Israel,the Israeli border guards,Jerusalem and Palestine.

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A few years ago I wanted to go to a dangerous country and I kept thinking of only one: Israel.

At the time there were a lot of news regarding bombings in the area and the Palestinian issue...I was a childless daredevil with maybe a secret death wish, so I decided to go there.
When I first arrived I immediately realized that this country was like no other. I waited in line at the customs observing the diversity of the people at the airport: a mixture of white western looking people, typical Jewish ones with the hat and the long curls and Arabic looking ones were waiting for their turn next to each other.
But what make Israel different from any other country is definitely their immigration procedures: You would not believe the questions I was asked!
At the time I was travelling with a male friend from New Zealand and one of their questions was:” Why are you Italian if he is from New Zealand?” I did not know what to say...I thought I should say that maybe it was because I was born in Italy and he was born in New Zealand but I knew it wasn’t a good idea to say that so I said :” We come from London, there are a lot of different nationality living there”.
Another bizarre question was: “Your surname is Lanzetta.....What is the origin of it? ..I was thinking “I am going to tell them Iraqi” but I thought they wouldn't appreciate my sense of humour!
Once in Israel I could feel the general paranoid climate...I don’t know how, and I couldn’t explain what it was: must have been the many soldiers, men and women you often encounter in the street, or they strict safety procedures for anything such as bomb detectors almost anywhere you go.
Politics can really spoil the general atmosphere of a country but will never spoil its charm. Israel is fascinating....especially Jerusalem where many religions cohabit together one next to the other, The Muslim quarter and the Jewish quarter sit peacefully next to each other sharing a land hated in the whole Middle East.
In Tel Aviv, sexy young women walk on the same pavement as Jewish conservative ones, I have to say that even me as a female I was admiring the beauty of the local girls: beautiful, young women often in military clothing ready to sacrifice their youth and life for their country.
I never once felt threatened in Israel, not even when I crossed the Palestinian border to visit Bethlehem but the differences between Israel and Palestine were astonishing and this really saddened me: needless to say that Palestine felt like a ghetto at the edge of a modern world, like a servant’s squalid room in the home of a rich landlord. Nevertheless people were kind, that type of kindness that certain people have after years and years of hardship...Maybe it is not kindness after all but resignation!

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