Qalandiya
An archeologist friend who returned from Egypt immediately following the signing of the Egypt-Israel peace treaty concluded as follows:
-Do you know what maintenance is?
-Yes.
-They don’t.
Why did this come up now? Because a new one-way lane for pedestrians has been opened at Qalandiya in the direction of Palestine.
A terrorist shooting took place near the Ofra settler-colony. Closest to this site is the Palestinian village of Siluad, on whose lands the colony was founded. The Israeli army has blocked all roads to and from Siluad.
Israeli media say Siulad has numerous Hamas activists and even Khaled Mash’al was born there. Even Khaled Mash’al.
A fellow from Siluad who works at the coffee stand in the junction opposite Qalandiya refugee camp told me of a lull in the blockage of his village in the dawn hours, and that he took advantage of this time lapse between closures and hurried out. He already made it to Qalandiya by 4 a.m., four hours before his work day begins.
This is collective punishment of all inhabitants of a whole village only because they are the closest to the attack site, and because this is the easiest way to react.
I don’t know of anywhere else in the world where a child must at all times be with his/her original birth certificate, and cannot move without it.
Seeing the two brothers – the elder 13-years old, a concerned child with a mature look leading his 9-year old brother – as each of them places his birth certificate against the armored glass window of the checking post behind which an armored soldier stands, and each in his turn was questioned to make sure he was he, and only when they were cleared of any imposter suspicion were they allowed to cross the checkpoint, standing behind and next to them I felt that I was witnessing an insidious act of child abuse.
Insidious, why? Because a child should grow up amidsdt affectionate circumstances, not under constant suspicion and threat.
Because a child should be able to walk confidently to wherever he is headed and not fear that he would be denied passage or be detained.
Because adults should be protecting children, not against them.