How I could travel alone to Israel as Indonesian?

As you know Indonesia and Israel don’t have a good friendship. Traveling alone to Israel seems fake and impossible but I still have a dream to be floating on the dead sea, visiting the Al Aqsa Mosque and of course to make the impossible thing to be possible. In Indonesia, every single time you mention about Israel, they will come up with some bad words, such as war, bomb, dangerous and death. Hence, there are not so many Indonesian are interested to visit Israel.

Indonesians who have been to Israel mostly doing religious trip, I hardly hear that there are a lot of Indonesian travelling solo over there. Maybe I just lucky that my visa application was granted by the Israel Embassy in The Hague, The Netherlands. Now, I would like to share you how I managed to get the visa and travelled solo to Israel and Palestinian territory for a week.

1. Have a good Israeli friend

I used to live in The Netherlands for almost five years, and when I was studying at Tilburg University in 2016, I met two wonderful Israeli families. As a student, I was working as a nanny for their kids to get some extra money and at the end they helped me with providing an invitation letter to visit Israel.  This letter is a magic letter! Why? Because my tourist visa was granted.

Isreli people are very kind and friendly but they are also very careful people, they love their country and won’t lie to their government (I guess) since National military service is mandatory for all Israeli citizens. Thus, if you want to visit Israel badly, I suggest you to make a good relationship with some Israeli people. More than one will be perfect and hopefully they could help you to make a great reference letter for your visa application. I hope that will work for you guys!

The flight ticket to Tel Aviv from Amsterdam wasn’t expensive at all. I bought a return ticket Amsterdam – Tel Aviv for 128 euro spontaneously without even knowing if I can go there (very stupid decision). It was a bit like gambling applying the Israel Visa because many people told me that it is impossible to travel alone to Israel and if we must join a religious trip to go there. I could say that I am a stubborn person, I won’t trust people easily, thus, I submitted my visa anyway. The visa application cost 23 euro! You could see the visa requirements on the embassy of Israel in the country of your resident.

2. Residence in another country (Not Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Iran or other Muslim countries)

Are you currently living in Indonesia and want to travel solo to Israel? I am afraid to say that it is IMPOSSIBLE because there is no Israeli Embassy in Indonesia. The only way to go there is joining a religious trip and I am sure you can get there easy. But if you currently have a resident permit of another country that have Israeli Embassy, your chance to travel solo is bigger!

3. Mentally prepared and be patient

Applying a visa for Israel is not easy, people. They have a lot of requirement for us (remember Indonesia and Israel aren’t good friend). They will ask you a lot of questions even when you visit the embassy to submit your visa application. The outrageous thing is when I was in the security area of the embassy, the security asked me to take off my bra and socks. They really checked everything conscientiously! Maybe because I am Indonesian, I really hope that they also do it to all of nationalities who visit the embassy. In addition, don’t be shock if one of the securities of the embassy will also be accompanied you in the elevator. They will never ever take their eyes off you. As I said earlier, you need to mentally prepared to face this kind of situation because it won’t be easy at all since, these people won’t smile to you nor be nice. Just take a deep breath and smile when you are there.

Those are three things that you need to know if you want to travel alone to Israel with Indonesian passport. If visiting this holy land is one of your bucket lists, go ahead and explore it! Being Indonesian is not an obstacle and we can always find the way. The important thing that you need to do is being very careful in Israel and make sure to keep your important document nicely! Why? Since there is no Indonesian Embassy in Israel, it will be very challenging if you lost your passport. We don’t know where to go and where to find a help. Good luck!