kafka should have been born here

Today was quite strange. Last night some friends and I stayed at an Israeli friend's flat in the western half of Jerusalem, conveniently located just blocks from the notorious Russian Compound, a prison, police station and detention center well known for the bloody screams that emanate from its interrogation rooms.

We woke late this morning. I felt a bit sick from a bout of drinking last night---we had been to an Israeli drag show and stayed out late, got drunker than I've been in months. Quite a different experience from what I have been immersed in of late. Some friends and I planned to walk down the hill to east Jerusalem to get some coffee and cheap breakfast. We never made it.

While waiting on the curb for them to come downstairs, I noticed a suspicious looking character milling about near me, glancing at me every once in a while and making a few calls on his cell phone. I thought he looked like an undercover cop, and my intuition told me to go back upstairs to warn the others. Instead, aware that I have done nothing illegal and that they could not rightly arrest me, I ignored him. I should have trusted my gut.

When my friends joined me on the street it was too late. We only made it about ten steps from the door before being surrounded and literally held by two men, clearly undercover cops. They told us they needed to 'talk', and that we must follow them to their car. The good activists we are, we refused. 'In my country', my friend said, 'the police need give you a reason to arrest or detain you. You have no warrant, and I have not committed any crime. Let me go.' They ignored him, and after about five minutes of ultimately pointless verbal wrangling in the street they led us to the car.

We arrived at the police station (again, just blocks away) at about one o'clock. Then began the series of minor humiliations and Kafka-esque arguments, series of pointless questioning from us about what they planned to do with us, why we were being detained. No one seemed to know. They were only obeying orders, 'doing their jobs'.

The two friends I was with are without visas, and were obviously going to be arrested and deported. It was, in fact, their plan. The cops only beat them to the punch. But me, I was simply caught in the middle of an affair having nothing to do with me. But I was brought along for the ride. I suspect this is because they wanted to make sure I was 'legal'.

We sat for three and a half hours before even the undercovers who arrested us had any idea about why they were dispatched to drag us in. These almost four hours are the most interesting of the whole experience, but I feel so drained and disgusted with the whole affair that I have little desire or even the ability to recount the many trials we endured. Finally, after getting briefed by who I can only assume to be a member of the Israeli secret service (the GSS, or Shin Bet), they summoned me to another room, this time leaving my friends behind. I knew I was being released because they gave me back my cellphone.

Unfortunately, my release is conditional. I was brought into the room and, against my will, photographed by a GSS guy. He must have taken thirty pictures of me. Then another guy behind a desk told me that the immigration services had issued what he euphemistically called an 'invitation' for me to 'visit' with them at 9 am tomorrow. They 'only want to talk', he said.

There's a lot that cannot be said about this madness in the blog. For one, I have no desire for some things about the situation to be public---it appears as if the Israelis are paying attention to me now. Who knows how long they'd been tracking us?

In addition, I am tired, feeling totally drained and somewhat depressed about the state of things. It's a demeaning experience, getting detained---even if only for a few hours and without physical punishment or harm. It goes without saying that my white skin and American passport afforded me protection Palestinians can only dream of.

It's important to be recognized in life, for people to respond or at least look at you when you ask them a question simple as 'Can we get some food?'. My view of humanity is not completely bleak, however; I couldn't have picked two people I'd rather be detained with, and minus the ridiculousness of it all---or perhaps because of it---we had ourselves some fun along the way.

Anyway, more tomorrow after I find out why I've been summoned to the immigration police. Yikes.