There’s a well known Yiddish saying “It’s hard to be a Jew”. These days it’s maybe not great being Israeli either, what with academic boycotts and the like in the air. Here’s our story:
We are Israelis, living in Israel. Six of our group of seven on this cruise have double nationality (German or British). Lilly does too but she neglected to renew her European passport in time for the cruise. Our cruise includes two stops in Morocco which gives free entry to Europeans but requires visas for Israelis. Since there is no Moroccan embassy in Israel the procedure is that a visa waits at the (air)port of entry. It is unusual for Israelis to come by ship so this procedure is not known to the cruise lines (at least not to Costa). They have a simple rule that Israelis are not allowed to leave the ship while in Morocco.
When we registered for the cruise we put down our Israeli home addresses and this resulted in us being told by the Costa immigration officer on board that none of us (including the European passport holders) would be allowed to disembark in Morocco. It required considerable explanation to sort this out and we were left with the case of Lilly for whom a visa was supposed to be waiting in Casablanca port. Unfortunately the visa logistics didn’t work and Lilly had to stay on board ship while the rest of us went on excursions.
It felt very uncomfortable to be considered like lepers. We don’t think that being Israeli is a crime.
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