Qalandiya

Why must a baby born six days ago with a serious heart defect who is on a respirator, travelling to Tel Hashomer hospital where they may be able to save his life, and who weighs only two kilograms and is accompanied only by his grandmother, because his mother hasn’t yet recovered from the birth and is still hospitalized in Nablus, be detained at the checkpoint, exposed even for a few minutes to Qalandiya’s cold, be disconnected from the oxygen pump that breathes for him and be connected to a different pump and be transferred from one ICU incubator to another?

Because it’s the law.

Why must a woman from Gaza who’s suffering from a blockage in her liver and may develop jaundice pass through the Qalandiya checkpoint and wait for an ambulance to arrive from the West Bank and for everyone, the woman and her papers and her files and the medical staff to be inspected, and the stretcher from Nablus to open and for the patient to be laid on it and be transferred to a different ambulance?

Because it’s the law.

And why can’t a ten year old boy – maybe he’s eleven – go through the checkpoint with his mother who didn’t have his birth certificate in her handbag?

Because it’s the law.

Well, if that’s the law -

FUCK THIS LAW!