When I Tried To Enter The West Bank Today, Here’s What Happened

Good day everybody. It's uh October

21st, 2025. Demetri Lasceris for Reason

to Resist coming to you from occupied

Palestine. Uh I'm actually just leaving

occupied Palestine and going back into

Jordan from whence I came.

uh flew into Aman yesterday and um

uh in part to spend a few days in Aman,

but also uh wanting to spend uh as much

time as I could

uh in the uh in the occupied West Bank,

including Jerusalem.

And um I arrived here uh at the Alam

Bridge at uh 11:00 a.m. this morning.

And uh after about an hour uh going

through a baggage checkpoint

uh I applied for a tourist visa and they

kept me waiting for

3 to 4 hours even though the place was

empty.

>> Yes.

>> English.

>> Sorry.

>> English or

>> Yes, English. I'm from Canada.

>> Canada. Okay. Yeah. What's the problem?

>> What's the problem?

>> They said they didn't finish my

application.

Okay.

Okay. Say have a good day.

>> Thank you. Thank you.

>> That was a Jordanian border official

asking me why I am uh

coming back. So anyways, uh during those

3 to four hours, I was interrogated uh

not in a violent or threatening way, but

it was persistent questioning for a good

20 minutes by two individuals, one of

whom spoke with an impeccable American

accent. Uh the other of whom spoke with

a thick Israeli accent. The American did

all the questioning and uh at various

points during the questioning, they

spoke to each other Hebrew. Uh, and they

wanted to know, uh, you know, um, if I'd

been to Israel before, why I was here,

why I was coming alone, why I was coming

in a time of war. At one point, uh, you

know, I I responded to that question by

saying, "Well, things apparently have

calmed down." And and the person who was

questioning said, "Well, no, uh, Hamas

broke the ceasefire,

uh, and so things are flaring up again."

I had to, you know, bite my tongue and

not say anything because it's crystal

clear that it is Israel that's been

crapping all over this uh ceasefire

agreement. Uh in any case, uh then he

started asking me uh for proof that I

was um a lawyer

and I uh pulled out a business card

which said I'm a lawyer and a

journalist. He saw the word journalist.

He became very curious. He started

asking me what kind of journalism do you

do? Uh I said I write about the law. Uh

and uh he then asked me have you written

anything about Palestine? Well he didn't

say Palestine. He said uh

>> hi how you doing?

>> I don't speak uh Arabic.

>> Okay.

>> Thank you.

>> Yes. It's my bag. Yes. Yes.

>> Cool.

>> Two. Yes.

Um, where was I?

Uh, so yes, he asked me if I have

written anything about Palestinians.

That's what he asked me. And uh, not

wanting to lie, I said yes. He said,

"What have you written?" And, uh, I

said, "Well, I wrote, for example, that

uh, Canada should recognize the state of

Palto." So then he asked me uh if I'd

show him the article and I said, "Oh,

you know, it's something I wrote a long

time ago. I I don't even know where to

look." Uh at that point, he didn't ask

me any questions, any further question

about whether I'd written about

Palestinians.

Um

uh and he uh he eventually, you know, uh

asked me all he wanted to ask me. He

walked away along with his colleague. uh

they disappeared for an hour and then uh

you know then I was approached by

somebody else customs official or an

immigration official who said to me

here's your passport uh we're closing

down uh they weren't able to process

your application for a tourist visa

before our office is closed today if you

want you can come back tomorrow at 8

8:00 a.m. and they will complete the

process, but I can assure you that

you'll get a tourist visa. Uh and um

it may take up to four hours for them to

decide.

Uh so I don't know whether I'm going to

come back, but I'm going to I probably

will. I'll probably give it another

shot. But uh this whole thing is frankly

preposterous because you know this is uh

the Alami Bridge

uh you know the border crossing Alen

Bridge between Jordan and uh

uh occupied Palestine uh goes into the

West Bank which is Palestinian

territory. it's occupied Palestinian

territory. And the International Court

of Justice ruled last year that Israel's

occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza

Strip is illegal and must end as quickly

as humanly possible. And um

really they have no right whatsoever,

moral or legal, the Israelis, to be

controlling the border

uh of the occupied West Bank. Uh the

border between Jordan and the West Bank.

