'Atara, Qalandiya, Sun 24.3.13, Afternoon

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

Qalandiya:

Unconscious, inside an intensive care kit, a baby of four hours arrived at the checkpoint with a Red Crescent ambulance. The medical crew that moved him into the Red Cross ambulance said that he was being taken to Mukased hospital for emergent hart surgery.

The baby was taken from his mother the moment he was born, and she, who had yet to heal from the birth, didn't escort him. It was probably his grandmother who in sadness and fear sat in the ambulance.

When every passing minute, when any minute might seal the baby's fate to life or death, can such hate crimes still be excused with the coin phrased euphemism "proportionally"? – The source of his word is a high court verdict from years ago, and it had since not been checked and updated as it is set in stone. And even though agreements between the Palestinian Authority and the Red Star of David (also from year ago) state that in emergent incidents ambulances from the West Bank would be permitted to pass and arrive at hospitals in east Jerusalem, this has been prevented  arbitrarily and while forsaking and endangering the lives of others.

In the meanwhile, two other ambulances passed, and inside one of them was a person injured in a car accident who received primary treatment in Ramallah and was in need of additional treatment which the hospitals at the West Bank could provide for him, due to their lack of advance equipment.

And during those afternoon hours, in the vicinity and separately, three teams of BP officers were hunting down humans who had dared to cross without an official permit signed by the authorities: they arrested laborers returning from a day of work, compered their names on their IDs with the ones on their "Tasrih", made sure that it was still valid, pulled over vehicles, inspected busses and came out with a respectable loot in the form of (only) one, not young, man who was placed inside a police car and taken away. "They are probably taking him to the Kalabush", said a lad passing by.

Atara/ Bir Zeit

A new unit flag was hanging from the top of the tower. By it, in the middle of the road, stood the soldiers of the new unit, they were full of faith and motivation, they pulled over vehicles, checked the identity of the drivers, inspected the trunks, exposed merchandise that was being transferred on trucks and vans, and mainly disturbed the traffic at the time when people were making their way back home.

When asked what they were doing, the commander replied: "routine inspection of cars" and explained: "they (the Palestinians) transport all sort of things in their cars".