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Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

haaretz.com

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Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#41

Post by ceejayoz »

davidf18 wrote: post #14

I'm an American who has been to Israel countless times and unless you've been there you can't imagine the security situation. At the last moment I was saved from a terrorist attack http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_BMW_attack when I went into a corner store to buy a candy bar hearing gunshots with girls running into the store before I could make my purchase. I have eaten at several locations that were later bomb…

OK, but would you have been saved by a check of someone's e-mail accounts? Surely a terrorist trying to fly into Israel is going to set up fluffypuppies@gmail.com as a front account to provide.

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#42

Post by refurb »

antr wrote: post #7
pavel_lishin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the penalty for disallowing access seems to be a refusal to allow you into the country. I imagine that giving access to a legitimate but old and useless e-mail address would be taken as a refusal, and you'd just get back on your plane and go home.

but then, how might they know that I have other personal accounts? Are they going to put on a lie detector and ask me if I have a gmail account?

This isn't your boss asking for your facebook password. The people doing security screening in Israeli airports are well-trained and experienced. As the saying goes "they've seen it all".

You say you don't have any other email accounts? How did you buy your ticket? Do you have an email receipt? No? Let me call the airline and confirm.

Any hint that your lying to them and you're back on the plane to where ever you came from.

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#43

Post by davidf18 »

SODaniel wrote: post #28
davidf18 wrote: post #14

I'm an American who has been to Israel countless times and unless you've been there you can't imagine the security situation. At the last moment I was saved from a terrorist attack http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_BMW_attack when I went into a corner store to buy a candy bar hearing gunshots with girls running into the store before I could make my purchase. I have eaten at several locations that were later bomb…

Still no justification to require overly invasive security measures such as requiring access to personal communication etc. Also completely useless for anything than purely 'selecting' who you let in since I am going to assume a terrorist wouldn't exactly use terrorist185@hotmail.com and then hand the email over when asked.

I wouldn't second guess Israeli security measures...unlike TSA, these are highly trained people who undoubtedly have military training since with few exceptions (Arab or Orthodox Jewish) not only men but women are drafted for military service.

If you don't like the security measures then don't go there.

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#44

Post by js2 »

mxfh wrote: post #22
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We may need a HN Guideline about paywalls

The paywall wasn't up when it was posted.

The Reddit link has no paywall apparently due to the query string:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-airport...

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#45

Post by excuse-me »

makomk wrote: post #38
nyellin wrote: post #27

Please do not make broad statements about Israel based on one article. Israel allows civil unions, allows homosexuals to serve in the military without restrictions, supports Muslim private schools, pays for Islamic religious activities, and generally respects human rights. [1] We also have our warts, like everyone country does. Israeli politicians have attempted to pass our own Protecting Children from Internet Porno…

What nyellin means by "Israel allows civil unions" is that, starting in 2011, they actually allow a man and a woman who aren't religious and who can prove this to the satisfaction of the religious authorities to get married. Prior to that it was actually impossible for many heterosexual Israeli citizens to get married within Israel because they were only considered Jewish by Israeli law and not by the Jewish religiou…

So Israel allows mixed-sex marriages? Urghh that's just gross!

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#46

Post by nyellin »

makomk wrote: post #38
nyellin wrote: post #27

Please do not make broad statements about Israel based on one article. Israel allows civil unions, allows homosexuals to serve in the military without restrictions, supports Muslim private schools, pays for Islamic religious activities, and generally respects human rights. [1] We also have our warts, like everyone country does. Israeli politicians have attempted to pass our own Protecting Children from Internet Porno…

What nyellin means by "Israel allows civil unions" is that, starting in 2011, they actually allow a man and a woman who aren't religious and who can prove this to the satisfaction of the religious authorities to get married. Prior to that it was actually impossible for many heterosexual Israeli citizens to get married within Israel because they were only considered Jewish by Israeli law and not by the Jewish religiou…

No, I deliberately used the term "civil union", not "marriage" for that reason. The distinction is hairy, so I'm just going to quote Wikipedia:

Israeli law recognizes same-sex marriages performed elsewhere... It does not, however, allow same-sex couples to marry on Israeli soil. Civil marriage doesn't exist in Israel for heterosexual couples, either, (except where both spouses are non-Jewish) and therefore only a marriage sanctioned by religious authorities can take place within Israel.

