The Boudicca Parchments

Chapter 66

Ben Gurion Airport seemed to have an even bigger police presence than usual. Baruch Tikva noticed this as he stood in line at passport control. He suspected that he might be the subject of this interest — the very thing he had tried to avoid, just as he had sought to avoid being identified when he left Britain.

He had shaved off his beard and was not wearing his religious garb, ensuring that he looked different to his Israeli passport picture. Also, he was not using his Israeli passport, even though he was supposed to under Israeli law. But there was no danger of Border Control catching that on their computers, because he was also using a false name. His late mother had been American and for that reason he had been entitled to an American passport. He had always had one and when he went to England, although he had left Israel on his Israeli passport — as required by Israel law — he had entered the UK on his American passport.

While in the UK he had made an “emergency” visit to the American embassy, applying for a new or at least temporary American passport. He had not claimed that his American passport was lost, for that would have delayed the process. Instead he pointed to the fact that he had shaved off his beard and that consequently he no longer looked like his passport photo.

To add a new layer of security to this, he applied for a change to his surname on the passport. If he had been submitting the application by post he would have had to send in some supporting documents, such as a court record of an official name change. A woman could submit a marriage certificate. But because he was making an in-person appearance at the embassy, he could simply make a declaration to the effect that he was now using his mother’s maiden name for all legal purposes and would be changing his name legally at the earliest opportunity thereafter. In order to avoid the wrath of God, he affirmed rather than swore an oath. But his mother’s maiden name would also appear on the records in Israel, so he simply invented a different name.

Thus armed with a new beardless image and a new name — Baruch Finkelstein — he was able to enter Israel with his America passport. There was a tense moment, when the woman in the immigration booth at passport control eyed him up suspiciously and asked if he had an Israeli passport. He said no, with an awkward smile and although she still showed signs of suspicion, she stamped his passport with a three month tourist visa and let him through with a polite “have a nice stay in Israel.”