‘MachsomWatch’ Women Fight for Human Rights in Occupied Territories



T he Second Intifada that broke out at the end of 2000
was characterized by mass demonstrations and later,
by an intensification of violent suicide bombings. In
response, the Israeli army tried to control Palestinians
movement by erecting roadblocks, barriers and checkpoints—first
around Jerusalem and soon spreading mostly inside the West Bank.
The checkpoints—about 60 of which are manned by soldiers who
control the movement of people and vehicles between Palestinian
communities—have become an institutionalized phenomenon
of the occupation scenery, disrupting every aspect of daily life in
the Palestinian community. Economic activity, education, health,
and social contacts are overshadowed by the harsh, and sometimes
arbitrary limitations of the checkpoints. Repeated reports about
humiliations, violence, arbitrariness and human rights abuses at
the checkpoints provided the stimulus for the protest action of
MachsomWatch.
MachsomWatch (hereafter, “CheckpointWatch”) is an Israeli
women’s protest organization, established in the wake of the Intifada
(January, 2001), by a small group of Jerusalem activists, who began
to take shifts at the checkpoints around Jerusalem, witnessing and
reporting what they saw. It has grown to about 400 participants,
organized regionally in four groups: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Beersheva,
and Haifa. It is the largest civilian protest group consistently present
at these Palestinian-army encounters in the West Bank. It is also
the largest organization in the Coalition of Women for Peace, an
umbrella group of nine feminist organizations, founded at about
the same time in 2001. Its main activity is organized
around watching checkpoints along the Green Line and
(mostly) inside the West Bank in groups of two to four
women, usually in two shifts per day.
The “founding mothers” have framed the
organization’s goals, which are basically accepted by
all and declare that in the context of protesting the
occupation and the very existence of the checkpoints,
women will:
a) Monitor the behavior of soldiers and police at
checkpoints;
b) Ensure that the human and civil rights of
Palestinians attempting to enter Israel are
protected;
c) Record and report the results of our
observations to the widest possible audience,
within and without Israel.
Embedded in these goals, is an immanent tension between the
protest function (eye witnessing and reporting) and the humanitarian
action ensuing from the second aim.
Social Composition
The decision to be an exclusively women’s organization was
taken at the outset by the “founding mothers,” emulating other
women’s protest organizations, like Women in Black and Bat
Shalom. This decision was based on a combined ideological-practical
argumentation: “Our quiet but assertive presence at checkpoints
is a direct challenge to the dominant militaristic discourse that
prevails in Israeli society….” This decision rested also on experience
in other bi-gender protest movements, which became “naturally”
male-dominated, pushing women to marginal roles. Though many
of the interviewed women declared that in principle they do not
prefer a one-gender activity, this decision was never challenged
and most of the members agree with its practicality, i.e., that the
presence of women and their style of discourse vis-à-vis the soldiers,
is more effective, and that it emphasizes a civilian presence.
By its social make-up, the group seems relatively homogeneous,
coming from the center of Israeli hegemony: Ashkenazi, educated,
middle-class, mostly Israeli-born or Israeli-educated. They are
mostly non-religious, and there are a high proportion of middleaged
women. Many described their upbringing as being carried out
in the typical, very consensual, Zionist, Israeli spirit. Obviously,
they all are “left” (in the Israeli jargon) and anti-occupation.
However, this relative homogeneity covers a considerable variety
of ideological views and motivational forces, which permeates the
group discourses (in certain cases, heated discussions), unravels
immanent tensions, and affects the decision-making process
within the organization. At the risk of over-simplifying, and
over-generalizing, and though the ideological spectrum could
be described as a continuum, I classify members as “hard-liners,”
“radicals,” a “critical” group, and the more “consensual” and
humanitarian-oriented women, who care about human suffering
and welfare. Though not mutually exclusive, and usually mentioned
by women interchangeably, the “hard-liners,” those with an activist
background, stress the protesting function and the importance
of reporting and testifying against the “injustice and evils of
the occupation.” The “humanitarians” emphasize modifying
the soldiers’ behavior and helping the Palestinians in specific
circumstances as their major mission.
Motivations
In describing their decision to join MachsomWatch, many of the
women speak of a painful process of their “awakening of awareness”
and “disillusionment” after the euphoria of the Six Days War, and
more generally from their uncritical patriotic Zionism, once they
realized the evils of the occupation, and the resulting “destructive
processes” in Israeli society. Investigating further what motivated
their decision to act, three types of emphases appear:
• A wish to protest and testify about the oppression and
human rights violations;
• Concern about the destructive marks the occupation leaves
on soldiers, and its negative effects on Israeli civil society as
a whole:
“Democracy and human rights are indivisible and can’t be
stopped at a line, it [the violations] spreads to the Green Line; the
soldiers are ‘infected’ and will carry it back home.”( N.P.) “I am
not the ‘committee for the Palestinians’; I worry about the horrible
corrupting process that is going on in Israeli society.”(H.B.)
