Jaba (Lil)

Translation: Ruth Fleishman

Being a healthy Palestinian is hard. It's much harder to be an ill Palestinian.

Qalandiya:

A man from Tul Karem, while in deep agony, was taken from one stretcher to the other, from the Jerusalem ambulance to the West Bank ambulance which would take him back home.

The paramedic said that he had a complicated fracture in his thigh, that Makased hospital, where he was admitted, had decided to send him home and that in a month's time and after assessments of the odds and risks, it would be decided whether to operate.

It took two hours for the ambulance to arrive from Tulkarm at Qalandiya, now this man would have to go through a two hour drive until reaching home. In one month he will once again go to Jerusalem, this time to hear what the doctors had decided, another two hour drive, again being moved from one stretcher to the other, from one ambulance to another.

Being a healthy Palestinian is hard. It's much harder to be an ill Palestinian.

And in the meanwhile, a young Palestinian lad caught in Jerusalem without a GSS permit was brought to the police station. The hunters called for a police vehicle and once it arrived the lad was place in it and they drove away.

On the same topic: Ayman, the coffee stand owner on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint, had begun to serve a sentence of five months imprisonment. Two years ago he was caught working at Mahne-Yehuda market with a fake ID.

The shift change at the soldiers' inspection post caused everything to freeze over for several long minutes:

At first the soldiers who finished their shift took off their bulletproof vests, then the new soldiers put the vests on, they sipped some Coca-Cola, moved the chairs around, conversed among themselves in peace, as though the tens of people waiting on the other side of the windows and walls didn't exist.

And the intercom system that is supposed to be used as means of communication between the Palestinians and the soldiers has been out of service for years.

Jaba checkpoint:

Omer, the guard at the top popped out his head from the window in the tower and started cursing us, and the three soldiers manning the post below said it would be a while till be could say "good riddance" to him.

The checkpoint commander and his two soldiers said that they were saving the lives of the Jews that might by mistake drive on to Qalandiya or Ramallah, and that: "it is very dangerous here(at the checkpoint), a couple of weeks ago a suspicious package was found here".

They weren't there when the package was found. They were told about it.

Qalandiya:

Qalandiya checkpoint was desolate but the few who wished to pass had to wait for a while until the solider obliged them by opening the turnstiles. At the cabin where the soldiers that are in charge of opening the turnstiles leading to the checkpoint sit, was a soldier who didn't take his eyes off the book he was reading in order to see what was going on in the lanes beside him or on the security cameras.

A Red Crescent ambulance arrived at the checkpoint. The patient that was being transferred was in need ofcatheterizationand was place inside the Israeli ambulance in the "back-to-back" method.

At the checkpoint we met two lads, one of them said that he had been released from prison a month earlier after serving a sentence of six years. He was 15 when he was arrested for throwing stones, he was told that the stone he had thrown hit someone. He said that he had managed to see inside of many Israeli jails during the time his time in prison.

Jaba:

During the past two month the checkpoint hadn't been constantly manned, the soldiers remained seated in the pillbox on the by the side of the road. This week however, when we arrived at the checkpoint we found a traffic police man from Binyamin station manning the soldiers' post and with him was a soldier securing him. The two pulled over cars that drove on road 60 on the way heading to Ramallah. They inspected licenses, IDs, handed out tickets and enriched the state's coffer.

Bir Zeit/Atara:

Upon arriving we were greeted a barking wondering dog, but it wasn't long until two soldiers got out of the fortified complex and came towards us. They said that everything was as usual at the checkpoint and hurried to turne around and head back to the building.

We arrived at Qalandiya CP at 3:50 PM.  Two passageways were active as well as the DCO passage, there were no lines.

