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CHECKPOINTS

Travelling around the Palestinian West Bank one soon becomes aware of the sheer number of  barriers, roadblocks and especially the numerous checkpoints manned by the Israeli Defence Forces.  Some of these are known as flying checkpoints, temporary structures that can be set up and dismantled quickly as well as permanent structures which are built around all the major West Bank towns. It is at these that EAPPI volunteers spend much time monitoring what is going on and the Palestinians tell us that the presence of internationals does improve the way they are treated by the soldiers.

  For those of us based in Yanoun, Nablus is the nearest big city and is surrounded by checkpoints. No man aged between 18 and 25 can leave the city unless he has a special permit allowing him to do so.

To obtain a permit one has to apply to the Israeli authorities and for most the process is just too difficult. That is why so many have said to me that Nablus is just one big prison.

On my arrival the other day I noticed that the checkpoint at Huwwara, the southern entrance to and exit from Nablus, seemed particularly chaotic. A large group of men (see photograph below) were being held in what can only be described as something akin to a cattle pen. The soldiers had confiscated their identity papers and all these men could do was wait. One man had his six year old sister with him and she too was incarcerated for what became a five hour wait and they only wanted to get to their relatives for Eid celebrations. Whilst some men were in there because of problems with their identification papers, others were incarcerated because they had shouted whilst queuing at the checkpoint and, apparently, this would teach them to have better manners in the future! Periodically a soldier would come and shout out some names, holding ID papers to return to the incarcerated men but they didn`t open the gate to the compound to let the men out -  rather, they had to climb over the wall to get their papers, in what seemed to be just another form of humiliation.

Getting through the checkpoint itself can sometimes take hours. Each person is called forward and any bags they have have to be emptied. The men have to lift their trousers and shirts to show they are not hiding weapons or explosives. You can imagine, for a religious Muslim to be told to do this by a girl of perhaps only 18, holding a gun in full view of everybody else, is a great humiliation. Amazingly, the soldiers do not prevent me from taking the photographs (below) showing this process. I wonder what they think we are going to do with these or whether they really care.

One soldier said that they have to do this because any one of the people in the queue could have a bomb. They see it as a really essential measure that, ultimately, could save lives. I perhaps could accept this if this was on the border with Israel, but Nablus is many miles inside the West Bank and, when the Palestinians cross the checkpoint, they are, after all, still in Palestine. It seems to be a form of collective punishment for all the people.

One elderly gentleman, Jiries Habib Khoury, a Christian from the city, told me how when the soldiers stopped him in his car and saw on his identification papers that he was  a Christian, (one’s religion is always printed on identification papers) they were suspicious of  him because they did not think there were any Christians or churches there. He was held up for some time before eventually being let out of the city. It seems incredible that the soldiers really do not know these things and to Jiries it was just a way to make life more difficult. It doesn`t matter whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, what matters is that you are a Palestinian and you share the same daily misery.

Yet, just as with the olive harvest where I worked with the Rabbis for Human Rights, so at the checkpoints there is another group of Israelis, this time women who have formed a group called Machsom Watch - machsom being the Hebrew word for checkpoint. These women travel from Israel on a daily basis and spend many hours watching and helping Palestinians, reporting human rights abuses and generally being a presence, which the young Israeli soldiers find annoying. These brave women, most of whom are old enough to be the mothers of the young soldiers, have a big impact on the behaviour at the checkpoints. One woman told me how she had lost many friends in Israel when she told them what she did but her desire to do what was right was far more important to her than being popular. I cannot help but admire these women who, like the Rabbis, bring hope for a better future.

Some of the soldiers I spoke to told me how they themselves do not like what they are having to do. Many are just young men who are having to serve out their military service and cannot wait until it is completed. One soldier told me he had moved to Israel from Leicestershire and was now living in Haifa. Life in Israel was not the dream that he thought it would be and he was thinking of returning to England once he had served his last six months in the army. You see fear on many of the faces of these young Israelis and I cannot help thinking that they too are, in some ways, victims of Israeli government policy.

I saw for myself how the other day when I and my colleague Kajsa were passing through another checkpoint to the east of Nablus, the soldiers saw we were internationals and waved us through.  I made the mistake of saying ”shukran” the Arabic word for thank you, forgetting that I was addressing Israelis. The soldier must have reported this to his senior officer as we were suddenly called back and interrogated as to who we were, and what we were doing in the country. Their attitude had completely changed and they were much more harsh towards us simply because I had said ”thank you” in Arabic.  It shows what a climate of fear the Palestinians must live under but also emphasises what I think can only be described as an apartheid system. Whilst Palestinians have to queue at the checkpoints, internationals can be waved through, as can Israelis, which if you take the opportunity to go through makes you feel very uncomfortable. It does not seem right to walk past Palestinians who are queuing for hours and being herded like cattle. Usually we choose to wait with them, but the reality is that we are given the choice because of our nationality. They are not! 

So, continue to enjoy your lives of freedom in Britain but please remember those of this country, where the only things that seem to be free are the birds. 

Newsletter 15th October 2006     First impressions of Yanoun

Newsletter 30th October 2006     The Olive Harvest Begins

Newsletter 14th November 2006 Does Christianity have a Future in the Holy Land ?

Newsletter 12th December 2006 Bethlehem

Newsletter 19th December 2006 Final Thoughts