Qalandiya - the soldiers destroyed Palestinians' stalls

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Observers: 
Tamar Fleishman; Translator: Tal H.
Jun-9-2020
|
Afternoon
שאריות דוכני הפלסטינים שהחיילים הרסו

When Nitza sent the link to an item describing the violence exerted by Israeli soldiers around Qalandiya Checkpoint ( https://imemc.org/article/israeli-troops-demolish-palestinian-owned-stands-at-qalandia-checkpoint/?fbclid=IwAR3p8vHCfZbTYbNAzG2XCiH9VxDJ60Bpg3k9ANTypBuwCX0Ekn0xPvOLfik )

I was reading and something in me suppressed the details.

Even as I came there and I was told that on the other – east – side of the checkpoint, vendors’ stalls were destroyed, nothing had prepared me for the sight of devastation that once again has fallen upon Abdallah Tamimi and his family.

What until a few days ago was a beautiful fruit stand that provided livelihood to Abdallah and his wife, their three children, his parents and their smaller children – is now a pile of tin rubble discarded at the wayside.

We have had our stand destroyed nine or ten times” said Abu Abdallah who was there at the destruction site, placing several crates with some fruits for sale on top of a wooden board.

The Tamimi family fruit stand was not the victim of the army’s demolition work. The entire area is strewn with tin sheets, the remains of vendor stands, crumbs of attempts of a pittance-livelihood.

A person standing far away and looking at me from the top of a hill saved to me in greeting, and in sign language, without words, joined the roots of his hands in the air as if saying: I was arrested.

בדיקת אישורים

At the entrance space of the checkpoint, where no one can any longer retreat or get away, were the man hunters. They stopped workers on their way home and searched who among these men and women had crossed that morning without holding a transit permit.

A heavy, suffocating scent of anachronism is let out by the brand name “Border Police”, an Israeli unit whose men are partly soldiers, partly policemen. What was founded in 1949 as a military unit called “Frontier Force” changed its appearance and essence in 1950 and became “Border (Guard) Police”, subordinated to police command.

The result is a hybrid unit, a mix of military-policing unit with extended authority, a unit that nothing to do with either guarding or borders.

This is similar to the US “National Guard” that has nothing to do with guarding the nation and is no more than a militia at the bidding of the ruling power’s caprices.