An ambulance drove up to the CP from the direction of Ramallah and parked in the northern square because the traffic didn't allow the driver to get closer to the CP.  We saw a Jerusalem ambulance waiting for him at the other side of the CP, so we went and directed traffic to clear a path for the Ramallah ambulance to enter the CP where he was told to wait by the security personnel.  We positioned ourselves close to the fence to see what was happening and one of the security personnel began to shout at us to move away from the fence.  When we didn't move, he came over to see who we were.  We told him that we were checking to see how much time it took for the ambulance to get through the CP.  The fellow turned around and returned to the ambulance, sending it on its way immediately.

At about 4:30 PM Natanya saw that a long line had developed in one of the passageways while the soldiers in the second passageway were sitting idle.  She phoned the hotline and was answered by Meital who quickly solved the problem.

On our way back to Jerusalem at 5 PM we saw that the "cubicles" usually occupied by soldiers at the Jabba/Lil CP were both of them empty.  We asked three little Bedouin kids who were shepherding their sheep nearby where the soldiers were and they pointed at the watchtower beyond the CP.  We saw no soldiers.  The children looked very sad and suspicious.  We called them over to come and get some candy from Natanya's store of goodies and the oldest approached reluctantly. Only when his hands were full of sweets for himself and his brothers did a huge grin break out on his face.

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

Qalandiya:

The smell of tear gas was in the air.

Friends said that soldiers had raided two shops at the refugee camp during the small hours of the night, they burst in, searched for stolen motorcycles, confiscated the content of the shops and arrested one of the owners.

The noise woke the residents of the camp, the young ones came out of their homes, threw stones at the intruders who in response shot stun and gas grenades.

It was only around four AM that the quiet was restored to the place.

While crossing the checkpoint I was once again detained by soldiers that claimed I was not to be on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint, I once again argued that I was permitted by law to be in the place I arrived from: "But there is a sign that says it's forbidden!" an officer reproached me. – "And if there was a sign saying today was Saturday?" I asked, - "Then today would be Saturday", the officer established.

Police officer Dov, who had in the pass released me from detainment, was sent for, he said that "trying to teach 18 year old girls their job over here, is like teaching a bear to ride a bicycle".

Jaba checkpoint:

The posts, the equipment in them, the pillbox, the flags and flashlights that a light at all hours of the day- were all in their places, only the soldiers that manned and operated the checkpoint had been missing for two weeks.

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

Qalandiya:

The rain hadn't washed away the fifth or the desperation. 

"You and we are done for because of our leaders. Yours and ours are the same. We once had hope, but now people on your side and on ours are getting more religious and right winged and that makes it worse", said a middle aged man who identified himself as a Muslim, a communist and a believer in god and the prophet Muhammad.  

In this man's world, Marx and Lenin are united with and live alongside Allah and the prophet Muhammad.

This reality is the product of the corrupt, vulgar and fundamentalist politics which is represented by Netaniyahu "yours" and Hamas "ours". They act against us all and cause misery to both nations living on this land, and had they and the likes of them (according to this man) not been elected, we humans could have lived side by side in peace and as good neighbors.

Jaba checkpoint:

According to the military and as is quoted by the soldiers, the checkpoint is meant to secure the safety of the nation.

In spite of the: "we're here so that they don't transfer weaponry… this is part of Israel…" and so on, which are uttered with adherence and complete faith, all the soldiers did at the checkpoint that afternoon was to guard two traffic policemen who pulled over vehicles and fined their drivers: "They pull over anyone who hasn't got a seatbelt on and anyone talking on the phone", they said.

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

Qalandiya:

Inside the shop of the employer of Ahmed from the Falafel stand, people were waiting to hear our advice regarding the trial that is to take place on February the 12^th.

Ahmed's father had been murdered by soldiers during the first Intifada and people from the community are taking responsibility over his fate.

"Today there are no laborers", a friend said when asked if there was a closure.

Closures are bad for the many work cycles surrounding the checkpoint: the laborers lose a day of work, when there are no laborers there is no one to by the coffee or the sweets which they purchase upon returning from work for their children, and even the cab drivers are left idle.

Jaba:

Three soldiers laid a chain of spikes on the lane opposite to the checkpoint. Two stood aside and guarded while their friend stopped vehicles and checked the drivers' IDs.

