According to a ‘Chadrei Chadarim’ report, customs officials in Ben-Gurion International Airport are targeting Chareidi travelers, pulling them over to the side upon their arrival for a thorough inspection.
An unnamed “customs’ source” quoted in the report stated that travelers with a chareidi appearance are being selected by customs agents in an apparent operation to single them out among other travelers. The source is quoted as explaining the operation is intended to apprehend people carrying illegal funds into the country.
It appears that officials do not have concrete information regarding a specific traveler or flight and as a result, are singling out those exhibiting a chareidi appearance.
One kollel student told of his experience, arriving on a morning flight. While waiting for his luggage, two males in plain clothes instructed him to accompany them to a corner, then bluntly telling him to show them all the money he is carrying. The student complied, showing them a number of euro bills and a few hundred new Israeli shekels. They did not appear too convinced, but they released him.
It should be noted that anyone carrying cash exceeding the equivalent of NIS 80,000 must make a customs declaration.
In response to the report, customs officials stated that inspect passengers in line with their work but there is no operation that singles out chareidi travelers.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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22 Responses
Now if even someone for any reason doesn’t declare his money, it will be a big chillul hashem.
Well, if chareidi guys are so naive, it is more likely they will be “unknowingly” smuggling drugs. That explains why they are singling us out. No racism involved.
Before anyone starts bashing, bear in mind that profiling is what keeps the airport- and the whole country- safe.
Sammy, How right (unfortunately) you are.
#3 – I am a free thinker and never wanted to believe what I heard about the Chilonim targeting the chareidim till I saw it first hand. And I do nothing illegal. I don’t speed, park illegally, try to cheat anyone etc.
I was pulled over upon my arrival and made to pay a high custom tax on a used wedding dress for a kallah gemach.
its just the oppossite they know that any smuggler would dress up like a chareidi to avoid being stopped people trust the chareidim and expect more of them
ha ha i dont think that after talansky’s envelopes anyone chareidi would want to do that anyway! gee those guys are not so smart- now olmert is getting his “donations” from ‘under cover’ chareidim (just in smaller envelopes)!by the way is it 80,000 shek acording to the sh’aar yazig? one can always say the shaar changed while he was on the plane!haha
Never found this to be true.
Been on many flights and the customs people have a lookout on the Russians.
1) we have nothing to hide right?? so let them inspect all day and realize we have nothing to hide.
2) The time we wait standing in line for them to inspect us, and the time we lose in general, should be a kapara for leaving Eretz Yisrael
I agree with 1,2 and 3.
We got ourselves into this one.
jUST TELL THE CUSTOMS OFFICIALS THAT YOU’RE BRINGING IN SOME MORE CASH IN UNMARKED ENVELOPES FOR PM OLMERT TO HELP PAY HIS LEGAL BILLS, AND EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT!
Regardless of their success in preventing terrorism, the Chiloni security personnel have an anti-Charedi bias.
I recall an incident 35 years ago, upon arrival in Eretz Yisrael the first time. After checking my passport, the security agents at Ben Gurion Airport pulled me aside, searched my luggage thoroughly, and detained me. When I requested an explanation, I was told that (although my appearance is not Charedi), my family name is that of prominent ADMORI”M (Chassidic Rebbes). I was not released until I said — repeatedly, loudly, and firmly — that, as a U.S. citizen, I demand to see the American ambassador.
To #13 JohnEY: The time standing in line should be a kapara for going TO Eretz Yisrael.
#17 time once was thet chilonim knew the names of admorim. Let’s not forget that David ben Gurion was the grandson of a rabbi. His weekly Tanach class was a thrill to all who attended (including various rabbanim). Menachem Begin’s father was the Rosh haKahal in Brisk, and a confident of R. Chaim Brisker. Chilonim of 35 years ago, just might have been raised religious, or had paretns who were.
No justification for this behavior, in fact charedim are not smugglers, and because it’s so rear, when there is – once in a blue moon – a charedi caught with something, it will be the headlines for 2 years..
I am a frequent traveler, and I never saw any charedi with mischief, And many times I saw others caught red handed. so this is simply anti-charedi and racially motivated.
I was called in the side more than once to check out my luggages, just to find my clothing and shoe polish. the humiliation was unbearable, shame on them!
#20… don’t worry. Better to live with the Persians than under the antireligious rule of the so called Jewish state. I have no intention of returning to the place where frum Jews are hated and the Torah is ridiculed. When the foundation of the State is built on egotism and kochi v’otzem yadi… it is sure to eventually crumble.
#19… commented on like a true member of adas Korach.
Queen of Persia:
Are you a by chance a Satmar Chassidiste?
What’s so bad about going to Eretz Yisroel???
let’s not start another “bash our fellow jews” blog, becuase if we do, it will cause all of us to “anger” the creator.
