Tasrih (Arabic for passage permit)

The magic key that opens checkpoints and clears the way to travelling around the occupied territories, that provides at least some illusion of normal life. But there is a caveat to all this: every closure, or encirclement or curfew immediately renders the tasrih invalid. Even worse: a tasrih may be acceptable at one checkpoint and rejected at another, and any soldier can, on a whim, decide to invalidate the document. The body that issues the tasrih is the DCO (q.v.): “Why have you come to the checkpoint if you haven't got a tasrih”? the soldier asked. More than anything else that it may do, this permit underlines the fact that its bearer is not a free man: he is but one level higher than a slave and his fate hangs on the caprice and the mood of anyone in uniform.