P U L S E

I was sitting on the deck overlooking the Red Sea… Moments later a man came outside and introduced himself as the manager on duty. And then, “I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop.”

That about sums up Lily Sussman’s experience with Israeli security forces at the Taba Border Crossing after coming over for a visit from neighboring Egypt.  Sussman (a non-practising Jewish-American citizen) will be keeping her laptop as a “souvenir” of her experience of Israel.  She has characterized the event as “symbolic of Israeli aggression.”

There’s much that could be said about Sussman’s brush with Israel’s security apparatus including arguments that will no doubt be made by defenders of Israel’s increasingly violent behaviour in the name of “security,” but here are some first thoughts: look at the size of those bullet holes, and, she’s lucky she wasn’t Palestinian.

Even Lily Sussman's laptop was unsuccessful at passing through Israeli border security in one piece.