Tel Rumeida Checkpoint Watch

These are some pictures I took today. I took some new ISMers for the checkpoint watch. Last week, others took me for my first one.


 
Soldiers stop a Palestinian man and check his documents.
 
One of the checkpoints that we observe every morning. Fridays we take off because most Palestinians do not go to work that day.
 
Settler kids walking down the street.
 

Palestinian man walking towards checkpoint.

Checkpoint Watch

Every morning at 7:30, a group of ISMers leave our apartment on Tel Rumeida and go for a walk down the block. We stop and position ourselves close to 2 checkpoints and sit down from a distance and watch the action.

A checkpoint is an area where groups of soldiers observe people moving through the city. Palestinians walk through them on their way to work or to the city. Soldiers wave people through, or stop them and ask them for their ID, or ask to see what is in their bags.

The purpose of checkpoint watch is to ensure that Palestinians are not detained for very long and that abuses do not take place. ISM does checkpoint watches in Tel Rumeida, CPT does them in the Old City. An Israeli group called Machsom Watch comes around occasionally and checks up on checkpoints that we miss (it is impossible to cover them all). ISMs policy is that if someone is detained at a checkpoint for more than 15 minutes, then we step in and ask the soldiers what is going on. Most of the soldiers really do not want that. Given the choice of having to put up with questions from Western European young adults and college students (most of ISMs volunteers fit that profile, although some of us are from North America) about why they are detaining someone without a good reason or just letting them move on, it is less of a hassle for them to just let the person through.

I have been to about 4 checkpoint watches with ISM since arriving here. In every case, I have seen soldiers mostly wave people through. People are occasionally asked to show what is in their bags, but it is done very quickly. Some soldiers speak to people in Arabic and make a point of greeting the kids. I have not seen any harrassment or abuses from them.

The Nahal Brigade is a lot more humane and decent towards Palestinians than groups that came before them. However, these are the same soldiers who have closed down Palestinian shops and beaten up people who were peacefully protesting. They also let the settlers get away with pretty much anything they want.



An incident I have witnessed more than a week ago convinced me of the importance of checkpoint watches. A fellow new ISMer and myself were driving in from Ramallah to Hebron when the car we were in (called a serveece- it is like a mass taxi and much cheaper than a real taxi) was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint between these cities.

One of the soldiers yanked our car door open and roughly demanded that we hand over our passports. We handed them over. I saw a Palestinian man standing outside. He was in handcuffs and was sweating heavily.

The soldier flipped through our passports, then saw my Canadian passport and the Italian passport of my fellow ISMer. Immediately his demeanor changed. He handed back everyone their passports.
Then another soldier walked up to the man in handcuffs, and released him from them. He handed him a big bottle of water and allowed him to drink. Then they let him go, and he came into our car. We drove on.

Inside the car, the man told us his story. Two hours ago, he was pulled out of a serveece and the soldiers demanded that he hand over his cellphone. He refused. To punish him, they put him in handcuffs and made him stand in the sun. I have no idea how long they would have made him stand like that if we had not randomly showed up.


I believe that many of the soldiers in Hebron are decent people who are just "doing their job". Before you sneer at them if you feel inclined to do so, remember that they face up to 4 years in prison and little or no prospects of being hired or able to live a normal life in Israel once they are released, if they refuse to serve in the army. I am not defending what they are doing, but I wanted to point out the situation that many of them are in.

I believe that most of the soldiers I have seen in Hebron who treat Palestinians decently would do that regardless of whether observers were watching them or not. However, I also know that having a uniform and a gun gives some people a feeling of power, and I know that if we were not here there would be many more human rights abuses taking place.

Al Ma'sara demo (5)

 
People continue chanting.
 
Army jeep drives off
 

Unexploded sound grenade. When it goes off it makes a deafening loud noise. This is what is thrown against non-violent Palestinian demonstrators.

Al Ma'sara demo (4)

 
Soldier waiting for commander to show up.
 
People raise their hands and ask the soldiers not to shoot.
 
The commander shows up.
 
Seconds after the sound grenades were thrown.

Al Ma'sara demo (3)

The following pictures show people meeting the soldiers. No one used or threatened violence against them.
 
 
 
 

Al Ma'sara demo (2)

 
Kid with flag.
 
One of the leaders. He was OK with being photographed and having his picture included on the blog.
 
The march gets started.
 
Some of the internationals in the crowd.

Al Ma'sara demo pics (1)

 
Some of our group chilling.
 
Me in my keffiya. The cast is off my nose!!! Woohoo!!!

 
 
Other international activists.

"We do not throw rocks"

Some ISMers and I went to Al Ma'sara today for a protest against the annexation wall. Unlike in some other Palestinian villages, people in Al Ma'sara do not throw rocks or use any violence. We were joined by other internationals and marched in the protest along with the Palestinians. I asked the leader if the youth will throw rocks. He responded "in this village, we do not throw rocks".

