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Jan-21-2004
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Qalandiya Wednesday PM 21.1.04 Watchers: Daniela Y, Julia W, Diana G, Ivonne M and distinguished guests: French filmakers for TV 2 SECOND DAY OF SHOOTING IN KALANDIA When we reached Qalandiya at 15:35, we looked for the taxi driver who had been hit by bullets yesterday while driving on the main road. The importance of his testimony is to show that the shooting went far beyond the site where the children who were being shot at were running.We didn't find the driver but soon saw a group of Qalandiya children gathering at the top of the hill just outside their village. They could go in and out of their village through an opening in the barbed wire that comprises one of the fences surrounding Qalandiya village. Around 16:15 we saw that the soldiers were getting ready to storm the "very dangerous" children who were gathered at the hilltop, very far away from the checkpoint. One soldier shouted to the others: "Sisu ve-Simchu. yeaaaaaah"!!! [Hebrew, meaning: we'll have a good time now]. Within 5 minutes of the children gathering up the hilltop the soldiers approached in an army jeep. First they threw 2 tear gas grenades and immediately after approached the fence, fearlessly - which showed us that there were no children close to the fence who would pose any danger to them - and started shooting at a 90 degree level, directly at the level of their bodies. Soon after, a second army jeep approached the fence and the soldiers kept on shooting at the children who were running on the grounds of their village.It seems no one was seriously injured because, by the time we left, we had heard no ambulances approaching. It seems that Qalandiya children gather often there, as they lack any community center, swimming pool, tennis court, football court or any other entertainment that adolescents need in order to get their energies out. They were not endangering any soldier, as they were far away from the checkpoint, and therefore there was no need to run after them. During this event we first called the Moked le-Haganat ha-Prat [the Hotline for the Center for the Defense of the Individual] and asked them to begin complaining to the army for the use of shooting (live or rubber bullets) - one of the children of Qalandiya who was recently killed was killed by a rubber bullet. Immediately afterwards, we called the Hotline of the Civil Administrationinfo-icon and reported live all we saw. We first spoke with Yuval, who asked whether the children had kicked the fence. We were absolutely indignant about this question and its implication that kicking the fence brings with it a capital punishment and deserves to be shot at (it seems post factum justification of the shooting of Naamati). We also told the Civil Administration that what we were reporting was backed by film and that it definitely showed the position the soldiers were shooting from, the fire coming out of the guns and the sounds, as well as the angle of the gun when aiming. Soon after, we got a call from Shai, the officer in charge of the Hotline of the Civil Administration, and we again requested to know whether kicking the fence would bring a capital punishment to the perpetrator. He said he didn't agree with this and would check our version with his soldiers. We told him the film would show the angle of the shooting and the circumstances. At the checkpoint proper there were, as usual now, very few people crossing. Most have given up and stay confined to their villages and don't move around, as it is a very bitter and humiliating experience. One of the IDF reservist volunteers, an "AngloSaxon" [native English-speaking immigrant] soldier, approached the TV crew and gave them his interpretation of the roles of MW women and army volunteers: he told them that the MW women and the IDF volunteers actually do the same work, except that the IDF volunteers are doing it from within (i.e. trying to teach soldiers how to behave) and we were doing it from the outside.We asked one soldier how long he had been at this checkpoint and to all our questions he reponded "I don't remember". They have received orders not to provide any information, only misinformation.