Morning

Share:
Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email
Mar-9-2003
|

Arriving at Etzion junction&checkpoint around 7.15 we found the place almost empty of Palestinian presence aside from a score of Palestinians standing outside the fence to the east of the checkpoint. These - all workers from the Hebron district - were caught approximately one and a half hours earlier, when they attempted to bypass the junction and checkpoint, and were made to wait for their confiscated IDs to be returned. Today's restrictions prohibited all Palestinian movement between the Hebron and Bethlehem districts, including that of Palestinian public transportation on the main roads. We tried to find the soldier or soldiers who confiscated their IDs, but to no avail. Returning to the checkpoint, we watched as one of the two soldiers staffing the post ordered a small group, numbering three or four young women pedestrians, to "get lost" ("yallah, ufu mikan"), this in response to the women's pleas to continue their journey in the direction of Bethlehem. Shortly after he joined his partner, who was harassing a truck driverwhose truck carried a load of several hundred large plastic sacks. "You have two options," he was told "either you unload all these sacks and open them one after the other, or you piss off now". The driver, a small man in his fifties, began unloading the sacks, tearing open the wrap of the first one and looking at the harassing soldiers with pleading eyes. We decided, nonetheless, to drive to the nearby military headquarters (located approx. 1 km to the west of the checkpoint) and ask to speak with the officers in charge of the soldiers we just encountered. The soldier at the gate could not help us, but coincidentally, the commander of Etzion brigade, colonel Yaron Boim, was just leaving in his jeep. Speaking with him was another proof that currently it is all but impossible to "communicate" with the higher ranking military officers in charge. Yaron could not care less about the incident at the checkpoint. When asked about the more crucial issue regarding the preventing of Palestinian passage between two adjacent West Bank districts he muttered: "no one is allowed to pass, and that's it. We have affirmation of the Supreme court, and what authority do you (us Watchers) have anyhow? At the El Khadr school, we were told about the shutting down by the military of the elementary boys' and girls' school on Monday last week (March 3rd). The supervisor who speaks good Hebrew welcomed him with a "good morning", only to be ordered to see to it that the school be evacuated in ten minutes. The pretext: a stone that was supposedly thrown at soldiers (on the main road) by children shortly beforehand. The supervisor and other staff members tried their best to persuade the officer that this is a wrong and illogical measure, but the officer went on saying that he wants this to be perceived by the whole as a collective punishment. When the officer noticed how frightened were the boys and girls who left the school compound following his command, he asked the supervisor to calm them and explain that: "no harm will be done to them..." (imagine..). How can I calm the little girls, replied the supervisor, when I myself am terrified of what you are doing.