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Cavity Searching in Israel

Posted: 15 Oct 2007 by Tara Harrison

Tags: cavity search civil rights Israel 

   This weekend, I spent some time catching with an old friend. She was in town for her sister’s wedding. As we talked, she recounted events from her most recent stint in Israel/Palestine. My friend studies and conducts research in the region as part of her PhD program. This summer she was detained by the Israeli military at a border crossing. After answering a myriad of questions, including when she planned to leave the country, she was detained for approximately six hours. Then a female guard conducted a strip/cavity search while two male guards observed. Having found nothing, the guards eventually let my friend continue to Nazareth. However, when she arrived at the airport weeks later, airport security was expecting her. Given her name and passport number, the airport security was told to report whether she indeed left the country on the date she had previously reported.

            As my friend told me of her experiences, she still seemed shaken. I do not know why my friend was selected for such questioning or such an intimate search of her person. Was she simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was she profiled because she was a student who speaks Arabic? Did she behave suspiciously? What intelligence did the military have that warranted such a search and detention? Whatever justification the military had for the search and seizure, it proved fruitless. Nothing was found. No information was gathered. My friend was and is simply an innocent American civilian.

            This incident, however, makes me question how much counter-terrorism is based on intelligence and how much it is based on luck: if we strip search enough people, one of them is bound to have contraband. Giving the military the benefit of the doubt (some intelligence had actually been gathered), I wonder what if any measures are taken to ensure the quality of the intelligence.

   In the United States, a cavity search is a very serious matter. An individualized reasonable suspicion is necessary to obtain a warrant to conduct such a search. Vernonia Sch. Dist. 47j v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646, 672-73 (1995). Indeed, broad searches of a group of people because particular illegal activity is reasonably suspected constitute insufficient grounds for such a search. Id. Will this standard remain in the face of increasing counter terrorism measures? The lack of public information regarding enemy combatants likely indicates that this standard is not being applied in their behalf. Are we as U.S. citizens willing to accept this? Do we have sufficient moral high ground to deplore Israeli counter-terrorism measures? What civil rights are we willing to relinquish when we travel abroad? (Surely we cannot expect rights that we do not extend to others.) These questions must be considered when we determine what measures we are willing to engage in to advance national security.




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