Hizma, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya

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Observers: 
Tamar Fleishman Translator: Charles K.
Dec-27-2015
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Afternoon

When guns and fences and cameras and sniper positions aren’t enough to make people feel safe, more layers of protection and more resources are added.  Movable flats loaded with metal bars and concrete eggs which haven’t yet hatched have been brought to the checkpoint.  Maybe they’ll fill the gap.

 

 

A Palestinian man formulated the fear equation:  The more afraid they (the soldiers) become, the more we fear.

 

The date of Ibrahim’s trial – the 15 year old boy who’s been jailed – has been set and the plea bargain has been arranged – Ibrahim will serve 6 months and pay a 3000 shekel fine.

 

The family hopes that when the judge sees the boy he’ll be merciful, maybe take a month off the sentence, maybe two months.

 

He’s a cute boy, he just bought a bike said his brother with a bitter smile.

 

 

At Jaba checkpoint police drilled male and female soldiers:

 

 

 Stopping Palestinian vehicles, collecting the passengers’ documents, removing one of them, standing him off to the side, checking ID numbers, and after it’s all done releasing the victims.

-          How do you decide whom to stop and check?

-          I look at them, said a female soldier.

 

 

 

The soldiers were absent only three hours each day said a Hizmeh resident.

 

They blocked the main exit from the village because:  There’s very good intelligence that someone from the village is planning a stabbing attack in Pisgat Ze’ev or somewhere else, said the commander; they stopped vehicles going toward Highway 60 (not everyone - they must have looked at them..), inspected the ID’s of the men and searched for knives.

 

They didn’t know who that someone was they were seeking, neither his address nor the location of the attack that someone was planning.

 

They only knew that whoever was supposed to know, did know, and that was enough for them to do what they do.

 

 

One exception was a quiet, hesitant soldier who wasn’t sure whether what he was doing was the right thing to do and wasn’t afraid of telling (me) that he’s afraid of the gun.  Also of his own gun.