'Azzun 'Atma, Sun 5.4.09, Morning
Share:
Observers:
Edna L., Ditza Y. (reporting), Translator: Charles K.
Apr-5-2009
|
Morning
07:25 There is a lot of activity at the checkpoint. Laborers wait for their rides to work and employers wait for their workers to come through the checkpoint.About 23-30 people are crowded around the checkpoint gate. The soldiers are from the Rotem unit, home front command. One soldier carefully checks the ID’s of those coming out, taking a minute or two for each inspection.
08:00 (approximately). We left.
07:50 A female soldier joins the first one, and works quickly. The checkpoint empties.A Palestinian from Basmira approaches us, to tell us about a difficult experience he had at the Sara checkpoint four years ago. He went through the checkpoint on the way to a hospital in Nablus, where his wife was hospitalized after a Caesarian. For some reason, the soldier at the checkpoint wouldn’t allow him through; the Palestinian got angry and the soldiers beat him, broke his ribs, and he was hospitalized for a long time. A number of human rights organizations tried to help him. There was to have been a trial, but the soldiers in the photographs he was shown in order for him to identify the one who beat him, were taken from the waist up, and they were in civilian dress, so he wasn’t able to identify his attacker. It’s eminently clear that the Palestinian hadn’t done anything to the soldier, for if he had his entry permit to Israel would have been cancelled immediately – which didn’t happen; his permit wasn’t revoked. But, of course, he received no compensation for what happened to him.
08:00 (approximately). We left.