Dodoo if you ever went in an airport you would know why its necessary to check people BEFORE the bombing not AFTER. In fact such checking saved Europe a bombing from Yemen a few weeks ago, remember?

American border guards are ruder and far more aggressive than Israeli ones. Everyone like to pick on easy Israel, including this Australian woman. She would never dare attack the rough, tough American border agents.

Look this is not the way to be. Very Bad . Also they are new scanners at the airports in london that can see under the clothing. Maybe elal should invest in this.

lessons in life require more then 24 yrs to obtain

israel doesnt have terrorists taking over planes because of these security measures. if u dont appreciate the fact that your flight wasnt hijacked by insane muslims than DONT COME TO ISRAEL.

The problem is not with the screening but how its being done, degrading treatment is uncalled for except when a people become violent with words or actions. Intimation is used by some security personal as away to be sure they are in control but it can easily become a habit and be over used, with ex-military people its hard to break with past training.

people staying with arabs might be used by them, without knowing. I am happy such people are checked by securety. Well done, Kol HaKavod!

It is regretable but unfortunately the case that it is better to lose a little tourism and PR than lives.

Look this is the land of Israel. G-D's given land to the Jews. We are the most threatened nation on this planet and this is all divined in the bible. We have every right to protect ourselves. If you are not happy with our security than don't come. We don't need you. We have the best security in the world not to boast but because of the 100's of threats we receive a day. Go to any other country and walk freely in their airports with out being bothered but I can guarantee you terrorists are walking freely around some airport planning something. To protect lives you need to bother people some will be innocent but some might be actually the people trying to commit the crime.

Two points stand out from her account: (i) that she was intimidated (ii) that no one apologised afterwards. The first point may have been a deliberate strategy to unsettle her as part of her interrogation. But the second point does not appear to have an excuse - other than the fact that the State of Israel, founded by Soviet ex-pats, operates on a basis of 'let the apparatchiks deal with the details and the politicians will deal with the broad picture'. By spreading fear and instability through power-hungry bureaucrats, the State is saved a lot of time and money dealing with dissent, and the politicians keep their hold on power. Welcome to Israel.

you say that: "If she or I were any type of security threat, would I openly say her name" At this point you should know that once Israeli airport security intercepted an Irish girl travelling to Israel to visit her fiance´s family. Her fiance gave her a suitcase that contained a bomb which she didn´t know she was carrying. Don´t blame airport security for doing their jobs and minimizing the possibilities of someone murdering you and your fellow passengers just because you´re a well intentioned lady that expects no harm for her friends...just like the Irish lady of my example... Expect "weird" things when dealing with mahometans, they are brainwashed and can be remotely activated suddenly changing their character.

you would not have had a problem.

Although I agree they could have been more polite, someone should tell this poor girl that Israelis do not have the luxury of making mistakes or living in a country surrounded by water with few enemies. Albeit those few immatyure and rude employees could have been reprimanded re the kafiyeh comment.... I was detained in Cairo airport by israeli security on my way to tel Aviv for three hours. I have a Canadian and Israeli passport. I had no issues about that. They do this for everyone's security.

Stay in Australia, that's also good for us.

I am a Canadian citizen and was coming back from a short trip from Japan. The security questioned me and went through all my things "without reason." But I'm glad! This should be done. They have a right and a duty to protect this country, even if that calls for a strip search.

Having traveled to Israel 8 weeks ago but having no issues going thru security only one thing can be pointed out, the security staff has no manners and make all feel like a suspect. I guess that it is all part and parcel of Israel experience of taxi drivers overcharging,shop owners putting prices up when Hebrew is spoken with an accent and general rudeness.As a tourist one must realize culture differences exist.

"such an incident has a negative impact on the State's image and character." Yes, it does. And it's unfortunate that Israel has to follow such apparently callous procedures in particular situations. But if Ynet really cares about Israel's reputation, it should let stories like this die. If Ynet wants to crusade for different security measures, go ahead: there are ways to do so without tarnishing Israel's image. Although we certainly have dirty laundry, there's no need to wash it in public.

I am so sorry that the PLO invented political hijackings. I am sorry that the PLO has attempted to hijack or blow up Israeli aircraft over 1,000 different times. I am sorry that this is necessary for innocent people to be subjected to such drastic actions. We know that no Australian has ever hijack an Israeli airplane and we will make sure that never happens. But blaming us for preventing that action is not called for. You can always travel to the US were they will do the same thing but for no reason whatsoever, also you can't take liquids with you and you will take off your shoes. Your choice be mad at the victims of terrorism or be mad at the terrorists.

Let's strip search the idea of a Palestinian state to expose its risks so we can all know it would be a danger to the State of Israel.

As Ger notes, the keffiyeh has become Arafat's "resistance symbol", popular among leftist groups and Palestinian supporters like the ISM. I suspect if she'd purchased the "Jewish" variant with Stars of David embedded in the design, she would have elicited a very different response. And to those who focus on the damage such inspections do to Israel's image, well, those who understand the reasons behind it will be more understanding. And there are plenty of abuses that take place without cause in the US where everyone - even three year olds and your grandmother - are deemed "equally suspect": the disabled and the infirm who must remove their braces and prostheses, the young woman tackled because they discovered more than 3 oz. of contact solution, the cancer survivor who recently had his urostomy bag break during an aggressive pat-down leaving him with urine all over his body. Nicki got off lucky.

Fly into the USA these days and mention an arab name....see how you make out...

I have a similar story from my first trip to Israel: I won't bore you with all the details, but the customs took a total of 2 1/2 hours (coming+leaving combined). I've returned to Israel 5 times after that, and I didn't whine about the treatment I got from the security personell: they are doing their job, and they're doing it good! Instead of blaming Israel for this, maybe you should put the finger at the real problem: palestinians were hihjacking planes, and that's when all the security on airports stepped up. You should thank the security personell and be glad that Ben Gurion is the safest f**king airport in the world! Too bad I am a student! If I could afford it, I would have flown ElAl kolhazman!

people look at him as terrorist,or berayers if they are jews,if they are arabs terrorists yes. I was beaten a Tel Aviv´s police station by isamnikim for swearing kaffyaah-

Arabic 'descent' and not 'dissent' - check your grammar carefully, next time.

doesnt hit us... we have never done harm to anyone, neither werent we looking the (most) "fishy" ones in the queue - just average, lawful tourists from some "well respected" country... AND THEN ? - the best trained security staff in the world, guys - especially trained to detect TERRORISTS, picks US out of this queue ! ...lets be honest: alone this IS traumtic, outrageous, annoying, humiliating... do we "look terrorist" ? YES, seems so ! its somehow understandable, but quite bad, that the passenger isnt given an explanation at least...

Standard EL AL response : We know the best. We stopped flying EL AL because a 20-something security girl in Rome wanted to teach us a lesson. She did. We fly anything but ELAL.

Happened to me out of Kennedy, and had all my duty free "Mislaid", but I just laughed. Thats travell today. Stay at home.

Idea is to throw suspect off balance. Unbalanced person is open person. Unfortunately in this situation you cannot expect tangible results while trying to be nice.