SSSS

Over the past 10 years, my love to Poland has been channeled through Fredrik Chopin airport in Warsaw. My first visit to Poland, back in 2008, included only the RC workshop that brought me to Poland on the first place. I did not get to experience much of Poland. I landed Krakow's airport, it was still called "Balist" back then, and I flew home from Warsaw's. Upon reaching the departure gates, I immediately noticed that the gate for my flight to Israel resides among the gates in the airport. That moved me. Let me tell you why.

In my pervious travels abroad, I learned that in Berlin and in Munich, the flights to Israel were leaving from an isolated section of the airport, a distant terminal building, that had a very limited passenger services and increased security measures. It looked and felt like a jail. In Berlin, an armored vehicle parked outside of it. I could say to myself that this was so in order to protect us Israelis from guerilla attacks – the 1970s saw lots of guerilla attacks on air traffic, and of course there was the attack on the USA air traffic on September 11th 2001. But, no special measures were taken with regards to flights to the USA. So, what I actually said to myself was, that the Europeans want to make sure, that if someone wishes to blow up some Jews, no European citizens get hit by accident. It moved me to notice, that in Warsaw, there is a different attitude.

On the years that followed, whenever I was traveling to Europe, I kept on weighing airports based on their attitude towards the passengers that were flying to Israel. Rome's airport treated us worse than Berlin's. So did Charles De Gaule airport in Paris. In Zagreb, Vienna and Athens, we were treated well. That is, we were treated like everyone else was. In Barcelona and Budapest, it was something in between. However, since my first encounter with the departures ward of Fredrik Chopin airport in 2008 came right after my flights from Berlin and from Munich, so I felt the change drastically. I could go to any duty-free shop that I wanted to. I could have a choice of beverages while I was waiting for my flight, not just one automatic vending machine that soon ran out of service. I was not ostracized here. Israeli Jews are not ostracized here.

Then, I began to attend the RC workshop in Poland every year, arriving and departing through Fredrik Chopin airport. I noticed its growth, its improvements. I learned about bus numbers 175 and 188 that led to the city and from it, and then, when the train lines were extended to the airport in 2012, I became an expert on the types of trains and tickets that are available. As I started to teach myself Polish, each orange sign became a language exercise. Landing in Chopin airport felt like coming to a secondary home, arriving there for departures felt like the conclusion of a great stay and the first step in returning to the first home.

But last year, things changed for worse. After having waited at the gate for my LOT flight home, the stewardess looked at my boarding pass and told me that I need to go through a further security examination. I freaked out. The airplane was out there behind the glass wall, some passengers were already seated in it, I got afraid of losing my flight. I left the desk and rushed to find out where this extended examination took place. Luckily, I met some airport workers who gave me good directions. A stern looking policeman spilled out the inside of my backpack (it has been X-rayed before), sprayed some powder on my fingers and pressed them against a plastic stripe. He then stamped my boarding pass and told me I was free to go. I collected my stuff and ran back to the gate. I did not miss the flight. But seated in the aircraft, I still felt uneasy. Why did they pick me up? Are they suspicious about RC, an international community with a liberal agenda? Was there something about me? Maybe my traveling with a backpack rather than a suitcase made me look like a drug trafficker? Whose policy was it anyway? There was no one to ask.

This year, things changed again, in part for the better and in part for the worse. For the better, LOT airlines had added a flight to Israel on Saturday night, which allowed me to fly home right at the end of my RC workshop, which ended on Saturday this year. I arrived at the check-in desk, after having checked in online. The stewardess produced my boarding pass, and drew my attention to the "SSSS" at the bottom of the pass. She kindly explained, that it meant that I needed to go through an extended security check at the gate, after having passed the X-ray check and the passport control. I knew better than to ask that nice young woman WHY ME. I thought that it had been better to know this in advance, and not at the last moment, like on the previous year. I went through the X-ray, and then rushed to the passport control, skipping the duty free parlor. Who knows how much time this extra security is going to take this year? I passed the passport control, I got to the gates area, and then realized that I forgot the directions that the stewardess gave me. So stressed I was. A man in uniforms that had passed by, I asked him where to go, and he pointed to a deserted desk, that was right there at the corner. He said, that the desk will only be staffed an hour and a half before the flight. I noticed orange signs in Polish and in English, that told everyone for whom the extra security check was intended: for passengers going to Israel. Is Israel the only country in the world, which is threatened with guerilla warfare? No, it is not. But it was the only country that gets to have such a sign with its name on it. For me, this was the worse part. It reminded me of other signs, other times.

I went on to one of the cafeterias and got myself some coffee and snacks, feeling thankful that this is still possible in this terminal, that they have not yet sent us away to a distant booth with only a vending machine. The coffee was good, and the vendor was nice. When I returned to the gate, I noticed that the extra security desk was open. Some ten to twenty people were already queuing there. I joined the queue, and engaged in conversations with the others. Some were persons of color, others looked white. Some looked rich and dressed fancily, some looked and dressed like me. All except me were women. The one thing we all had in common was, that we were all Israeli-Jews. I saw non-Israeli passengers waiting for the flight to Israel, but I saw none of them in line for extra security. I also saw Israeli passengers who were not summoned, but all those who were summoned were my people. The examination was less penetrative this year then it was last year. I was relieved to find out that it is not only me that is considered a threat to security. However, I kept on wondering what the profiling policy was, and who was responsible to it. Is it the airport, is it the airline company, is it the government?

After having returned home, I wrote the story in a social media group that I am in, where I help Hebrew learners from other countries in practicing my first language. I uploaded the pictures too. A few hours later, a British guy from that group wrote, that he had asked a Polish friend about it, and the Polish friend has told him that it is actually the government of Israel who asked the Poles to conduct these extra security checks. I find that hard to believe. Why would the government of Israel want to extra-check its own citizens in such big numbers? Would it not be easier to extra-check them upon arrival to Ben-Gurion airport? Could it not send its own people to perform these checks? It did not make sense. I'd be glad to hear from people who flew to Israel from other airports in Poland, if there are extra security checks in these airports as well, and how discrete they are. One way or the other, for me Fredrik Chopin airport will no longer feel like a friendly place that it used to be. I will keep on flying to Poland every year, but things will not be the same. And I can only hope, that things will not get worse.