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I was talking with my friend the other day, and we're trying to figure out her situation.

She is Lebanese by origin, born in Saudi Arabia and lived there for more than 10 years, and has both a Lebanese and a European (German) passport. She is a computer science graduate and works in IT. Can she enter Israel without 'issues' by using her German passport and having the visa stamped separately, so that she can later go back to Lebanon if need be with either passport she holds?

I guess she will be questioned heavily at the Israeli border, but since she's not politically involved at all, I wonder...

If you have any experiences or references on the matter, would be great to hear. Thanks!

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Update: so thanks to the response below, indeed seems she will have no issues entering since Israeli document stamps are now provided separately. However, in a separate yet related issue, we are wondering whether her being born in Saudi Arabia (which is visible on German passports) would cause any issues at the border? Or should she request another German passport with the place of birth omitted (if that's possible)?

Update2: even though this question may have been partially addressed in other questions, I find the responses (personal experiences + links) below to be helpful, especially since policies are always subject to change, so recency is important. So I would rather not mark this question as a duplicate.

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I wanted to add my own experience to the answers here.

Israel no longer issues stamps

I found this to be true at the main international airports. At land crossings they will still issue you a stamp unless you explicitly tell them not to (and also depends on their mood). However if you are entering via a land crossing, such as Jordan, you will get an exit stamp at the Jordan boarder anyway which shows you are entering Israel.

Will she experience issues at the border?

Probably. I don't know specifically about Lebanese, but I traveled through Israel with an Indian friend born in Fiji with a New Zealand passport. He apparently has a last name that is common among Muslims. Every single checkpoint our entire group were pulled aside and questioned individually.

We were asked questions like; where are we traveling, how long are we staying, pretty standard but tedious stuff.

But he was asked questions like; who are your parents, where are they from, who are your grandparents on your father's side, who are your grandparents from your mother's side, where are they from...

My advice would be, make sure she is prepared for this.

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Yes.

I worked in the United Arab Emirates and traveled to Israel twice. Naturally, I didn't want a stamp in my passport, since I worked and traveled often to Lebanon, Yemen, etc.

Simply ask nicely and they'll put a stamp on a slip of paper for you. I never even asked, but you might want to, just in case.

Do not lose that paper, as it needs to be stamped for your departure.

PS - If I can find that paper, I'll update this question with an image of it.

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    @transparent - I will repeat, though, do NOT lose that paper :)
    – Mikey
    Jan 28, 2016 at 21:05
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    :-) indeed, I can imagine that would be crazy problematic. Thanks again!
    – transparent
    Jan 29, 2016 at 8:19
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Germany has been willing to issue multiple passports for such situations. (German wikipedia link)

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    Note that the second passport is only valid for six years (instead of the usual ten) for some reason. It is therefore quite clear that you use a second passport to anyone. So you should carefully assess where to use which passport. Before Israel stopped stamping passports you should have used the second (six-year) in Israel (they don't care) and the first (ten-year) in the countries that cause problems with an Israeli stamp.
    – neo
    Jan 27, 2016 at 20:17
  • Thanks @neo. Indeed this complicates matters. In an ideal world, she would get another passport to omit place of birth to avoid hassling questions (assuming it's even possible to omit such information), and at the same time based on the 6-year validity rule, if she uses this other passport it will raise suspicion if it's used for Israel entry. Hence throwing some sort of catch-22 situation...
    – transparent
    Jan 27, 2016 at 20:40

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