[Originally posted Dec. 19, 2009, on Fortune.com]Three weeks ago, an American student working in Cairo was questioned for two hours at the Israeli border before security officials confiscated her Apple (AAPL) MacBook, called in a sapper, and shot it full of holes.
Lily Sussman, 21, told the story on her blog, where it drew more than a thousand comments and a fair amount of coverage in the Mideast press.
Before she flew home for the holidays, she gave The Daily News Egypt the video interview posted below the fold.
UPDATE: By luck or careful aim, Sussman's hard drive emerged unscathed. "I've managed to recover all the data!" she writes. "Yayy...It's a survivor. I have yet to hear back from the man handling my case about when and what I will be compensated."
[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]
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I've been through that Taba crossing and the Israeli border guards are very courteous and professional. Lily obviously gave them reason to suspect her, or gave them attitude; most likely both. She even admits to getting into an exchange with a woman border guard before the laptop incident. Lily is a liberal posturer.
ReplyDeleteOf course the Egyptian side is friendly and easygoing -- they don't have Israelis trying to get across to blow up their civilians.
Shameful that Lily goes on to cite Israeli 'aggression'. Given the recent terrorist incidents in the Sinai, she was much safer after crossing the border into Israel.
As an experienced world traveler, I've been in a number of countries and have been appalled at the way Americans act in the country they visit. In general, we tend to lose sight of the fact that we are GUESTS there and that we have to play by THEIR rules, whether we like it or not. The place we are visiting isn't America and these countries aren't Burger King, we can't have it our way. If you don't want to have trouble, take the time and research where you are going and what is expected of you and for goodness sake behave as a guest. If you don't want to do that, then don't go.
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