I wonder if the name Anne-Marie Murphy means anything to you. Probably not, because it's nearly 24 years since she was in the headlines.
In April 1986, she was about to board a plane from London to Tel Aviv, to meet - so she thought - the parents of her Palestinian fiancé, a man called Nizar Hindawi. She was 32 years old, and pregnant.
She was also, unknowingly, carrying a bomb in her suitcase, hidden there by Hindawi, and primed to explode when the El Al plane was somewhere over Europe. The airline security people spotted it, and she never got on the plane. (You can read the official Israeli account of the story here.)
I was reminded of Anne-Marie Murphy amid all the renewed discussion following the attempted Christmas Day plane attack about whether or not airline passengers should be "profiled" - in other words, singled out for more intense screening if they fit someone's idea of what a terrorist looks like.
Back in 1986, there was no particular reason to single out pregnant Irish women as likely anti-Israel terrorists. But Israeli security have long been suspicious of single women travelling alone, and they have no hesitation in asking the most personal questions about their relationships and private life.
It may be that it makes sense to concentrate anti-terrorism measures at airports on certain categories of passengers. But the Hindawi case reminds us that it's not always easy to decide what a terrorist looks like.
- Bookmark with:
- del.icio.us |
- Digg |
- Newsvine |
- NowPublic |
- - What's this?
I don't know if any of you listen to Robin Lustig in the morning on the BBC, but I found this discussion and blog entry interesting. Read the account of the Israeli case by clicking the link as well as it tells the entire story which is eerie. My brother Tim has been going through security interviews while traveling in and out of Israel for years because of his work in the West Bank and Gaza. but he never worries about being questioned. The Israeli's have a huge level of expertise here and I briefly experienced it myself when Zachary and I visited Gaza in 1999-2000. There was a short interview asking what I was doing there, who I was traveling with etc. and since it was done by a woman, I was not worried or nervous. Tim is an expert at this stuff and gave us good advice which helped in the process by giving pointed answers and being clear. I appreciate their ability to weed out potential terrorists and found this excellent journalistic piece enlightening.
No comments:
Post a Comment