Heightened Security in Haifa

After a day at sea, we visited the Israeli Port of Haifa. The night before our arrival, we received notice in our cabin that one of the excursions had been cancelled because of security concerns. Now, we’ve been to Israel twice before, so additional security requirements were not surprising to us, but to cancel an excursion altogether… well, that made us wonder what was going on. We opted not to take one of the ship’s excursions because we had already been everywhere they were going. Instead, we planned on getting off the ship & finding a taxi to take us to Caesarea Maritima about 45 minutes away.

Caesarea Maritima was King Herod’s summer palace & would have been considered the “Mediterranean Riviera” in its day. This is also the location where Paul would have testified before Festus & Felix as recorded in Acts 25. It is from this location that Paul would be sent to Rome to stand trial.

Haifa is the only port on our trip that required a passport check prior to getting off the ship. The Israeli immigration control officers inspected our passports prior to us even getting off the ship. Then, once off the ship, we had to pass through a second passport control check-point. After clearing customs, we had to walk over a long bridge to exit the port passing by several armed soldiers & police officers along the way. Once we exited the port area, we began seeking out a taxi. There were only 5 or 6 taxis outside the port, which is odd because of the number of passengers disembarking at Haifa. None of them wanted to take us to a specific location, they only wanted us to charter them for 2 to 4 hours for an exorbitant fee. We decided just to make the 20-minute walk to the Bahai Hanging Garden. They are massive and extraordinary. On our way back to the ship, it was really very odd, we didn’t see cruise ship passengers or staff wondering around the town & we didn’t pass any souvenir shops. As we approached the street adjacent to the port, again no souvenir shops or vendors selling their wares. It was almost as if they really didn’t want you to get off the ship.

Once back on port property, there were no signs directing us which way to go & no cruise staff there to guide us. We almost got on the wrong boat… no really, we got in line for the wrong boat. Also missing were the crew on the dock painting the hull or performing other routine maintenance tasks. We discovered that no staff got off the ship except those leading excursions. All of this again made us wonder, “What the heck is going on to create such a heightened security environment?” We were reminded of our last trip to Israel where a soldier at customs asked us a bunch of questions & then remarked, “We profile here. When all of your neighbors want to wipe you off the face of the earth, you take no chances.” The whole experience was a bit surreal.