And uh it's preposterous that they, you

know, are obstructing people like me, a

supporter of the Palestinian people,

from coming in and, you know, providing

whatever support I can to our brothers

and sisters at this time of Israeli

genocide. Um, you know, for whatever

because because

they don't feel comfortable with my

presence or whatever damn reason they

had for not issuing me the uh the

tourist visa. Anyways,

um I will definitely keep you posted

about what I do next. Uh hopefully uh I

will be able to gain entry into uh

Palestine uh tomorrow when I probably

will make another attempt.

>> Good morning. Uh Dimmitri here again. It

is uh October 22nd. Uh it's about 8:30

a.m. here in Jordan. Uh I'm again with

my trusted taxi driver, Amed. Uh and we

are now a few kilometers away from uh

the Alami Bridge. Yesterday when I

attempted to enter uh occupied

Palestine, I was uh I stupidly uh

departed Aman at about 11 in the morning

and uh by the time I went through

Jordanian customs and actually got to

the uh Israeli uh border facility on the

other side of the LMB bridge, it was uh

probably 12:30 p.m. So uh and the the

whole thing appears to close down at

around 5:00 p.m. So, I got up earlier

this morning and uh I expect to be at

the uh Israeli border facility uh once I

get through Jordanian customs at around

uh I don't know 9:30 or so. So,

hopefully this was all just a question

of insufficient timing yesterday and

I'll be uh permitted to enter. Uh but uh

whatever happens, I'll uh I'll let you

know. Signing off for now.

Heat.

Heat.

Well, it's now uh about uh 2:30 p.m.

local time. I am uh at the um uh border

inspection facility established by the

genocidal Israeli entity on the

Palestinian side of the Alenbe bridge or

as the Jordanians and Palestinians refer

to it the King Hussein bridge. Uh so

from Israel's perspective I suppose I'm

on the territory of Israel. Uh but uh

from the perspective of international

law, uh this is uh occupied Palestinian

territory. It's the occupied West Bank

to be precise. Um and I'm sitting on

this bus because I've just been advised

by an immigration official uh that my

application for entry uh into a

jurisdiction as a tourist has been

denied.

And um I managed to record uh the part

of the conversation in which he uh

explained the basis of the denial and

here's what he had to say.

>> I just want to ask ahead.

>> So just to be clear, the security told

you that uh because I'm I go against

Israel wherever I go that that's why

they're not letting me into the country.

>> They you know recommend not to let you

in. that you know your position and your

uh uh ideas about Israel. So you're

coming to visit Israel

>> like I see like there is

>> something is not

>> well yes I'm very critical of Israel but

I'm not but I I've come here many times

and I I respect the laws.

>> You did care many times. Exactly. But

now they're very strict after what

happened here in Israel.

>> Right.

>> I don't know what you think about it. I

think about it something different. So

>> I understand but yeah but uh you know

it's just an opinion right

>> if it's a democracy we should be allowed

to have

>> I know but it's it's an opinion but you

know

>> your position in Canada and what you do

against and you you know I don't want to

go through it you know exactly what

>> I understand but I just want to make

sure I understand what the reasoning is

for my my

>> the reason is your activities outside

against Israel that's all

>> right so

you have luggage

>> yes So just uh you know to elaborate

upon what I told him I said I'd been

here many times. Uh the first time I

actually came here was um 40 years ago

almost to the day uh when I was an

undergraduate student traveling alone.

