TO ARIEL SHARON
TO YASSER ARAFAT
TO THE
ITALIAN EMBASSY IN TEL AVIV
TO THE
EMBASSY OF ISRAEL IN ROME
TO THE
PRESS
Italy, 27 December 2001.
The Israeli
police has blocked us in state of detention for four hours.
We are suspected of terrorism.
Decembers 23,
2001. Sunday.
Tel Aviv. Ben Gurion Airport.
What is happened?
This year I
decide to pass the Christmas in Palestine with Cheti.
I had to
acquire tickets for the last two seats available.
The
airliner of the Israeli company El-Al starts from Milan at 12.30 a.m.
The cost of
tickets is about six million Italian liras.
At 10 o’clock we are in Malpensa for check-in.
In the
hall, control of passports.
After ten
meters an other control.
We approach
the El-Al area check-in.
A woman of
the Israeli security blocks us.
We deliver
our passports and our tickets.
She begins
the questions.
She asks, «What are your names?»
We answer.
«Rodolfo Marusi Guareschi.»
«Cheti
Franceschi.»
She asks «What are your dates of birth?»
We say ours
birth dates.
She asks «What is your job?»
Cheti
answers «We manage companies.»
She asks «What sort of companies?»
I answer
«In many fields: industry, services, finance.»
She asks «Where are these companies?»
I answer
«In Italy and in others 178 countries.»
She asks «How many companies they are?»
I answer
«They are some thousands» and I give her some sheets of paper with the
directory of the companies and the relative activities.
She asks «What do these companies produce?»
I answer
«They operate in various sectors. Energy, electronics, computer science …
nearly all the economic fields ...»
She asks « Have you a business card?»
Cheti give
her a business card of Holos Holding, the company that has guaranteed the first
emission of Dhana, the currency of the Republic of the Earth.
I give her
the English business cards of Maguro Spa and Avatar Spa, of which I am
president, and one of the Republic of the Earth too.
She reads
that the registered stock of Avatar S.p.A. is 155 billions of euro underwrite
and deposited and asks «What does Avatar Spa do?»
I answer
«It is an holding of investments» and I show the original of the certificate of
registration to the Registry of the Enterprises translate in English with the
annotation of the Aja.
She asks «What does Maguro Spa do?»
I answer
«It is an other holding of investments.»
She asks «What is an holding of investments?»
I answer
«It is a company that has other companies. Maguro Spa has Italian companies.
Avatar Spa has companies in other countries.»
She asks «Do you travel together?»
We answer
«Yes.»
She asks «Why do you travel together?»
Cheti
answers «Because we go for the same reason.»
She asks «What is the relationship between of
you?»
Cheti
answers «We are members of the same profession.»
I add «We
live together.»
She asks «Are you colleagues or do you live
together?»
I answer
«We live and work together.»
She asks «How long time?»
Cheti
answers.
She asks « Have you only one baggage?»
We answer
«Yes.»
She asks «Why do you go in Israel?»
I answer
«To meet Sharon, Arafat and Yassin. To present a peace plan.»
She
exclaims «Sharon? Our first minister? Arafat? Did you meet these persons in the
past?»
Cheti
answers «No, only an exponent of the Palestinian National Authority.»
She asks «Who are waiting for you in Israel?»
Cheti
answers: «Nobody knows that we are going to go. For security reasons.»
She asks «I
understand. Have you never been in Israel?»
Cheti
answers «Last April» and indicates the visas on passports.
She sees
all the other visas, many of Muslims countries and asks «What did you do in
Bahrain, in Pakistan, in Egypt and in all these others countries?»
Cheti answers «To promote enterprises.»
I add «And
for the same reasons for which we do this journey.»
She asks «And what do you want to say to
Sharon?»
I answer
«I’d like to say that it should be the peace in Palestine. As I acted when I
wrote to him.»
She asks «What is the sense?»
I answer «I
believe that the causes of the wars are always of economic type. The ethnic and
the religion reasons are only a pretences. We have a proposal to resolve or at
least to face the economic causes of the war in Palestine.»
She asks «Do you think that they are valid?»
I answer
«The peace does not to be the result of a process but the beginning of a
process.»
She asks «Where will you stay?»
Cheti
answers «In Jerusalem» and says the name of the hotel.
She asks «Then where will you go?»
I answer
«From Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This evening or tomorrow morning, eve of
Christmas, we will ask to speak to Sharon. Tomorrow we will go also to Ramallah
and Gaza. After tomorrow, for Christmas, we don’t know. On 26 we will come back
from Tel Aviv to Milan.»
She asks
Who will you speak to?»
I answer
«We are going to go in Palestine to speak to the people who we said to you.»
She asks «Do you think that is possible?»
I answer «I
hope. We go for this reason. Your people and the Palestinian people
represent little more of one per
thousands of the inhabitants of the Earth. Nevertheless for fifty years you and
the Middle East, are one of the greatest problems of the world. We send letters
some days before.»
She asks « Have you a copy of these letters?»
I answer
«Yes, some» and I showed her the letters to Sharon and to Arafat.
She asks «Is someone waiting for you?»
