My Trip to Israel 25 August to 3 September 2011
I lived and worked in New Maadi Egypt from January 2010 till October 2011. I was in Egypt since before, during, and after the Egyptian Revolution. During the height of the revolution one of the Egyptian Officers I worked with sent me a FaceBook friend request using his real name, I only knew him by his nick name that he used while working with me at the depot, I accepted his friend request which gave him access to my friend list. The next work day he pulled me aside and asked me why I had so many Israeli and Jewish friends, I politely informed him that it wasn’t any of his business; he told me that he would have to report his finding to Egyptian military intelligence. A few weeks later I got a death threat from the Muslim Brotherhood on my YouTube channel, I don’t think it’s necessary to say, that all these events made me very nervous and decided that I wouldn’t renew my contract which by this time I had six more months.
I had planned to go to Israel before my contract ended and to cover my trip to Israel the company I worked for helped me to get a business passport which I was to use for my trip to Israel. The plan was I would use my regular passport, which had my work visa to exit Cairo and to enter Istanbul Turkey and then use my business passport from Istanbul to Tel Aviv, and the reverse on my way back to Cairo.
I made reservations and made arrangements with the company to have a greeter meet me at the airport in Cairo who could get me past customs without having to open my luggage. I gave the company my itinerary and the Egyptian Military liaison officer disapproved my trip and told me to cancel. The thing that irritated me was that he waited to disapprove my trip after I made the reservations, I would have lost a lot of money if I canceled. I loudly protested and refused to cancel; the liaison officer relented and allowed me to go. My trip was from 24 August 2011 to 3 September 2011, I had a rental car waiting for me in Tel Aviv and I drove all the way from Tel Aviv to Akko following the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. On my return trip from Israel, my plane was delayed and my luggage which contained all the souvenirs I bought in Israel, which was also an Israeli flag, was put on another airplane. When I got to the airport in Cairo my luggage wasn’t there, I went to the claims office to inform them of my missing luggage, of course I had to hand over my passport and tickets to the claims officers, when he looked at the computer he loudly said “You came from Tel Aviv” talk about excitement! I was allowed to go to my apartment and placed on under house arrest, three weeks later I got a phone call informing me that I had 24 hours to leave the country; the company got that up to 48 hours. The driver who took me to the airport had to watch me board the aircraft and watch it take off from the airport.
Three months after I got home, my security clearance was flagged and my employment with the company was terminated. Took me two years to get another job, I worked for that company for two years and laid off, so now I’m looking for another job.
I rented a car and drove from Tel Aviv To Acre Israel via Highway 2 through Haifa so as to see as much scenery as possible I had to stop at a gas station in Acre to get directions to Zipi’s Place at Bilu St 10, Acre, Israel where I rented a room. A very nice lady at the gas station hopped in the car and showed me the way. I stayed at Zipi’s place for 9 days.