The State of Israel allows foreign partners of its homosexual citizenry to receive residency permits. The Civil Service Commission extends spousal benefits and pensions to the partners of homosexual employees. The Israeli State Attorney's Office has extended the spousal exemption from property-transfer taxes to same-sex couples. Israel's attorney general has granted legal recognition to same-sex couples in financial and other business matters. Attorney General Meni Mazuz said the couples will be treated the same as common-law spouses, recognizing them as legal units for tax, real estate, and financial purposes. Mazuz made his decision by refusing to appeal a district court ruling in an inheritance case that recognized the legality of a same-sex union, his office said in a statement. Mazuz did differentiate, however, between recognizing same-sex unions for financial and practical purposes, as he did, and changing the law to officially sanction the unions, which would be a matter for parliament, according to the statement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Israel#Recogniti...

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#47

Post by tnash »

davidf18 wrote: post #43
SODaniel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still no justification to require overly invasive security measures such as requiring access to personal communication etc. Also completely useless for anything than purely 'selecting' who you let in since I am going to assume a terrorist wouldn't exactly use terrorist185@hotmail.com and then hand the email over when asked.

I wouldn't second guess Israeli security measures...unlike TSA, these are highly trained people who undoubtedly have military training since with few exceptions (Arab or Orthodox Jewish) not only men but women are drafted for military service. If you don't like the security measures then don't go there.

And Arabs can volunteer to join the army, even though they are not drafted, and some do.

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#48

Post by excuse-me »

tnash wrote: post #37
potatolicious wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see that "non sequitor straw man analogy" is the special on the menu today. So, to be clear, I'm not saying anything about guns pointed my families. I'm talking about people's natural right to privacy and the overreach of government. These two things have nothing to do with each other and your attempt to connect them is both misleading and disingenuous.

Well, since you weren't clear, and still aren't, straw man it was. Your point is what? That privacy is sacrosanct? That we should live in a world where libertarianism rules all? What is your point? Stop me anytime. We're talking about the same thing here. Security abuses privacy, but is necessary. My point was, and still is, that for some it is more necessary than others. As we in the US and Western Europe don't live…

>As we in the .. Western Europe don't live under constant threat to our lives

Some of us did living in Belfast - and we would like to thank all those nice Americans in Boston for making it all possible.

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#49

Post by Bud »

nyellin wrote: post #36
ajross wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please do not make broad statements about Israel based on one article. Have any been made? The discussion here, at least, seems very civil and focused on the issue at hand. Israel is indeed a very laudable nation and people in many ways. But this behavior is awful, and has to be condemned.

Then let me clarify: I condemn this as well. It has to stop. There have been comments below calling for America to stop supporting Israeli. I want to point out how exceptionally uncommon this type of behavior is.

There are a lot of legitimate reasons to call for the US to stop supporting Israel to the huge extent it has been. I don't see why those opinions need to be tamped down.

Re: Israel airport security demands access to tourists' private email accounts

#50

Post by getpost »

How long before every government requires this kind of disclosure? What other types of invasive personal disclosure (e.g., cell phone records, health records) will be required, now that it's possible because the data is online?

Requiring this disclosure at an international border is just a convenient pretext in the emerging dystopia. Human and civil rights need to be updated in light of emerging technologies.

Unfortunately, that seems unlikely given, for example, the US government doesn't honor even its own outdated Bill of Rights in the most basic ways (i.e., by asserting its authority to kill US citizens on the President's word).

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