Crossing the checkpoint was very easy. I just took an Israeli Egged bus to the settlement, visited the Cave of the Patriarchs, and walked to the checkpoint.
The Israeli guard didn't mind, just glanced at my passport and visa slip. A Palestinian hostel owner who happened to be on the street asked where I was staying. I told him I was going to stay with my friend Mo, who is a CouchSurfing host with hundreds of references, extremely hospitable, and truly legendary. You must visit him. That hostel owner said he knows Mo, and told me it's the right way!
I wasn't sure about how to take a bus and didn't want to pay for a taxi, so I walked for 45 minutes to Mo's place next to the university. During that time, people struck up conversations 3 times. That's more outgoing than the previous 3 days in Israel! People were happy to see a tourist there.
Water shortage is an issue. I was told that the Palestinian authorities can't improve the water supply because it's controlled by Israel. Palestinians pay double taxes, to both governments. Israeli shekels are used. It's peaceful, although the streets look like images from the news of bombed-out areas in Syria after 10 years of peace to rebuild and start businesses. What is more comfortable to you, riches with inequality or people living in equal poverty?
Israel, on the other hand, is rich and clean, with a good bus network (except on Fridays). People are more wary of strangers, though. I hadn't made an opinion of the political situation until my visit.
Re-entering Israel was easy, on a bus from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Some military came on board and looked at the passports and visa slips, but didn't cross-check anything online.
On the way out at Ben Gurion airport, they didn't ask where I'd travelled on that trip. Instead, they noticed I'd been to Malaysia several years ago, and asked me many questions about that (Malaysia is a Muslim country). I had no problems with the Taiwan passport sticker [1]. They gave me another passport sticker [2] with a barcode beginning with "5", meaning I'm low-risk. They didn't check electronics. Most likely, you won't have a problem. If you're from a "Muslim country" then perhaps you can visit through the border with Jordan instead, just to avoid Israel. But Israel's quite nice to visit too (the sunset over the ocean from Haifa is beautiful).
> I travelled to Hebron and Bethlehem last month. Crossing the checkpoint was very easy
What's your ethnicity, what passport are you traveling on, and what's your family's religion (not your own personal religious beliefs, but your background)? Based on your username, I'm willing to bet that your situation isn't particularly applicable to the concerns OP expressed.
Israeli security is no joke, and they perform a degree of profiling that is explicitly illegal in the US (and some European countries, though to a lesser degree). There's some recent pushback against this and a few recent victories in Israeli courts for Muslims and non-Muslim Arabs, but the degree of profiling that occurs legally within Israel is still way further than what most other countries practice.
People who are from the US and Europe - particularly if they're white and especially if they're Jewish - generally have a good impression of Israeli security because they're rarely subjected to the most intrusive parts. People who are Muslim - especially if they're dark-skinned or Arab-looking - tend to have much worse experiences.
I know this will get downvoted because it's not the experience that most HN readers will have, but it is the experience that slim expects that they'll have, as evidenced by the very question they asked.
I almost missed flights from and to Israel twice because of their security. In one case, I took the wrong train and arrived at the airport under an hour from my flight, so they did extra screening and I barely made it. In the other, as I was boarding my flight, they refused to let me on (saying I should have known to come to security early - I was three hours early) until I went through two rounds of brief interrogation and they brought my carry on bag through security again, and broke the main zipper, and refused to pay for it. In another instance, my flight was delayed on the tarmac until several passengers (who had been sitting quietly) were forceably removed.
I'm white and Jewish and get hassled by security going in and out of Israel, every single time. Seriously. American passport and multiple trips in and out of the country.
All I can say is that the initial screening is done mostly by young women who are following very closely to some training they have and looking for how you react to questions. Most are secular and think religious Jews are only ultra-orthodox (because that's what they see day in and day out), so when I try to patiently explain that yes, I'm religious, no, I'm not orthodox, yes, I learned my Hebrew in Jerusalem at the municipal ulpan (intensive course for new immigrants), but no, I didn't take a package from anyone and packed my bags all by myself ... off to secondary screening.
It's frustrating, but you just can't take it personally. They're just playing the odds as they see them and going by the percentages.
Ben Gurion is a great airport once you get past security.
secular doesn't mean security checks shouldn't take ethnicity or religion into account.
i've travelled to israel twice and had complete screening twice simply because i was travelling alone and without a big luggage. And honestly i'm glad they did spend that time on me and not of the muslim family with 4 children that was travelling in the same flight. And since they saw i completely understood their concerns i ended up sympatizing with the person interrogating me, both times.
the thing people in western countries don't seem to understand ( although that varies depending on the number of terrorists attack that took place on their soils) is that security is vital to israelis. They don't want to humiliate anyone, they don't like the idea of spending millions in security systems, and they'd really like not having to search bags of people everywhere all the time. But they don't have a choice, and this is not a game to them.
I might have problems or be expelled