It should be said, it is a mitzvah, maybe not apart of the 613 maybe yes, but a mitzvah for jews, to be in Eretz Yisrael. The gemerra is filled with tons of sources to back that statement up. Tons. The fact we can visit Eretz Yisrael is wonderful, and an oppurtunity for 2000 years the nations have been trying to hold us back from doing. 500,000 jews going to kever rashbi? who would have thunk it? Kever hamachpela?
my grandparents didn’t haven’t that oppurtinuty, not as freely as we do for sure. In conclussion, we should all appreciate jews, and instead of bashing them, and calling them improper names, try to help them….or you can always just go back into your life, which I call your big ego
#24 … I’m not repeating anybody’s anything. I speak from real, true experience. I may be from Persia but I spent several, and I mean several years living in Israel. I’ve received enough lambasting and ridicule for being a frum yid to last me a lifetime. Certainly much more than I ever received in chutz laaretz. Those Israelis are a breed unlike any other.
#25 … No, I am not a Satmar Chassidiste. But I’m certainly not against them. What’s so bad about going to Eretz Yisrael? Perhaps for a short visit it might be OK but certainly not long term. People get swallowed up by the entire mentality over there. There’s no escaping it. Just take a bus within a frum neighborhood and you will be subjected to their radio. Even the frummest of the frum get swept up in the politics of the government. How many of my friends kids, after attending the best of the best yeshivas in Bnei Brak & Yerushalayim went off the derech. Does it happen in America too? Yes, but not with as much vehemence! I’ll never forget the shock on my kids faces when, while visiting Yerushalayim on Shabbos, they saw cars on Bar Ilan. A yid driving on Shabbos? What was I supposed to tell them? That they are all Arabs? Oh, so you say I should explain to them that unfortunately the are Yidden who are not shomer Torah & Mitzvos. That’s fine for when they get older, but if I have the choice, I’d much rather keep them totally pure & innocent for as long as I can before exposing them to the sick world around us. One of my older boys, while visiting Israel for the first time, got on a bus and for the first time in his life heard a lady singing (on the radio). He was shocked and came home in tears. Are my children growing up in a bubble? Yes they are. And they will stay there for as long as possible. The Torah learning that goes into a clean mind cannot be compared to the learning that goes into a mind tainted with sin.
And by the way, I realize that chutz la’aretz has it’s problems too, but in comparison, I definitely find it a lot easier to bring up children in purity that it is in Israel.
what are you kidding me?
how do you explain to your kids Ester R”L?
how do you explain to your kids x-mas R”L.
how do you explain to your kids the 4th of July.
How do you explain to your kids all the non-sence known as U.S.A. You don’t live in a ghetto. There are television’s, and radio’s in your community. and if you tell me no, raya is YOUR ON the internet. How do you hide that from your kids?
Bar Ilan, is almost dead on shabbos. In fact it’s closed till shabbos morning. The other fact is, a good majority of the drivers, ARE arab, or christian. The bus, your kid should have taken a Mehadrin bus line like #2, I can promise you won’t hear any women singing, you might have to hear some news chas vishalom you should know anything about what’s actually going on in the world, like the Hitler (yimach shimo) wanna be in Iran calling to wipe off all jews, but no, your kids don’t need to know about that, they just need to pray for their own family right? Who cares about the other jews.
Wait, you have kosher buses in america right? bus lines where it’s the law for the women and men to sit seperate? you have kosher phones in america? kosher internet? Kosher Radio? I’m sure they have this stuff in America. In America, Pesach is a public holiday right? Everything is closed. no need to take of holiday’s from work right? Everything is CLOSED right? On shabbos in america there is a law for business’s to be closed, right? (might not be inforced here but there is such a law) which is supported by the left and the right in the government. You tell your kids that you pay tax’s? What do you tell them when they ask where that money goes? To R|L christian private school? I’m not saying our system is better, but it’s Jews at least.
Our kids in public school, learn chumash rashi. I’m not saying they learn from Rabbi’s, or even people who understand chumash, but they are obligated to learn it.
Your kids mind’s aren’t pure just for the record, they are programmed to think what their parents want them to think which is not right, because they should be programmed to think what the Torah wants..
Eretz Yisrael, is a gift to the Jews, and it’s clear HaShem is at least on a very small level happy there are Jews living in Israel, keeping Torah, for if it was not the case, the land would have spit us out already, as opposed to flourishing. And that exact reason, might explain all the mortar shells, and suicide bombings and security checks at the airport, what’s the reason? The seculars, but we see we have the potential here, in America, your only potential, is to wait for a president who’s anti-semetic, and the country will start going into great debt, and depression, and then just like all our history in Gallus, they will turn to the Jews, yes that’s right, to the Jews, and they will look to banish them. I speak about history, and Torah, no words of my own, no new big chiddish.
It’s only a matter of time before it happens in America, R”L.
I’m sure you tell that to your kids too right just like my grandparents were told about the madman coming into power, singing kill all the Jews……..(they were young innocent kids, no one told them anything)
#27 – queen of Persia – you are contradicting yourself repeatedly!
1st u say: “What’s so bad about going to Eretz Yisrael? Perhaps for a short visit it might be OK but certainly not long term”. / & then: “I definitely find it a lot easier to bring up children in purity that it is in Israel.”
please decide!