Checkpoint stories

Hi everyone,

I am sure that anyone who has spent some time in the West Bank living alongside Palestinians can tell you some checkpoint stories, so I have a few of my own I decided to share. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me during the first encounter, and during the second one was forced to delete my pictures.


"Soldiers as Peacemakers"

Yesterday on my way from the PA to the Israeli controlled area of Hebron, I literally walked into a fistfight. It didn't involve Israelis and Palestinians, it involved Palestinians and Palestinians. Two guys got into a fight, and one was sporting a black eye. His buddies stayed behind with him, while the one who gave him a black eye ran away with his buddies.
The soldiers at the checkpoint treated him. They had him sit down, asked him how he was doing, and then put a bandage around his head. They then let him go. One of the wounded man's friends shook the soldiers' hand and thanked him. The soldier asked me and some Palestinian observers to leave, we all did. Before leaving I told one fo the soldiers he did a good job.

Reflection: I have seen soldiers act very badly towards civilians at demonstrations and when they cruelly closed down the shops of the elderly Palestinian shopkeepers. I That fills me with disgust. I have not seen abuses at checkpoints but I have seen some soldiers check every person's bag and take their sweet time holding them up when there was no need to.
However, I have also seen acts of kindness and humanity towards Palestinians from an army that is occupying their land. The soldiers at the checkpoint really had no obligation to help the Palestinian man or provide any medical aid. They did not hurt him, this was an incident that did not involve them at all. Yet they not only treated him, they then let him go. They acted with decency and humanity and I was very impressed with that.

"The 90 minute wait"

Today, a fellow activist and I were coming back from Al Buweyre and we were stopped at the exact same checkpoint, by a different group of soldiers. There were two of them, a sergeant and his subordinate (I do not know the rank. I'll call him "A").
A immediately demanded that my friend and I hand over our passports. He said he will have to check them on the computer. He and his partner went to the office. The problem is that there is a window through which you can see them and they were not sitting beside a computer. They sat down, ate chips, drank soft drinks and the sergeant played around with his pistol. Occasionally they would emerge to randomly stop Palestinians and ask then to open their bags. They kept us waiting about an hour. I grew bored and snapped a few pictures.
A then came out and demanded that I and my friend hand over our cameras. We initially refused, since soldiers can legally only ask for passports, which we gave to them. We were told that if we did not hand over our cameras, we would not be given our passports. We refused, then A and his sergeant came out and came towards us aggresively and demanded that we delete the pictures we took of them. A said that if we did he would hand us back our passports. I have to say I was intimidated by that, and did delete the pictures of them. My partner refused.
They gave me back my passport and told me to go. I said I would leave when my friend was given his passport. A got angry and told me that internationals like us come here to cause problems. I told him about the human rights abuses that are going on, he said the army is neutral, I pointed out cases where soldiers have allowed settlers to get away with attacks on Palestinians and he finally admitted that these things do happen but that the situation is "complicated". He also said that this is Israel and that his job is to defend Jewish people.
A threatened to arrest us but my friend refused to hand over his camera or delete anything. A told me that the platoon commander gave the whole platoon orders to arrest me and that he is being a "nice guy" by not arresting me. I asked why I am to be arrested, he said it is because I cause problems. I asked him what problems and he didn't say anything. He then threatened to call the police on my friend. My friend has been arrested before at a demonstration but the judge did not ban him from Hebron. A explained again that he is just being nice and that his sergeant told him to call the police but he decided to give my friend "a chance". He said we are guilty of "stopping the soldiers from carrying out their mission". I asked him what his mission was and he didn't reply to that either.
Just then a car drove by, filled with observers from the European Union (TIPH- Temporary International Presence In Hebron). My friend waved to them and the soldier immediately handed him back his passport and told us to go and not cause any more "trouble". It was hard not to laugh as we left.

Reflections: As I look back on the incident, I am more and more sure that A was bluffing. I have walked through 4 checkpoints today, and I am sure that if an order was given to arrest me and passed around the entire platoon, it would have been carried out by now. I have seen soldiers at demonstrations and they are not at all shy or hesitant when it comes to arresting protesters, Palestinian or international.

I admire my friend for not giving in to intimidation during that moment, and he showed a lot more guts than I did. Also, if other internationals do not allow soldiers to have them delete pictures, I should not be setting a precedent for allowing them to delete mine.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how much this little exercise accomplished. The soldiers could have arrested one or both of us on a fake charge, and it could have meant being deported Israel or banned from the West Bank. That would cancel our activism here. Yes, the soldiers had no right to ask us to delete our pictures. But if we are deported for asserting that right, we would not be able to stop more serious human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Anyways, all ended well in the end. Alhamdullilah (praise be to God).


I have a lot more checkpoint tales, but I can't tell them all right now. I will be home in less than 2 weeks and look forward to telling more...