We couldn't create a model basaed on the cars the soldier decided to stop, and when we asked about the reason that the direction of the checkpoint was reversed the commander replayed: "because that's how we want it".

-         How on earth could we have thought that their action have any logic aside of arbitrariness?

Atara/ Bir Zeit:

On the western side of the checkpoint, between the road and the fallow field, coils of new barbed wire were laid.

Out of the shielded building came a soldier. After satisfying his curiosity regarding who we were and why, he explained about the importance of the post for the security of the country, he said that the soldiers' job was to prevent the Palestinian children from throwing stones at the Jewish vehicles passing on the road: "Their children (the Palestinians' children)", he said"are bored, they don't have any televisions of play stations like our kids, so they come here and throw stones…"

No, he hadn't been to Palestinian homes and hadn't seen this with his own eyes, but that's what the commanders said at the briefing. He also said he had already voted, that a mobile ballot passed between all the pillboxes in the area, because the four soldiers that are posted in any pillbox remain there for four days and have shifts of 3X6 (3= hours of observations, 6=hours of rest or sleep).

In light of the pressure they are under, the density of their quarters, the boredom, the constant fear and the fact that the other, the Palestinian, is in the eyes of the soldiers sub-humans, is it any wonder that the soldiers lose their humanity and take their aggression out by assaulting helpless people?

Translating: Ruth Fleishma

People said that four army busses transported those who had been evicted from Bab-El-Shams, approximately a hundred and fifty people. Those who had been evicted stayed at the site and held a protest for two hours. The Israeli authorities defined the eviction as "non-violent". The results of this non-violence can be seen in following link:

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpalsolidarity.org%2F2013%2F01%2Fpalestinian-village-of-bab-alshams-violently-evicted%2F&h=VAQEmQF8s

By the square that stood bare under the pleasant winter sun I was invited to join a group of young people. They talked about Ahmed who had been arrested ten days previously and had yet to return: "They just take the ones that are easy to catch and not  those that actually throw stones", they talked about how hard it was to make a living, about the idleness that had been forced on them, about the despair, they also spoke of Igal from Beit-El who is responsible for the confiscation of the property of stand owners who don't have a business license (the area is part of the jurisdiction of the municipality of Jerusalem), of arrests, of interrogations and prison: "Do you know room number twenty at the Russian Compound?- it’s the worst", said a young man who talked about an interrogation that went on for two weeks in that awful room, where they tied him to the chair with his hands and legs cuffed and his eyes veiled, and when he asked to see a doctor for the pain he was in, they said they would agree only if he confessed to shooting at the checkpoint. A witness that had been convicted and was already serving a sentence of six years was brought in to incriminate him. And now, a year after he had finished doing his time, he has yet to restore his life.

Ar-Ram:

A New Post Across from the Entrance to Ar-Ram.

Three soldiers at the site said that their job was to defend the entrance to the base Rama (after a rifle had been taken from the guard's post) and shoot at those throwing stones on military vehicles.

And so, a wall defends a wall, a post guards a post and shielded military vehicles need human guards armed with rifles and grenades.

Jaba Checkpoint:

Two trainers and a dog were practicing on Palestinian vehicles.

The soldiers crossed the road and said it was alright by them if I took photos as long as I didn't take one of their faces.

But I won't make any settlements with the army. I remained on the other side of the road. Far away but free.

From there I saw the two trainers signaling the soldiers which of the vehicles to stop, I saw the passengers being taken out, their IDs taken as they were told to stand back, then the dog was led to the car, it walked around it, sniffed, from time to time it jumped and placed it's paws on the cars, at times it found what had been planted for it, and at the end of the round the trainer rewarded the dog with signs of affection and put it back in the unit vehicle- until the next car arrived.

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

Qalandiya:

"Now there is a Hudna", a man explained the difference between the events of last week and the current tranquility. Only the sooty tower with its new inscriptions in solidarity with Gaza, the shattered traffic lights, the entrance gate for the buses that remained closed and a single armored car that was there in case something happened, testified to the events of the passing 

week.

