parallel to the outer hall, and five doors in all opened into it, including ours. it had several benches, prints of Jerusalem, plants, and at least two security cameras.

i was told to sit outside with two other people who were waiting (one with his two small children). and the other man was taken inside what i would learn was a set of interrogation rooms through another heavy keypad entry door.

israelis, usually in plainclothes, rarely with weapons, would come often through some door on their way to another door. only one door marked no entry was never opened.

i waited for a few hours in the same spot. many Palestinians were brought through the hallway. most had long waits, but all went through the interrogation door(s) and then the exits before i was ever asked a single question.

when i needed to go to the bathroom, i asked for permission. this was around 4 or 4:30 pm. the person i asked said okay, and brought me inside the interrogation door.

the officer who had brought me to the hallway was there. he spoke to me only in arabic, though i told him i only spoke english. at the very end, when i was finally permitted entry, he spoke to me only in perfect english.

in arabic, i was asked to empty all of my pockets. the officer who said i could go to the bathroom translated. then i was asked to remove my thawb (the long ankle-length shirt/robe commonly worn by arabs).

then i was patted down by the english-speaking guard, who had put on plastic gloves. i still thought i was being taken to the restroom.

then a metal detector was passed over my body. i was asked to hold the thawb in front of me. it was also scanned while i held it.

then i was told to put it back on.

(before removing the thawb) i was asked to remove all of my money and credit cards from my belongings.

(after removing the thawb) i was asked to put all the papers from my wallet in a plastic tray. my emptied wallet, my cell phone minus its battery, and other items from my pockets were put into a small locked locker.

i was told to pick up my money and credit cards, and to follow the guard. not to the bathroom, but to an interrogation room.

it was the office of an older agent. he was seated behind a desk. he also spoke to me in arabic. he asked me questions about my appearance, the purpose of my visit, and other questions i had answered in detail the day before.

after about 10 minutes or so, he gave me back the papers from my wallets, and we stepped out of his office. he spoke to a guard in hebrew and then asked me to wait in the area where i had been searched.

then i was taken to the restroom which was outside in the main hall. after using the restroom i was brought back to the hallway with benches.

more Palestinians came and went. only one, a "full Jordanian" who was a naturalized American, was visibly shaken by the experience. most complained. all were surprised that someone who was neither Palestinian nor Arab was being interrogated.

at one point i was taken through a different door to the main hallway. here i was asked to empty my pockets, and my things were swab-tested by machine. then i was taken back to the hallway.

as time passed, i was left alone in the hall. israelis who went by ignored me when i asked about the time.

eventually i felt it must be about 6 pm or later so i finally decided to pray my combined dhuhr and asr there in the hallway rather than ask for permission to pray elsewhere. i also did not want the time to elapse.

when i was done with asr, the officer who had first brought me in, and who had always tried arabic or hebrew on me, he asked me in english if i was done and ready to leave.

he took me back to the immigration area. i was the only person there besides the cleaners and guards.

an immigration officer came and asked me if she could stamp my passport, and i asked her to stamp a separate piece of paper.

i passed through the area where my stamp was checked. i picked up my luggage -- one of a few pieces still in the waiting area. i walked through the empty customs area and was met by one of two taxi drivers -- the last taxis left. the buses had all gone.

the process was long, and it was intended to intimidate. while i was alone in the hallway, every time an agent came or went, they let the metal doors clang shut behind them. the sound was more ominous than any gate through which i passed at Lompoc Federal prison when i went to represent an inmate there before the INS during law school.

i thought of shiraz qazi, of the thousands of detained Muslims throughout the world, and of course of those held at Guantanamo and the thousands of Palestinians subjected to Israeli prisons and detention centers.

what i was put through was nothing at all before what they underwent and still undergo. i had two days taken from me. their lives are ripped from them. their families in limbo.

so whatever the intention of the israelis. everything they did galvanized my belief that they are unjust and oppressive rulers of this land. and every harshness to which i was subjected increased me in love and respect for people like Shiraz who has been dealt with unjustly.

that is why a pilgrimmage to al Quds should be done singly or at least in small groups -- large groups have a much easier time, and so they cannot fully appreciate what the israelis are doing every day to the Palestinians.

and even now i only walked the length of one border crossing in their shoes.

alhamdolillah, i had no fear and no anger in me. i gave the israelis no satisfaction in that. hasbiyAllaho wa alayhi tawakkalto. wa Howal Rabbil Arshil Adheem.