We answer
(again) that nobody wait for us.
She asks «Who did the suitcase pack?»
We answer
«Together.»
She asks «Who does know that you are going to
Israel?»
We answer
«Only the family. No one. For security reasons.»
She asks
«Did someone ask you to carry something in baggage?»
We answer
«Not.»
She asks
«Have you other documents beyond the passports?»
We give her
the identity cards.
She asks «Have you credit cards?»
We give “the
corporate” of Carisma Spa.
She asks « Have you a business card of this
company?»
No. We do
not have. Carisma Spa doesn’t work with the foreign country and we do not have
more company’s cards in that moment.
She invites
us to go with her in a room for the control of the hand baggage and the
suitcase.
In the room
there are other persons of the security. Men and women.
They carefully control the content of the purse
of Cheti and mine.
We deliver
our mobile phones.
They tell
us to take off our coats, jackets and shoes.
I observe
«Well. Did you think to control long hair?»
A woman
answers «Sure.»
They search us carefully.
They ask us
to wait for.
An Italian
police inspector arrives.
He kindly
asks «Why did you chose to fly with El-Al instead of Alitalia?»
Cheti
answers «Because the trip is more short and the Israeli company should be the
safest.»
He asks why
we go in Israel.
We repeat
what we said to the woman.
He says
that there are problems but he will do all that he can to resolve them.
He asks if
we have judicial problems for relationships with Arabic countries.
We answer
not.
After half
hour the inspector returns with our passports and says that it’s all right.
An employee
of check-in arrives and with embarrassment she says that we can leave.
But without suitcase.
We ask the
reason. She says that she does not know it. She asks to the Israeli security.
They answer that they do not have time to control the suitcase. They say that
the baggage will arrive in Tel Aviv with the flight of the day after.
Cheti hesitates. Without suitcase she does not leave. I convince her and we decide to leave all the same. I ask for the documents that are in suitcase. They accept and I take the documents.
Cheti has
her mobile phone in the purse.
I ask for
mine and they answer that they do not have time to control the mobile
phone.Therefore they will arrive with the suitcase.
Cheti refuses
to leave without telephones. I insist on asking to the responsible of the
Israeli security. He says me that in a few minutes they will give us the mobile
phone. The employee of check-in goes to say that we will leave.
I point out
that they would control the mobile phone of Cheti also. They take it and thank
me. After some minutes an other person of Israeli security says us that they
made a mistake and they cannot give us our mobile phones.
It is
already 13.20 a.m. The airplane is waiting to leave for an hour. They urge us
to decide immediately if to leave without mobile phones or not.
Sadly, we accept to leave. They give us a
receipt for the suitcase that they hold. I ask the receipt also for the mobile
phone. They answer that they will give it.
Running
towards the gate of boarding with a Israeli security woman I think that we
could take the SIM CARDS at least. I say this to the woman.
She
telephones. She asks its head. He answers all right. One moment before the
takeoff our SIM CARDS arrive. There is not that of satellite phone but in
Israel it would not have to serve.
The problem
will be in Gaza. It is no matter. We leave.
We takeoff
at 13.40 a.m. We travel very well. We arrive at 17.50p.m.. Jet lag of Tel Aviv is get on of an hour. We are on time.
The trip went on approximately three hours instead of the four hours previewed.
We get off
a plane and we enter into the airport.
We are
without baggage.
First
control of passports. It is ok.
Second
control. It is ok.
We go to the lost and found office. We explain
that is happened and we show the receipt of suitcase. They give us two hundred
dollars for the inconvenience.
We are
leaving when two policemen stop to us.
They repeat
the questions.
We answer
always the same things.
They invite
us to go with their.
They put us
in two separate offices.
They asks
me for the copy of letter to Sharon. Who did inform they?
I give the
letter.
They read.
They call
their boss.
A
functionary arrives. He reads the letter and he is going to make a photocopy.
I say that
he is not legitimate to withhold document’s copies.
He gets exited and let fly at me saying that we are not in Italy and in Israel the police commands. He threatens to arrest me. I invite him to calm down and I say that he is making a mistake. He gets exited more. I say that the police can to see the documents but not to make photocopies. He answers that in Israel he can do all what he wants.
In the
meantime, in an other office, the same thing happens for Cheti. Before they say
that her passport is false, they control others documents (licence driver,
credit card..), they order her to sit down. After one of the two policemen who
had stopped us accompanies her in an other room full of female police.
One of the
policeman says that Cheti can be a terrorist and that she must not speak to
anybody.
While, in
the office in which I am, all the documents are turned over a writing desk.
They are written in English and Arab. The policemen read they.
They ask
«What relationships do you have with the Palestinian?»
I answer «I
love the Palestinian people, the Israel people and all the other people.»
They ask «What proposal do you want to do?»
I answer
«That immediately the State of Palestine on the territories under Palestinian
jurisdiction be declared with temporary capital in a city different to
Jerusalem. According to the resolution of the General Assembly of United
Nations of the 1947, Jerusalem should be an international capital. Jerusalem is
a pretext to prevent the peace. Arafat should think more his people than the
capital of his State. Jerusalem is a problem that Israeli and Palestinian can
not resolve. It is the capital of some religions. All the States of United
Nations must resolve the question.»
