There are ground rules every mentor had to agree to before going. We could not go anywhere unaccompanied - Who's rule is this?
So. Many. Questions!
No one had any problems at the border. Everyone is super professional and courteous. Those that were muslim and/or of palestinian decent took slightly longer.
I took my own laptop. The only different thing is you have to leave it open (but not unlocked) when it goes through the scanner.
We were mostly confined inside the incubator or a hotel so we had wifi most of the time. I think it's 2G or 3G otherwise. Not sure if by an Israeli carrier or a Palestinian one.
The rules are set by the parent organization, Mercy Corps. They receive the bulk of their funding from USAID and my guess is those ground rules are impacted by that.
Any idea why this info is required?
As for the rest, I don't know but I hear they have some issues both with rockets as well as (often) clueless western demonstrants so getting being careful and getting good background information on visitors does sound like the right thing to do.
Family names - my guess is to perform a more rigorous background check. This is probably more relevant for people of Palestinian descent.
Example:
Security: Are you a member of a Hebrew congregation?
Person: Yes, such and such a synagogue
Security: Who is the Rabbi there?
A legit person might say "Oh it's Rabbi so-and-so", but if a person hesitates, and has to think, and blurts out an answer like "Rabbi Cohen" then it is less likely they are being forthcoming.
In some sense, this is a very rough mental-Bayesian process of probability updating. A person arrives at the border / El-Al check-in. Security assigns some prior probability p_0 that a person should be allowed access, and via a string of questions, amongst other techniques, a posterior probability p_n that that person should be on that flight / in Israel is established.