• Concern about mistreatment and human suffering at the
checkpoints and a wish to help the Palestinians.
Organizational Dilemmas
Embedded in the definition of the organization’s charter and
reflected also in the motives of the members is an immanent tension
between the political protest function, and the humanitarian care
intervention, which constantly consumes the Watchers.
Introducing a civilian eye into a situation, otherwise controlled
solely by soldiers, we try to have our reports disseminated as
widely as possible, in effect declaring: “You can’t say that you
didn’t know.”
At the same time, humanitarian concerns drive us to intervene
in an attempt to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians. It is simply
impossible to just stand at a checkpoint and write a detailed report
about what is happening. Intervention may be specific: trying
to modify soldiers’ behavior or to solve a personal problem. It
may be more general: trying to improve the appalling physical
conditions at the checkpoints, or to reverse illogical (and illegal)
decisions, either at a local level, or by talking and meeting senior
army officers. At the request of Palestinians who approach us
with their grievances, we intervene in cases not directly related
to the checkpoints.
Successes and Failures
What has CheckpointWatch achieved in its years of activity?
First, it has made a major contribution in conveying the reality
of the checkpoints to the Israeli public, in attracting attention and
awareness to the “checkpoint regime,” and its implications on every
aspect of daily life of the civilian population. Even the mere fact
that most checkpoints are located inside the West Bank, separating
Palestinian communities from each other, was a surprise to many
Israelis—as was the use of checkpoints and barriers as collective
punishment and of their routine violation of many human rights.
In a world of fast moving communications, our reports also reach
a wider international audience. And, in the long run, they will also
serve as authentic testimonies to future investigators.
Second, though very limited and very problematic, the limited
humanitarian help that the women manage to provide by their
intervention alleviate somewhat the hardships and humiliations
at the checkpoints and in some cases may be critical, making the
difference between getting to the hospital or to a university, or being
sent back, or worse, being detained for hours. We strongly believe,
though we can’t prove, that our mere presence at the checkpoints
has a modifying effect on soldiers’ behavior.
Lastly, at the checkpoints, where only the army and military
police officially represent Israel, we present to the Palestinians a
different face of Israel. The many thanks and welcoming greetings that
we get from Palestinians, beyond the little we can do, strengthen the
belief that this is another important facet of our contribution.
However meaningful, the effect that CheckpointWatch has on
Israeli society should not be exaggerated. We are still a small group,
mocked by many Israelis and often derided as “unpatriotic,” “Arab
lovers,” or “traitors.” Most Israelis believe that the checkpoints are
essential as a major contribution to security and we have not been
able to change Israeli policy in regard to the Checkpoint regime,
let alone the occupation.
Summary
CheckpointWatch can best be defined as a women’s civil
movement; it mobilizes women to protest or support a social-political
issue, rather than to define issues related to gender relations as its
major goal. However, our form of action—women standing opposite
soldiers at the checkpoints—challenges the existing definition of
gender roles and gender relations in Israeli society. Hence, indirectly,
it is also a feminist movement. It is also a political movement, calling
for an end to the Israeli occupation and the system of checkpoints
that helps maintain it.
Continuous activity in CheckpointWatch is a very difficult, tiring,
and at times frustrating routine. Vigils at the checkpoints are carried
out in small groups far from most Israeli eyes. We witness a sea of
troubles and are unable to change the situation or help in individual
cases. Many of the women are faced with indifference or even rejection
in an Israeli environment that does not want to know, does not care,
or contends that “they [the Palestinians] deserve what they get.”
Words like, “shame, “rage,” “desperation,” and “frustration”
are repeated in activists’ descriptions of their feelings about the
checkpoints and about the typical responses of soldiers and Israeli
citizens to their efforts.
Despite this and some unresolved internal ideological and
procedural conflicts, the work of watching and reporting continues.
Moreover, having a closer look at the multiple hardships and
limitations faced by the Palestinians, accentuated by the construction
of the separation wall, women have begun varying their activities.
They now monitor and fight for the regular opening of gates in
the separation wall to allow children crossing to their schools and
farmers to their land. They follow and report detention procedures
for Palestinians at military courts. And they try to help process
Palestinian requests for work permits in Israel, and the like. Worth
noting is the evolution of a separate NGO, Yesh Din (“there is
law”), which collects evidence of settlers’ violence against their
Palestinian neighbors, helps victims to file complaints with the
police and follows official inquiries (or rather, the avoidance of
proper inquiries) into these cases.
Regardless of differences in political persuasion, all
CheckpointWatchers are women who decided that as Israeli
citizens they “should break the silence” and are willing to protest
injustice in the hope that in a long run justice (and peace) will
be restored.

Nura Resh is a sociologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and an active member of MachsomWatch (see www.machsomwatch.
org). This article is adapted, with the permission of the author and
the editors, from a chapter in “Peace, Justice, and Jews: Reclaiming
Our Tradition” (edited by Murray Polner and Stefan Merken, and
published by Bunim & Bannigan, Ltd., 2007).