They look
at me as an enemy.
They ask me «And the Republic for the Earth?»
I answer
«Seeing that the states are not able to resolve or they do not want to face the
poverty, the hunger, the wars and many other problems, it need to form a
world-wide government starting directly by the people.»
They see a
facsimile of Dhana and they ask me «Dhana? Why Dhana?»
I answer
«The most important cause of all the problems of the humanity is the wrong
distribution of the wealth between the inhabitants of the planet. Dhana is the
instrument through which it possible to redistribute the wealth.»
They think
a moment.
Then about
Avatar they ask «But this company has a capital of 155 billions of euro.
Approximately 150 billions dollars. What is behind it?»
I answer
«There is the will to change. To really change. Only this.»
They say
«But here it is written that beyond the one hundred Dhanas that will are give
to inhabitant of the Earth, other Dhanas will be iussued. By who? It needs an
enormous capital …»
I answer
«Yes. It was previewed some iussues to cover the foreign debt of the poor
countries. For the FAO. For the Afghanistan. And for other humanitarian
initiatives. The capitals? We have convinced some people that in this way it is
impossible to go on. The capitals will be. Now there are 155 billions euros.
Within the three months 850 billions euros for a new issue will be …»
They read
letters to Bush and other heads of state and government.
They read a
open letter to Bin Laden and ask «Did you meet him?»
I answer
«We went two times for that but it was not possible. Perhaps it was an mistake
of Omar …»
They read
the economic plan for Gaza. They comment «These are only money for terrorists.»
They ask «And Yassin? Why do you want to meet
Yassin?»
I answer
«To say to him that with the suicide attacks the Palestinian people will not
never have a earth and a state. For to say to examine an other solution.»
They ask «But why do you do these things?»
I answer
«Because I believe in this. I live for this. I will be successful.»
A policeman
pick up all documents loose on the writing
desk and take them to make a photocopy.
I insist
«According to the international right what that you are doing to us is no
legitimate. There are no evidence of crimes on us. You can control us and see
our documents but you are not authorize for this treatment.»
The
policeman who had assaulted me comes back.
I ask «Do you want the peace?»
It answers
«As citizen I would like to answer you. But in this moment I am a policeman and
I cannot.»
One of the
two policemen who stopped us writes in Hebrew a report in two copies and he
asks me to sign them. I do not know the language and I do not know what is
written. He insists. I ask for having one copy. He says me yes. I sign.
They take
me in the room where is Cheti who is show out and seat down on a chair in the
corridor in front of. «Don’t talk to her» the policeman says pointing to Cheti.
In the room
there is a television. It transmits a news in Hebrew. I see Sharon with an
other people in a conference. I think to have seen one of those people but I
don’t remember where and when. I ask to a female policeman who is that person.
She says that he is the governor of the central bank of Israel.
The female
policeman to who he said that Cheti could be a terrorist reproaches her
colleague for speak to me.
Two hours
pass.
I ask for a
toilette. After fifteen minutes a policeman comes to accompany me. Before to
return in the room in front of the
place where Cheti is seated he repeats «Don’t talk to her.»
We are
isolated. I ask for telephoning. They deny. I ask for smoking. They allow.
The time
pass, then the policemen arrive. All together. They are depressed. They give to Cheti my bag
and the document package, and invite us to go with them. We enter in the hall
near the exit of the airport. With the low eyes they say us «You can go.»
Nothing
apologies.
They speak
Hebrew in a low voice.
We put bag and documents (all mixed) on a small
table.
Then we
control. There are all. We put them in my bag.
We ask for
our passports. They feign to be forgotten them. They give us them. The copy of
the report not.
We exit.
The security withdraw the “pass” of Cheti. They forget to withdraw mine.
It is 21.40
p.m.. We take a taxi.
At 22.30
p.m. we are at hotel in Jerusalem.
Our first
impressions ? It seems that in Israel who speaks about peace is mistake for a
terrorist.
However we have at our disposal two full days.
Monday 24
December. We buy a mobile phone.
With our
SIM it does not work. We buy one local SIM too.
Only three
languages can be selected: Hebrew, Russian and English.
We go to Ramallah.
In the
evening, while we are in Bethlehem our baggage arrives in hotel.
We find it
when we come back. The contents seems passed into a centrifugal machine.
Only the
mobile phones are intact.
In the Christmas morning we go to Gaza.
Wednesday
26 Decembers. At 5.50 a.m.. We are in the airport of Tel Aviv.
The
aircraft start at 7.40 a.m..
The usual
procedure. Passport, questions, answers.
Cheti is
searched, her purse, our baggage and my
coat too.
They employ
about two hours.
Five minutes
before leaving the security people say us that they are not able to control my
satellite phone. They say that they will be able to send it in two days.
We insist
but it is all no good. We board on airplane.
We leave. I
and Cheti look at themselves. They completely omitted to search me.
No comment.
Rodolfo Marusi Guareschi