Machsomwatch

 have been thinking for some time about going out with Machsom Watch. My friend Merav, PhD student at Tel Aviv University, is a member, and I met her (at the otherwise not very memorable) Sarah Lawrence conference on women and war. There was Janis Karpinski telling in a keynote about the abuse in the army and how she helps raising the Lynndie England baby (which, dear commentor, does not mean that this is the case); there were lesbian soldiers speaking of the omnipresent sexual molestation and attacks calling out in tearful voice We wanted to say that we are out there! and I was one of the few to ask why do they then participate in the occupation and maltreatment of the civilians. In short, all was very bizarre and the papers as well. And then there was Merav, who was smart, normal, nice, very very bright – boy, is Merav bright – and skeptical of things. She gave a paper she co-wrote with a colleague about the women from Machsom Watch, the checkpoints, the soldiers, and the gender patterns that are negotiated there. (This description does not do justice to the article, but here this summary for the time being). In any case, it was one of those aha-moments one has rarely, by the insightful way of talking about gender and violence in a case that is for once not the Holocaust.

So Merav and me stayed in touch, and it was through her that I found my flat in Baka. Now last week I finally did the big step and went out with her and another MW woman to the checkpoints.

So what is Machsom Watch? you may ask. For one, I listed their homepage on the right side. MW – machsom meaning checkpoint in Iwrith – is a loose women only organisation, or perhaps rather a cluster, of peace activists who go to the checkpoints and monitor there the IDF treatment of Palestinian civilians. They take pictures and write reports and mediate, at times, or ask the soldiers to be more accommodating. They try to get the people out from the confinement cells, and do not let people be harassed and screamed at and beaten. They also know the official rules of what is allowed at checkpoints. Interestingly, the soldiers and particularly commanding officers are very generous in interpreting the rules as it suits them, or plainly making up new ones. It is the rule of one side, really, and it is quite ensobering to become aware of it. Indeed, coming to the checkpoints is very sad, very ensobering, and very much a trip outside of our warm, scure world (as far as Israel it can be). Machsom Watch was awarded among others the Aachen Peace Prize in 2008.

I’ll write more about it, but was meaning to make the first step with this introduction. Right now I am in Washington with Corinna, and telling stories about checkpoint feels unreal and very Cassandra-like. It is also so strange because my radical days are long gone, and it is so for a reason. And yet I am certain (certain as for little other things in my life) that this is the right thing to do.

the men line, in the background you can see the suburbs of Nablus