On 18 June 2001, I had an appointment for a television interview with the BBC in Jerusalem. After the interview, I was to leave to Rome for a conference. Like tens of times in the past, I applied for a permit to travel to Jerusalem and then Tel Aviv airport. A few hours before my time of departure to Jerusalem, the Israelis rejected my application.

The BBC intervened and were told that I was not allowed to leave. According to Israelis I’m a “Category 10” security threat, the same category as a suicide bomber!! The Israeli authorities contradicted themselves by telling others who inquired about my case that there was no record of my application on their computers. In short, I was prevented from going to Jerusalem and to Rome.

I was fortunate enough to have friends who protested my case. Susan Goldberg published an article in the Guardian on my story. She called an Israeli official who claimed that he did not have a file for my application. Also, Helen Bamber wrote a very strong op-ed in the same paper. Lord Salisbury protested my case to the Israeli Ambassador in London, who in turn replied that I could apply for another permit. These are but a few of the friends, colleagues, and human rights activist.

In addition, I contacted the lawyer Naila Atiya to initiate action with the Israeli High Court to pursue the issue legally.

After a few days, the Israeli security establishment, which considered me a “Category 10” security threat earlier, informed us that I could travel. And I left to London a few days later. Now that I am back from the UK, I ask two questions: “Does Israel allow someone as dangerous as a suicide bomber to travel through its airport?” and “Why prevent me from traveling if I’m not a security threat?”

My case is one of millions of people whose most basic human rights are violated on a daily basis as a result of Israel’s collective punishment policy. The core issue remains that of a whole population under siege. If I was prevented from leaving to attend an interview and a conference, others have died at roadblocks because they were prevented from reaching hospitals in time for treatment. Ambulance drivers were killed while trying to save injured children. Mothers gave birth on donkey carts held at roadblocks. Schools were bombarded and students injured. Homes were demolished, farms razed or burned, and wells filled. In an officially declared policy, Israel is exercising its “collective punishment” policy to make all Palestinians suffer for resisting its illegal occupation of their land. In response to an incident in which a settler was killed, Israeli Defense Minister Benyamin Ben Elaizer said that he would make Palestinians’ lives a hell.

This has been the status quo for over 30 years: collective punishment as a deterrent against resisting the occupation. And it is time that this atrocity is stopped. The world conscience should wake and act to put an end to Palestinian civilians’ suffering. The world must tell Israel, the self-proclaimed lone “democracy” in the Middle East, that democracy and human rights violations do not mix. Democracy, decency, peace, and all noble things are impossible without an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine.