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 Israeli border guards, about their quality of control in order to not let in people who could potentially stay with them and live as illegal immigrants. I’ll 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 on its own and will not return to normal. Tell me I'm talking nonsense? Yes, and please, I’m anxious - I’m allowed,” 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 Israeli territory - 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... There are professional psychologists working there, and they can see from you whether you are worried or not, whether you are lying, and there are also many cameras filming you,” he says. — I learned from many people about the time of the interview, if you are traveling on a direct flight (relatively Russia-Israel), then it is much tougher (in terms of questions and pressure), and you may be banned from entry for 5-10 years. In addition to being offended by life, in a couple of minutes the realization will come to you that you will now have to go 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 only available from Monday to Tuesday and from Thursday to Friday; I arrived at 10 a.m. on Monday, September 29.09. The next time I could go only on October 6, but my trip ends just on October 6, that is, at the border they would have seen my tickets and turned me back, and I would have been 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. Apart from us, they also didn’t let in elderly women, which is generally very strange,” he said.

“At first I stood in a huge line of people from our bus - 30-35 people in total. Then we began to go to the border guard who looked at the passports, he greeted everyone in English, if they greeted him 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 am, I tried not to show that I was worried. As soon as he looked at 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 once every two people he took the passport, I only saw this sequence. He took passports not only from Russians, but also from a group of Serbs of 20 people. Then we gave our things to be scanned in exactly the same way as at the airport, and then waited for our passports. The rest stood in line for an interview. My belongings included two pairs of socks, one pair of underpants, 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 these answers and it’s okay. The main thing is to be able to justify this well and without anxiety. Or turn on the fool, whatever suits you,” 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 in English, I immediately turned on the fool and started speaking in Russian, which I don’t understand. If you start speaking English, and it is not your native language, you may be bombarded with questions that you simply will not understand, you will begin to worry, and your chances of passing the border will be zero. The border guard started speaking 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 this is normal practice, I was warned that there may be several interviews, and this is normal. They want to be sure that this is their job. Where I sat down, there were people from another bus, most of them women aged from 30 to 65. There were also two married couples sitting there, says Bounce Back. — An hour passes. Border guards walk back and forth with our passports to some room. Our guide from the Israeli side begins to get 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 cross the border. He informs us about this.”

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 alone, and two women about 27 years old did not leave my bus. The strangest thing about this story is that there were no repeat interviews. We were turned around immediately. Everyone was Russian. On the one hand, it’s clear why we were turned around. Because of what is happening in our country, we will most likely want to stay with them, but on the other hand, this is not how things should go. But it’s not for me to judge, I tried it and it didn’t work for me, maybe it will work 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 doesn’t pass, everyone won’t pass, but a large company will cause less suspicion. There were two dozen Serbs 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 in, although if a second interview had happened, I would have told everything great and I’m sure I would have passed, but that didn’t happen, so it wasn’t fate,” he says.

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