Haaretz - 21:40 15/12/2009
Police shoot U.S. student's laptop upon entry to Israel
By Bar Ben Ari and Or Hirshauga
Israel Border Police officers shot at an American student's laptop as she entered Israel via Taba, Egypt, two weeks ago.
Lily Sussman, 21,
wrote on her blog that border police subjected her to two hours of questioning and searches prior to shooting her Apple Macbook three times.
"They had pressed every sock and scarf with a security device, ripped open soap and had me strip extra layers. They asked me tons of questions?where are you going?" Sussman wrote, describing the experience.
"Who do you know? Do you have a boyfriend? Is he Arab, Egyptian, Palestinian? Why do you live in Egypt? Why not Israel? What do you know about the 'conflict' here? What do you think? They quizzed me on Judaism, which I know nothing about," she continued.
Sussman said that she then heard an announcement on the loudspeaker. "It was something along the lines of, 'Do not to be alarmed by gunshots because the Israeli security needs to blow up suspicious passenger luggage,'" she wrote on her blog.
Moments later a man came to her and introduced himself as the manager on duty. "I'm sorry but we had to blow up your laptop," Sussman said he told her.
"The security officers did not ask about my laptop prior to shooting it," Sussman told Daily News Egypt. "They used the word 'blew up' when they told me they destroyed my laptop. I don't know why they shot it."
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