Not a hammer, but some nails

A recent news story that may have escaped your notice involves not so much a clash of cultures as a cultural disconnect.  In fact, if not for the fact that the fate/liberty of a young Israeli backpacker named Noa Haviv hangs in the balance, this would actually be a funny story.

Allow me to bring you up to speed.

As is quite popular with the post-army set here in Israel, a young woman recently decided to spend some time between her national service and the rest of her life, backpacking around India. 

Ho hum, this couldn't possibly be of less interest.  Except for the small wrinkle.  You see, upon landing in India she was promptly arrested... and if convicted, faces a very lengthy spell in an Indian hoosegow.

It seems that before her trip this young woman asked her brother if she could borrow his backpack/duffel for her trip.  He said, "No problem" and Noa proceeded to pack the usual collection of stuff one needs for an extended trip abroad.  What she didn't count upon was a little something her brother had accidentally left in one of the inside pockets of the bag.

I know... you're probably thinking 'drugs', right?  Guess again.

I have to stop here for a moment and explain a bit about the cultural disconnect that led to this young woman's unfortunate detention.

Israel is a country where it is truly a rare family that doesn't have someone serving on active duty in the army or on the reserve rolls.  Add to that the fact that many (although certainly not most) Israelis keep or have access to firearms for personal protection or security-related work, and you have a rather odd phenomenon of bullets being scattered throughout homes, cars and personal belongings.

Before the uninitiated reader gets the idea that we Israelis live in a 'wild west' environment, let me assure you that gun control here is much stricter than most places in the world.  For instance, during army service it is literally pounded into every soldier that they will spend serious time in jail if they ever let their personal weapon out of their sight or have it stolen due to not properly securing it.  Likewise, anyone with a pistol has it drilled into them each time they renew their licenses that whenever their personal weapons are not physically on their person they must be 'double locked'... meaning secured behind not one, but two layers of locks (e.g. in a locked safe inside a locked room/house), otherwise if it is stolen you are going to jail, full-stop.

Just as an example... one of my regular hitchhikers was actually kicked out of officer's school a couple of weeks before graduation because he left his M-16 unattended for 30 seconds in a classroom while he stepped into the hallway to get a drink of water.

Another aspect of the stringency of Israeli gun control is that a license is related directly to a single  weapon by the serial number.  Unlike in the U.S. where a gun license would allow a citizen to purchase a small arsenal of 'personal weapons', here you are licensed for a specific weapon and are only allowed to possess the single gun for which you are registered.

My point is that even though guns are an ubiquitous part of the Israeli landscape, they are extremely well controlled.

However, bullets are another story. 

Like nearly all army equipment, people tend to hoard bullets out of all proportion to their actual need.  A typical home with an active duty soldier or reservist probably contains lots of extra 'kit' including uniforms, equipment vests (with the straps adjusted just so), helmet liners, and 101 other essential items that the army issues... but which seem to invariably go astray the moment you really need them.

In households where someone has access to, or need of, a gun (even for infrequent reserve duty), it is not at all uncommon to find boxes of bullets in the back of desk drawers, on closet shelves and in the trunk of cars.  Likewise, 'extra' magazines... especially the temperamental ones used in the M-16... are often squirreled away for the inevitable event that one becomes damaged or lost. 

Zahava can testify to the fact that I have extra M-16 magazines sitting on the ledge under the coat rack, on top of my dresser and in the closet.   And I also have extra magazines for my pistol in the storage slot of the car door as well as in several coat pockets. 

The idea behind the relative laxity regarding bullets is that they can't really cause much harm without a gun.  Quite simply, they figure that nails aren't much use without a hammer.

So this brings us back to our backpacker, Noa.

When she was packing up her bag to leave for India, she failed to notice that one of her brother's pistol magazines containing sixteen bullets (picture something about the size of a large candy bar or a cell phone) was stuffed deep inside an inner pocket of the duffel. 

She arrived at the airport and answered the security questions truthfully that she had packed her own bag... and that since then it had not been out of her possession.  This was good enough for El Al security and they cleared the bag for the flight.

However, upon arrival the pack was X-Rayed by the Indian authorities and the unmistakable image of a full magazine of sixteen bullets led to the young woman being immediately arrested.

There have been some incorrect reports in the international media that the woman was also in possession of a pistol.  I can assure you, after indirect contact with the family, that this is completely untrue and is not among the charges pending against her.  However in India, there seems to be little differentiation between bullets and guns... with both considered serious contraband carrying nearly equally stiff penalties.

Simply put, in India the penalty for posession of nails is a stiff as for hammers.

Needless to say, the family of this young woman is beyond distraught over the idea that instead of having a brief vacation followed by university... their daughter might be spending the next few years (at very least!) in an Indian prison.  And unfortunately, a previous case where a stiff jail sentence was handed down to another backpacker who was found in possession of a single bullet offers little in the way of hope.

I am telling you this story today in hopes that readers will take a few minutes from their busy day to communicate their concerns to the nearest Indian diplomatic mission.  It doesn't matter if it is an email, fax, phone call or snail-mail letter.  What is important is the content:

1.  Make sure to be respectful and non-confrontational.

2.  Express deep respect for the Indian judicial system as well as for the rule of law.

3.  Explain in a straightforward manner how, while Indian laws were certainly broken, it was never the intention of this young woman to do so.

4.  Mention the strong ties between Israel and India and the large number of young Israeli tourists who visit India every year.

5.  Point out that the young woman was not in possession of a firearm and in fact knows nobody in India who has one (which supports her claim that possession was completely unintentional).

5.  Bring up your opinion of how Israel's unique security situation (mandatory conscription/reserve duty, etc.) likely led to the oversight of the full magazine being forgotten in a backpack/duffel that had been used by an active-duty soldier prior to the young woman's trip.

6.  DO NOT say or write anything that would imply (even obliquely) that India's laws and/or judicial system are not equipped to justly deal with this issue.  On the contrary, you should go out of your way to point out India's long history of sophisticated jurisprudence and rule of law.

We can debate gun control.  We can argue over respecting the laws of sovereign nations and where responsibility falls in this particular case.  But the bottom line is that a young life is about to be senselessly derailed... and possibly ruined... over a truly innocent oversight.  There is nothing to indicate that anything we say will help, but it is certain that our silence can only hurt.