Uh, and at that time I actually was uh

moderately pro-Israel, not because my

family had any particular Zionist

leanings, but just because I was uh, you

know, taken in by the relentless

pro-Israel propaganda in Canada where I

grew up. And um it's interesting because

even though at the time I was uh you

know modestly pro-Israel certainly not

critical of the country in any way uh I

had uh a similar experience to the one I

had today when I tried to enter on that

occasion I came uh on a flight from

Ladaka to Bengurian airport. Um so uh I

was 21 years old at the time as I say I

was traveling by myself. I'd never been

uh to Palestine before. And um when our

plane uh came to a stop on the uh the

tarmac at Bengurian airport,

uh we were uh instructed to exit the

plane uh down a stairway onto the

tarmac. They took the uh our luggage out

of the cargo bay of the aircraft, put it

on the tarmac, and then we were

instructed to claim our luggage. And uh

as I was claiming my knapsack, it was

everything that I was carrying with me,

a large knapsack. Um a security official

walked up to me and told me to follow

him with my knapsack. He then walked

over to a uh small truck that was parked

near the aircraft. Uh he opened up the

back door and I looked inside and all

that was inside was a round table and

two chairs bolted to the floor and uh a

light bulb overhead. and uh he told me

to sit down, closed the doors to the

truck, sat across from me, and proceeded

to interrogate me about why I had come

uh to what he referred to as Israel. Uh

and he repeatedly asked me if I was

Arabic. He was uh very suspicious about

the fact that I was a young man

traveling alone. Uh uh clearly he

thought that I was uh up to no good. And

uh my appearance didn't help. I could

easily have passed for uh somebody of

Arabic origin. Um and then after uh

about 30 minutes of persistent

questioning, I I just I just broke out

laughing and he got very upset with me,

demanded to know why I was laughing. And

I told him the truth. The reason I was

laughing is because if my uh you know

friends and family back home knew that I

was being interrogated in this way, they

would have found it ridiculous because I

had a positive opinion of Israel and

there was no reason for him to be

treating me this way. Uh he didn't seem

particularly happy with that uh

explanation. And then he took me to the

back of an airport to a secondary

inspection area where uh some uh female

uh Israeli soldiers poured through my

knapsack. Uh and I remember at one point

it was uh kind of humorous. I had

stuffed some clothing that desperately

needed to be washed into some side

pockets uh socks and things like that.

And when they took them out, these

female soldiers, they were uh overcome

by the uh unpleasant odor, shall we say.

Anyways, they inevitably ultimately not

inevitably uh allowed me to enter the

country in that at that point in time.

Uh I saw things on that trip that uh uh

began to change my attitude towards

Israel. I saw uh two things actually

stood out for me. One was the

humiliating way in which uh the Israeli

military treated uh the Palestinians uh

in East Jerusalem where I stayed in a

youth hostel and the other was how

hospitable and kind uh the Palestinians

were towards me. Uh but at that point I

certainly wasn't uh in any way, shape or

form committed to the Palestinian cause.

That that was a longer evolution. Uh the

last time I entered uh Palestine was in

March of last year during Ramadan. Uh

and uh reported extensively on it. Uh

from there I must say uh you know uh

this uh it it pains me and it's

saddened. I'm saddened by the fact that

I uh can't enter and uh be with our

brothers and sisters of Palestine at

this particular

uh terrible time in their history. Uh

but uh at the same time I

feel extremely confident that I will be

able to return here one day. Uh at that

point in time uh when I do come back the

Palestinian people will have achieved uh

their liberation.

And um I really truly believe that in my

heart. So, um, in the interim, I thought

perhaps I'd share with you some of the,

uh, things that I experienced and

observed while I was sitting in there

today. I was in there for a good, uh, 3

hours. Uh, and and first of all, uh, I

should comment that the the level of

security here is insane. Uh, and when I

say here, I mean at this uh, this border

inspection facility. Um so the process

to get where I am now was as follows.

First of all uh on the Jordanian side of

the King Hussein or Alan B bridge there

is a Jordanian uh border inspection

facility. Uh only certain people can go

in there. Uh people of certain

nationalities I should say. Uh Canadians

being one of them. And so I um I passed

through a checkpoint. Uh went in there.

Then they direct you to put your baggage

through a metal detector and then you

have to see an immigration official who

inspects your passport. Then you have to

pay a departure tax. Then they take your

passport and you sit down and you wait

for a shuttle uh to take you to the

other side. It has to be an approved

shuttle, one approved by the Israelis.

So you sit there for 45 minutes, an

hour. Eventually somebody uh holding

your passport comes up to you, tells you

to follow them. You get on the shuttle

and uh you start uh you go down the road

towards uh the Israeli side of the uh

King Hussein bridge. Uh and the first

thing you come across as you're

approaching the bridge is another uh

Jordanian uh military outpost. Uh there

you have your passports inspected again.

