Sunday, July 24, 2011

While I Had to Remove My Shoes, I Don't Wear a Bra

My wife, as I have recounted before, had to remove her hat once at an event with the Prime Minister in attendance.  I had to remove my shoes at another event, the Jabotinsky Memorial at Mt. Herzl when he was there.

And now, in a repeat from a few months ago, another bra-removal demand is reported:

Foreign journalists on Friday spoke of their distress after being asked to remove their bras for a security check before being allowed into the offices of Israel's prime minister.  The three women [ had to] take off their bras for x-ray in two separate incidents at the Jerusalem offices of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week...an incident denounced by the Foreign Press Association (FPA) as "unnecessary, humiliating and counter-productive."

..."The Foreign Press Association strongly condemns the continued harassment of journalists attending media events at the prime minister's office," a statement from the Tel-Aviv based group said.

"This type of treatment is unnecessary, humiliating and counter-productive."
Sara Hussein, who works for Agence France-Presse (AFP), described the incident as..."among the most humiliating in my life," she wrote in a complaint to the FPA. "I have covered meetings of presidents at the White House and not been subjected to anything similar."  Neither of the other two women reporters, both of whom were deeply distressed by the incident, wished to be identified.  All three have filed detailed complaints with the FPA, which is pursuing the matter with the Israeli authorities.


You would think the machinery is sophisticated emough to reveal a gun, a knife or other potential threat.  But then again, at Egged Bus Station, persons have been required to go through the metal detectors again and again, I have observed.

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