The march began. Two Palestinian men were leading the chants. They were: "1-2-3-4 occupation no more, 5-6-7-8 Israel is fascist state". I realize that calling Israel a 'fascist state' can cause a lot of anger and hurt among many Israelis. Fascist states persecuted Jews and one could argue that Israel is a democracy. On the other hand, the systematic abuses of Palestinians that are happening every day in the West Bank at the hands of the soldiers and settlers whom they support are not the actions of a state that respects human rights. I have heard many Jewish Israelis tell me that to them, the actions of their countryment towards Palestinians chillingly resemble the treatment that was meeted out to Jews in Nazi Germany in the early 1930s. They said it, not me.

Other chants included "no good morning no goodnight, occupation we will fight" and "Falastin hurra hurra, Israel burra burra" (Free free Palestine, go away go away Israel).

The soldiers cordoned off a section of the village and we walked up to them. After being stopped by the soldiers, the speakers emphasized to them that this is a non-violent protest and asked them to leave the village. They said they are not occupying Tel Aviv, why does the IDF occupy the West Bank?

An army commander appeared and spoke briefly to his men. Without any warning, some of them threw sound grenades at us. The booms were deafening and people began running from the soldiers. They threw around 5 of these at us. My ears were ringing for about 2 hours but now I am OK. The sound grenades are not lethal but in the past they have burst people's eardrums. Some of them have also exploded into small pieces and injured people. No one got hurt in this protest.

After throwing the sound grenades, the soldiers drove away in their jeeps. The protest was over.


I am angry at the army's reaction. No one was throwing rocks or even threatening to throw rocks at them or harm them. In every action I have been to in the West Bank thus far, the army has been met with no violence from people. Yet in every case, soldiers resort to assaults, whether pushing people, beatings, or throwing things like sound grenades.

Almost every action undertaken by Palestinians is met with repression and violence from the army. When they are peaceful, they are pushed around or beaten or have sound bombs thrown at them. When they throw rocks, the soldiers respond with teargas cannisters, rubber bullets and sometimes live ammunition. If they use guns, the army comes in with tanks and fighter planes.


* I took some videos of the demo but do not yet know how to upload them. If I am able to, I will paste them here.

Driving in to Al Ma'sara
 
 
 
 

Ramadan

Ramadan started here 2 days ago. During this time, Muslims fast during the day, not eating from dawn to sunset. The purpose of Ramadan is to help people focus more on God and praying to Him.

People here are very joyous and in good spirits and I can tell this is an important occasion. I respect the self-discipline a lot, markets are packed with food yet no one on the street is eating or drinking. It is extremely hot yet people do not touch a drop of water. There are a lot less people smoking, but that aspect isn't being adhered to that closely.


When we eat and drink during the day, we don't do it in front of people so as not to tempt them to break their fast.

More Al Buweyre pics

 
 
 
 

Pictures from Al Buweyre and her neighbours

 
Harsina settlement. Most of the settlers have red roofed houses, which look very much out of place in the middle east. There are at least three layers of steel gate and barbed wire, and you can hear dogs snarling and barking from inside the settlement. Yet in spite of that fact they always feel under threat and are claiming that they are the victims.

Al Buweyre

 
Entering deeper into the village.
 
House close to the entrance of the village
 
Farmer's fields.

Revisiting Al Buweyre

Today 2 fellow activists and I went to visit Al Buweyre to see how people there are doing.

Following the attack on us Friday afternoon, the army moved in and declared the area a "closed military zone"- closing off the village and banning the Palestinians from farming while also not allowing settlers to cross into Al Buewyre. Somehow they got in anyways and set another fire, which was fortunately put out. The soldiers did not catch the perpetrators. What a surprise.

Following that, a Palestinian human rights activist managed to sneak in and give cameras to the people there, so they could document what is happening. The soldiers did manage to catch him and he was taken to prison. Another shock.

CPTers and ISMers managed to navigate their way around the soldiers and to enter the village and be present with the people during the weekend. But eventually they too were unable to get in.

When we went to the village today, the army was gone. We spoke to a Palestinian woman who invited us into her house. She spoke no English and I only spoke a bit of Arabic but after a lot of hand gestures and mispronounciations on my part I managed to find out that neither the soldiers or settlers have been there since the weekend. Praise God for that.


 
"Lisa" and "Laulau".

 
Me and "Lisa".
 
Me and "Laulau".

I know that my collar did not look good in this picture or some other previous pictures. Yes, I sometimes forget.

 
Road entering Al Buweyre

Some random pictures

 
Fruit market in Hebron. Believe it or not, you can actually get real fruit here. Minus preservatives, additives, chemicals, etc. You wouldn't imagine the difference in taste.
 
Daoud and I. Daoud has been in a hospital too after being arrested, blindfolded, and beaten by Israeli soldiers several years ago. He was with me in Kiryat Arba.
 
Me with fellow activists. We went to a meeting to hear Palestinians plan a peaceful demonstration in Hebron. I cannot show you the faces of the other people in the meeting. They could be arrested.
 
Palestinian friends and I back in our apartment.

* I know that the cast may remind some people of a polar bear. I thought of walking down the street and offering kids SnoCones but you can't get them here anyways. While in the hospital, my visitors and I had fun making Michael Jackson anecdotes, especially leading up to the surgery. Some topics are more or less universal.