(JNS) There is a moment every Israeli traveler knows. You are standing in a European airport—at the check-in counter, passport control or in the security line—and you reach into your bag. The small navy-blue booklet comes out, its cover bearing a menorah flanked by two olive branches, with the words “State of Israel” printed in English and Hebrew, and something in the air changes.
A glance. A pause that lasts half a second too long. An expression that requires no translation. You have not said a word. You have done nothing except exist with the wrong document in your hand.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, and through the cascade of war that followed, traveling through Europe with an Israeli passport has become an exercise in performed invisibility. You tuck the document face down. You slide it under your palm on the counter. You are now an expert at the swift, low transfer from pocket to official hand and back, minimizing the risk that anyone nearby might read the words on its cover.
Dimitry Kochenov, the “Passport Professor,” whose 2019 MIT Press...
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