i was stopped or talked to by security on 4 separate occasions. i think at least 3 of these, and possibly all 4 incidents were solely because i am brown.

1) coming off the plane, i was stopped by one in a wall of israeli security personnel. this is partially because i had fallen behind my coworkers and thus looked like i was just rushing through alone, but mostly because i look the way i do.

2) at the security checkpoint where you enter the country (display passport, etc) (is this called immigration?) we were put in the 'crew-only' line, because of some VIP service my boss had signed up for. my coworkers had no issues here, but i was asked for my father's name and where my family was from originally. after a few minutes on the phone in which presumably my information was verified, the security guy told me i was all set.

3) going to the mall, the security guard decided at the last second to give me a quick pass over with a hand-held metal detector.

4) i was told by mall security to not take pictures indoors. i guess taking pictures while sitting by myself of random signs is kind of a bad move.

so, basically, if this keeps up i'm not going to be happy this week. if it doesn't, i might start enjoying myself. we'll see - i'm not hopeful.