"He was born a month and four days ago…", this is how the mother, with the appearance of a lost child, counts each day as she takes her baby in her arms for hospitalization and treatment in Mukased hospital.

The baby is carried in his mother's bosom, wrapped up to his head with a blanket to protect him from the cold and the dust.

He waited for over half an hour for an ambulance to take him and his mother from the city Jenin, where they live, and even after the ambulance from Jerusalem ar

rive to Qalandiya the soldiers kept inspecting and detaining the newly born and his mother, with repeated inspections of the permits that had been handed hours in advance.

Jaba checkpoint:

The absolute darkness over the checkpoint created a passing moment of false hope that the checkpoint had been canceled.

It's dangerous. It's extremely dangerous for those on the road and those operating the checkpoint. 

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

The Day of Rage

A tide of fury and rage has been sweeping Qalandiya during the past weeks. This week, since the start of the war in Gaza the fury and the army's response had escalated- plenty of shooting, stone throwing, gas, detainees and even one "Grass Widow" had been implemented on the top of the corner building, from where the soldier snipe at the children and guide the other shooters. They are there from the morning until the night, soiling what isn't theirs, or as a friend said to me: "on the roof they do what is usually done in the toilet".

And an old wrinkled woman coming out of the alleys of the refugee camp approached me and told me of the children that had been arrested. I asked: "are they your children?"- "All of the children are mine" she said and asked why I, the Jew, hadn't told the soldiers that what they were doing was forbidden. A young man standing nearby replied:"she did, she yelled at them and they shoved her with force and yelled back at her to shut up"- "Then she should bring her friends from Israel, they should come here and see what they are doing to us", she said and walked away.

After walking a few meters she turned as though she recalled something she had to add, she came back and once again approached me and said: "tell all your friends to come here…", I promised that I would do so. Here I am, telling you.

The entrance to Ar-Ram was blocked and soldiers with drawn rifles were preventing the entrance and exit.

On the opposite side of Jaba checkpoint an officer was training three soldiers and a dog, using the car of a young Palestinian man who was chosen randomly. On the other side of the checkpoint the usual arbitrary routine involving the detaining Palestinians was taking place.

Armed, shielded and threatening, the soldiers stood at the entrance to the village Hizme among others, they stood near a military vehicle at the center of the square in front of the checkpoint leading to the exit from the occupied territories. 

Translating: Ruth Fleishman 

Qalandiya:

Two days before the Muslim New Year, when the colorful holiday sweets were presented purchase and a day before the beginning of the murderous attack on Gaza, I had coffee with Thaer, a student from Bir-Zeit University. It wasn't easy for Thaer to trust and befriend a Jewish woman. His uncle was murdered in the El Aqsa Intifada at Beit Omar. Thaer said that seven bullets punctured his head and his grandfather was also murdered by Israeli soldiers before his birth. "Deaths are a daily matter for us", he said.

Jaba:

A commander spoke about the soldiers' work at the checkpoint:

1.     To prevent Jewish people from driving in the direction of Qalandiya- because it's an A' zone, which is forbidden and dangerous. The young man wasn't actually familiar with the map of the occupied territories and didn't know where the A' zone began and ended, he was also not willing to accept my proposal that we would together look at the map and said: "but there many signs are (leading checkpoint).

2.     To be available and show up in an event of a riot.

3.     To create a "fisher's net" according to the alerts they receive through the radio. That is to stop a vehicles, of a particular color, a particular model and check to see if a particular person who is wanted is inside.

4.     To prevent the transference of weaponry that might be used by terrorists in an attack on Israelis.  

During the entire time I stood across from the checkpoint, between seed cracking and the sipping of juice, the soldiers stopped only vehicles with Palestinian plates, they told them to head to the side of the checkpoint, inspected their papers and the content of their trunk.

The only thing the vehicles had in common was that they were new and extravagant.