Personal experience: how I tried to escape from the mobilization to Israel, but nothing worked out for me

A man from Russia who fled the mobilization told how he tried to get to Israel using a tour from Egypt. Why did he choose this particular method, and why did nothing work out? Zen.

Photo: IStock

“There are legends about the border guards of Israel, about their quality of control, in order to keep out people who could potentially stay with them and live illegally. I will tell you about my experience,” says a blogger with the nickname Bounce Back.

After the announcement of partial mobilization, he decided that it was time to leave Russia, although he did not meet the criteria for partial mobilization. The guy didn't have a military ID.

On the subject: 'I'd rather sit down than go there again': a former Russian contract soldier told how he fought in Ukraine

“All recent events have led me to a logical conclusion: over time and without any consequences, this will not resolve itself and will not return to normal. Tell me what I'm talking nonsense? Yes, and please, I'm anxious - I can, ”he wrote on his blog.

What was the plan for Bounce Back?

He bought a ticket to Egypt to Sharm el-Sheikh with a flight from Moscow, and in Egypt he bought an excursion to the territory of Israel - through the border checkpoint in the city of Taba.

At the border of Israel, there is a check in several stages, as the man says. Passport check (the border guard looks at passports and selectively selects them for additional checks if he deems it necessary), checking things (like at airports, in a special scanner) and an interview.

“The interview is considered the toughest stage, because. professional psychologists work there, and they can see by you whether you are worried or not, whether you are lying, and a lot of cameras are filming you, ”he says. - I learned from many people about the moment of the interview, if you go on a direct flight (conditionally Russia-Israel), then it is much tougher (in terms of questions and pressure), and you may be banned from entering for 5-10 years. In addition to resentment for life, in a couple of minutes you will come to the realization that you will have to go now back to Russia, from which you tried to leave.

In his case, a tour operator from Egypt organized a sightseeing trip to Israel. He was supposed to go on this excursion on 03.10, but the operator wrote that it was a holiday in Israel, and they would close the border. According to him, the operator learned this on the day Bounce Back arrived in Egypt.

“The tour is conducted only from Monday to Tuesday and from Thursday to Friday, I arrived at 10 am on Monday 29.09. The next time I could go only on October 6, but my ticket ends just on 6, that is, at the border they would see my tickets and turn back, and I would just be left with nothing, ”he says. Therefore, Bounce Back decided to go on an excursion to the border immediately after arriving on September 29th.

Unsuccessful attempt

Of the entire stream of two buses, 19 people did not pass the border control, all Russians, according to Bounce Back.

“Oh, I don’t know if this is a coincidence, but I know for sure that besides me there were 4 other guys who also went there to get a job and live. In addition to us, they also didn’t let women in old age, which is generally very strange, ”he said.

“At first I stood in a huge line of people from our bus - only 30-35 people. Then we started to go to the border guard, who looked at the passports, he greeted everyone in English, if he was greeted before he could, then the answer was in the language of the person who greeted him, says Bounce Back. - I smiled, even though it was 5 in the morning, I tried not to show that I was worried. As soon as he looked into my passport, he issued a coupon, which means that I will receive my passport later, but for now it will be checked. However, he did it randomly. Perhaps I just don’t know the criterion, but every two people he took the passport, I saw only such a sequence. He took away passports not only from Russians - from a company of Serbs of 20 people, too. Then we gave things to be scanned in exactly the same way as at the airport, and then we waited for our passports. Others lined up for an interview. Of the things I had two pairs of socks, one pair of shorts, two T-shirts and a laptop.”

Bounce Back says he took the laptop to confirm at the border that he works remotely and always needs access to the laptop. He said at the control that he watched movies on his laptop while driving to the border. The trip takes 5 hours.

“People drove by with such answers and it’s okay. The main thing is to be able to justify it well and without excitement. Or turn on the fool, as it goes,” he said.

Bounce Back says that for about 50 minutes the line did not move at all, then the interview booths began to open, and the line reached him after 40 minutes. Bounce Back was interviewed by a man.

“When he started speaking English, I immediately turned on the fool and started speaking Russian, which I don’t understand. If you start speaking English, which is not your native language, you may be bombarded with questions that you simply will not understand, you will start to worry, and your chances of passing the border will be equal to zero. The border guard began to speak Russian,” said Bounce Back.

At the interview, he was asked when he arrived, asked to show the tour voucher, asked the name of his father and about the luggage. Then they gave him his passport.

“I didn't worry because it's a normal practice, I was warned that there might be several interviews, and that's fine. They want to be sure it's their job. Where I got on were the people from the other bus, most women in their 30s and 65s. There were also two couples sitting there,” says Bounce Back. - An hour passes. Border guards walk with our passports to some room back and forth. Our Israeli guide gets nervous and tries to ask what's next. They freeze him for another twenty minutes, then they say that everyone who is sitting here will not pass the border. He informs us about it."

The man says that people were given passports and sent back to their hotels. The passport was stamped “cancelled”, which means that they were simply not allowed in, this is not a ban on entry.

Bounce Back wrote to the tour operator. According to him, the tour operator said that they are now in the database, and there is no point in trying to cross the border for the next six months or a year.

Bounce Back thinks this is probably false information.

“Four more guys from 4 to 22 years old, who were traveling one at a time, and two women about 27 years old did not get off my bus. The strangest thing about this story is that there were no re-interviews. We were turned around immediately. All were Russian. On the one hand, it is clear why we were deployed. Due to what is happening in our country, with a high probability we will want to stay with them, but on the other hand, everything should go differently. But it’s not for me to judge, I tried - it didn’t work out for me, maybe it will work out for you, ”says Bounce Back.

He believes that a large company should go to pass this border in this way.

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“There is a risk that if one does not pass, all will not pass, but a large company will cause less suspicion. Two dozen Serbs were traveling with us on the bus - they were all allowed in. But why they didn’t let two elderly women in is a real question for me. I understand why they didn’t let me and 4 other guys, although if the second interview had happened, I would have told everything great and I’m sure that I would have passed, but this didn’t happen, so it’s not fate, ”he says.

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