Uh then uh you cross the bridge and uh

at that point you will come to a

succession of four I repeat four

separate checkpoints. Uh and in each one

there is um a stop light and um a

barrier that has to be lifted uh in

order for you for the but for the

shuttle to to be able to proceed. Uh and

at each point the vehicle is inspected.

At the last point uh or the second last

of the four points, the checkpoints

uh there are uh security guards or they

actually were in civilian clothing but

they had machine guns and one of them

took a device and checked underneath the

shuttle to ensure that there was no

bomb.

Um so you know then after you clear uh

these four checkpoints which uh take

some time uh up to an hour uh then you

arrive at the border inspection

facility. You have to check in your

bags. Uh they inspect your passport. You

put your bags through a metal detector.

You don't see them again until you've

actually been fully processed.

Then you go inside the facility. uh you

put your uh any things you have in your

pocket through a metal detector, your

passport is inspected. Then after that,

you go to see an immigration officer,

another uh booth. And um at that point,

uh I was told, just as happened

yesterday, uh to sit down after, uh the

u the immigration official ran my

passport through uh the computer. There

must have been some notation in there

about me having to go undergo a

secondary inspection. And uh so I sat

down a few uh meters away from the uh

the boo booth where my passport had been

inspected. Uh and um and I had a good

bit of time at that stage, 3 hours to

sort of observe what was going on around

me. Uh and before I tell you about that,

I just want to comment on the levels of

security here. you know, Jordan is uh

formerly at peace with Israel. And um

not only is it at peace with Israel, but

the uh leader of Jordan, this autocrat

uh Hussein is as abject a vassel of

Washington as one could possibly

imagine. On that basis alone, his regime

and its military forces cannot

reasonably be regarded as a threat to

Israel. But on top of that, um Israel is

so heavily armed by uh the United States

and other states and protected by the

United States and other western states

um that if by any chance the leader of

Jordan was minded to engage in any kind

of military aggression against Israel,

uh the Jordanian military would be

annihilated. Uh so there's really no uh

security threat at all coming from uh

the Jordanian side of the border. Uh now

there are certainly many uh people

within Jordan uh who don't share uh

their autocrats uh affection for the

genocidal entity and who are seething

with anger at what has been done to the

Palestinian people. And in fact uh

recently right here at this facility um

I think it was about a couple of months

ago or Jordanian truck driver uh shot

dead uh two Israeli uh soldiers as they

call them. I prefer to call them uh

Israeli terrorists. Uh and so there is a

threat coming from uh ordinary uh

citizens and residents of Jordan who are

justifiably outraged by what Israel is

doing not only to Palestinians but to

other Arabs of the region. But that's

purely a consequence of Israel's own

insanely uh uh aggressive and barbaric

behavior towards the indigenous peoples

of the region. uh at a statewide level,

at a state level, Jordan is no

significant threat to Israel. And so why

do I say all of this? Because, you know,

we're told that uh the uh the genocidal

entity is supposed to be a sanctuary for

the Jewish people. Well, if they require

this level of security,

this paranoid, extraordinary level of

security at a border inspection facility

uh right next to Jordan, uh how can

anybody say with a straight face that

this place is a sanctuary uh for the

Jewish people? Clearly, it is a place

where uh there are very significant

threats uh to the Jewish inhabitants of

Israel. And it's not because they're

Jewish. It's because uh the state in

which they live is a genocidal monster.

Uh in any case uh as I was uh sitting

that facility I think at least on four

occasions just today and uh two or three

times yesterday when I was here waiting

for hours for nothing. Uh I was asked by

some uh you know uh customs official or

border official I was Palestinian

and um they were they were clearly very

uh interested in determining whether uh

you know people seeking entry into the

genocidal entity were Palestinians.

That's not surprising at all. I mean,

you know, we can we can all see clearly

to what degree uh the vast majority of

Israeli Jews hate Palestinians and

discriminate against them. But what I

found interesting about this was, you

know, we're constantly told by these uh

nutbar Zionists in Western countries

that there's no such thing as a

Palestinian.

