Access to Palestine from Abroad135 I was born in England 33 years ago to an English mother and a Palestinian father.My father moved from Palestine to England to pursue his studies in 1966. Unfortunately, as he wasn’t present in the West Bank during the Israeli occupation in 1967,he wasn’t counted in the census made by the Israeli occupation authority, and therefore he wasn’t granted a Palestinian ID card. Although his parents were still living in Al-Khader village, next to Bethlehem, along with his brothers, sisters and nieces, he was denied from his own nationality. I have been coming regularly to Palestine since I was two years old. They always give me a hard time when I come through Ben Gurion airport. Just because you have Palestinian origin they make you wait for a long time and they question you several times and they keep repeating the same questions and they try to threaten you by saying that if you lie you will be denied entry. Which it’s hilarious because I always tell them the truth that I am coming to visit my family in the West Bank, still they always treat me as I am a threat to their security. Many people get so intimidated from the humiliating treatment by Israel that once they leave the country they never come back again. Denial of entry On 23 July 2015, around11pm, I landed at the Ben-Gurion Airport.As always, once I reached the migration counter, the official of the Israeli Ministry of Interior took my passport and told me to go and sit in the waiting room. This was not new to me - I am used to the Israeli manners to welcome people of Arab descent -therefore I always bring with me a book to keep my mind busy and calm. Though this time, since the very beginning, I figured out that something bad was going to happen because unlike the other times, the Israeli official was rude and aggressive from the very beginning of the interrogation. He started the conversation aggressively by shouting: “Put the book down, this is not a playground, you have to tell us the truth or I am going to put you on a plane and you will never be allowed to come back”. Then they harshly called me to the interrogation room where they started asking me questions but without giving me time to answer. Rather, the Israeli official kept interrupting all my sentences during the few times that he let me talk. I knew I did not do anything wrong or break any law, though I got scared and I started shaking. He kept threatening to deport me back to the UK, and when I asked him why, what did I do to be treated like this, he got madder and shouted: “Shut up, don’t tell me how to do my job”. 135 BADIL’s interview with Amina Farooq, “Access to Palestine from Abroad”, Amman, Jordan, August 2015 38