The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains the words "arbitrary" and "arbitrarily" when describing unacceptable conduct of interference with the rights given to the rightholders. For those of us who do not comprehend the meaning of this term, here is a classic example as experianced in the "only democracy" in the Middle East.

I happened to visit Israel this summer, and as usual for non-Jewish holders of foreign passports and Palestinians, I had to pass the "via delarosa" - not the one in the old city of Jerusalem (which is a real pleasure walk these days), but the one in the infamous airport of Ben Gurion, the founder of the state himself. Naturally, I came 3 hours before departing time, eventhough I was advised to go late, so that to give "them" less time to play with me and gratify their sadist paranoia. Stood in line for the security check, and waited around. At the end of the row a smiling young man, politly asks for your passport. Well, for placinig you in the right category, stupid! The guy looks at me, and asks in Arabic: Did you know I am your neighbour? Oh really? I replied joyfully. Can it be possible that I will be spared the hastle? Well, he claims he originates in one of the two Druz villages nearby Haifa. Thus, he has served in the army, and thats why he is the m aster  of life and death at the end of that row. "You are VIP, you know, as usual". Oh well, I am not going to escape the hastle, damn."Wait here"!. Meanwhile, the guy asks the ones behind me: "Who packed the luggage?", while staring at their passports, and as soon as he would figure their category (Jewish Israeli) a joyful "not guilty" sign appears on his face with the outburst: "you may go, have a nice trip".

Next comes a nice lady, and escorts me to the huge screening machines for my luggage.  Here starts the slow process of torture, designed chifly to humiliate you, and remind you of the fact that you are class D citizen, regardless of what you really are. Naturally, if you are also an academic, then there is an added value i.e., added reason for "showing off": I ended up with 5 little security ants checking every single item in my luggage. As it usually happens, the machines will show hundred little security alerts all spread in my luggage."whats this?" "This is herbs from Jerusalem", well, then load to the other machine for a "no gunpowder included" clearance. "We are sorry but you cant carry the sesamie cream in your luggage. We will either make a whole in it, or we will pack it in a seperate risk-free security cleared box. I figured they better not make a whole in it, since the last thing I need is seasmie cream all over my papers. "Is this your camera?" Well, yes it is. As a matter of fact,  I had this camera on my mind when I had to select the transfer city for my flight to Tel Aviv. Zurich looked like a good choice for a short stop-over, since photographing the magnificinet Alps is quite an aritistic experiance, I fi gured. "Why is it empty? where are all the photoes?" Oh, well, you see, if you are about to take a long photographing trip over the mediterranean and then over the Alps, you better have lots of empty digital memory....

Amazing how a paranoid security mind apprehends this simple set of common sense facts, since after a "crew meeting" they decide: "You can't take the camera with you, you need to place it in your luggage". "Whats wrong with my camera?" I wondered, and the little security ants replied: "We can't explain it, period." I called the chief, and he explained: "If you wish to take your camera on board, then you will have to leave your laptop in the luggage. Or If you want to take your laptop on board, then you must leave the camera in the luggage. " Why"??????

"No explanation. Security reasons", he replied.

The logic? seemingly, the paranoia theory goes like this:

“We assumed that before an attack could take place, there had to be a person with the intention of carrying out an attack, and second, there had to be a weapon,” says Ron. ....“When Ben Gurion started working on the problem in the early 1970s, we said that intentions are difficult to define and detect, so let's look for the weapon,” Ron says. “It’s a very natural reaction.”

Ron says: “You have to believe that there is always someone out there watching and waiting for you to make a mistake. I think this attitude dictates many of the security decisions made at Ben Gurion. They know that if they are not good enough, they will be hit.”  (continue reading this interview with Ron here)

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Here is the "Oasis of Democracy in the Middle East", telling you that you cant have it both at the same time: Either you have your brains without your eyes, or you have your eyes, but without your brains. Having both combined is a security risk for the state of Israel.

Indeed, it makes sense. How can you tolerate all the corruption and scandals of Israeli politicians and vote for them anew day in day out if you use your eyes and your brains simoultanously?  You will, if you only see state decadence on the news and fail to give it a thought, or if you can't see it, but it just occured to your mind. (By the way, check out this study prepared for the Israeli parliament in 2006: Public Trust in Parliament – A Comparative Study showing that at least some people are routinly using both their eyes and their brains, resulting in an increasing loss of trust in the system.)

And how can you claim to be a democracy, when the "category" (colour, gender, ethnic, racial, religious, etc belonging) decides the kind of treatment one gets? Doesnt that resemble apartheid? or maybe some other experiance we are told we should all remember and commemorate? By the the way, it appears that that there are only two categories down there, even worst than the two categories of  the Bush et al nightmare "your are with us or you are against us": In Israel, you are either jewish or not. (see this story in the Israeli press: Rania Jubran, first Israeli Arab Foreign Ministry cadet and daughter of Supreme Court Justice Salem Jubran, treated as 'high security risk' by security guards at Ben Gurion Airport).

Well, also true is that seperating state from religion in Israel would collapse the whole artificial construct in seconds, and thus the new draft law being prepared in the Israeli Knesset, requiring loyalty to the concept of the "Jewish state" or face punishment.

We shall overcome......