Palestine is a fiction and Palestinians

don't exist. They pref they prefer to

refer to Palestinians simply as Arabs.

Um, and yet I found yet again and again

as I was uh in this facility that uh

representatives of the Israeli

government, civil servants and soldiers

uh use the word Palestinian. So that

just doesn't seem particularly

consistent with this claim uh of you

know the fanatical Zionists in the West

that uh Palestinians don't exist. Um,

another interesting experience I had was

uh as I was sitting there waiting to uh

uh undergo a secondary inspection,

um, a a female soldier uh, uniform

soldier walked up to me and uh, she said

a name. I thought she said uh, my name,

but it wasn't clear. But she was clearly

talking to me. She was looking at me

right in the eyes. And uh, she said

follow me. And I uh, got up. She walked

about 10 m further where nobody else

could hear us because there were other

people sitting where I was sitting. She

obviously didn't want them to hear what

she was going to tell me. And she said

uh she looks at me and with a with a

kind of authoritative

almost uh patronizing tone and she

couldn't have been, you know, more than

23 years old. So she's much younger than

me. And she says to me, "So you were

born in Gaza?" And I said, "No, I was

born in Canada." She goes, "No, no, you

were born in Gaza." And I said, "No, I'm

actually a Canadian citizen. Uh, and my

ethnicity is Greek." And she uh she

says, "Are you sure?" And I said, "Yeah,

I'm sure." So, she then uh pulls out of

her pocket a passport. It was a US

passport. And she opens it up and she's

looking at it. She's looking at me. And

there was a photograph of somebody who

vaguely resembled me, but you know, he

he was bald like me, but otherwise, and

he was thinner than me, really didn't

look like me at all, I thought. But, uh,

she clearly had confused me for this

person. Uh, and she quizzed me some more

to make sure that I was telling the

truth. And then she walked away and she

went into some booth with a glass

window. I could see inside and she was

showing them the passport and they were

all looking at me. And finally she

realized that I was not the person uh

that she was uh uh looking for. I don't

know where that person was, but uh what

struck me was how just her tone she was

looking she was talking to somebody she

thought was from Gaza and it was quite

obvious from her whole demeanor that she

didn't feel the slightest bit of

sadness concern responsibility

sympathy, empathy for the people of

Gaza.

All I needed was a few seconds of

interaction with this young uh female

soldier uh to come away with that uh

that strong impression. Uh the other

thing that I saw

was that uh as I was sitting there uh

you know waiting uh for my secondary

inspection, a Palestinian man who was

seated next to me uh was called uh over

to that booth where the female soldier

went into. As I said, there was a big

glass uh window uh between the people

inside the booth and the people who were

approaching the booth. And so he goes

over and she slips underneath uh the uh

window, his passport, and he takes it

away. And as he's walking away, she

pulls out a little bottle and starts

spraying the air in the room behind on

the other side of the glass. uh

immediately after he took the passport.

Uh now, I don't know, it looked like a

bottle of perfume or some scented water

or something. Maybe it was just a

coincidence she did that immediately

after handing this Palestinian man his

passport. But given the levels of racism

in this country,

I suspect that she did that because um

she was uh you know, she felt

revulsion at having to interact with a

Palestinian. That was just my sense. Um,

and the last thing I want to uh share

with you, observation I have about uh

this place is that I've read that this

is a very important entry point uh for

humanitarian aid trucks from Jordan uh

which go on from here to Gaza. Uh well,

I could tell you I saw, you know, I've

been I was on that road for quite some

time, you know, at various checkpoints

coming in to this facility from the

Jordanian side. And I saw almost nothing

that looked to me like a truck carrying

humanitarian aid. Almost nothing. Uh and

I see none here uh parked in this large

facility. Uh in any case,

uh again, I'm I'm quite saddened not to

be able to go into Palestine at this

time, but I am going to continue to

report uh as best I can uh from uh the

Jordanian side uh on uh the nefarious

activities of Western militaries here uh

and uh may even uh have an opportunity

to speak to some local activists about

their uh opposition to their

government's support, the Jordanian

government support for the genocidal

Israeli entity. Uh, for now, I'm signing

off uh from Palestine on October 22nd,

2025.