18 Cheshvan
November 19, 2016
TODAY’S BLOG:
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Checkpoint:
My Recent Trip to Samaria (Part 2)
*Please check back today for more pictures.
Yesterday we stopped at a point just below the Jewish community of Alfei Menashe (read Part 1 here). You will recall that your humble servant and his wife were taking a trip around a part of Samaria sponsored by Machsom Watch: a group of women that monitor the checkpoints.
From the overlook, we then traveled down into the Seam Zone to a large plant nursery owned and operated by a 40ish Palestinian man from Qalqilya named Ummar–described by our guide Daniela as a “good friend” of Machsom Watch. We sat down in a small circle around a table in an area just to the right of the main entrance.
Ummar, in between helping customers, began by serving us some Arabic coffee in small cups that he poured himself.
He then launched into a 30 minute talk (he spoke in Hebrew and Daniela translated) about what he called the “racist” process at the checkpoints–“racist” he said because there were separate procedures for Palestinians and Israelis (never mind that no Israeli coming out of Judea and Samaria ever murdered anyone).
He described the process at agricultural gate/checkpoints and at other checkpoints. Insofar as the other checkpoints, Ummar said that he tried to avoid them because they “sucked the air” out of his truck into a cannister and then took it to a closed room where they opened it for a dog to breathe. Ummar said that the dog decided if the truck could go into the Seam Zone or not.
Obviously, what Ummar did not way was that the dogs used are specially trained bomb-sniffing dogs.
In any case, Ummar said that regardless of which checkpoint a Palestinian used, the entry process was at least 45 minutes long, humiliating, involving numerous searches and interrogations, and completely unnecessary. After all, he said (Daniela translated), Palestinians are “full of joy and hope” and only want “real peace.”
It should be pointed out that at some point in the midst of Ummar’s “talk”, my wife pointed out to Daniela that she was not accurately translating what Ummar was saying especially when it came to his talking about the “country of Palestine.” Daniela shrugged it off as of little consequence.
It should also be pointed out that in response to a question from our German woman, Ummar said that he pays taxes to the “Authority.” Most of the people in our group thought he meant the Israeli authorities, but when pressed on the point, he said the Palestinian Authority (aka the PLO).
Shortly thereafter, we left the nursery, and walked up the hill to the “horrible” and “awful” checkpoint–with the description of Ummar still fresh in our minds. We were prepared to see monstrous Israeli soldiers humiliating and degrading Palestinians who were cowering in fear of their lives.
However, we quickly realized that what we had been told was completely divorced from reality.
The gate was still closed waiting for the “opening time.” About 15 Palestinians were on the same side we were on. Some of them were sleeping on a bench while others were standing beside the fence laughing and joking among themselves and talking on their cellphones. A few of them were even chatting with the soldiers through the fence.
And about those soldiers. There were three beside the fence. What were they doing aside from chatting with the Palestinians? They were on their cellphones–one was listening to music (or watching a movie); another was sending text messages. The same thing was apparently going on at the fence on the other side. No Palestinians were in any distress; no Israelis were doing anything except looking bored to death.
So the time came to open the gates. One soldier came and unlocked it; the Palestinians pushed the gate open, and vehicles started moving through. The first vehicle, a van/bus carrying women and children was waved through without being checked at all (see Video below). The second, a truck, went through in about 30 seconds after the driver showed a soldier his ID–in this case the soldier and the driver were exchanging pleasantries (“How are you”, etc).
All in all it was a very different scene than the one we had been prepared for.
After a few minutes, my wife and I went over and chatted with the soldiers ourselves, thanking them for their service. They were surprised to say the least. Normally, they said, that is not the response they get from Machsom Watch groups.
A short time later, back on our bus, all Daniela could say was that “some days you get good soldiers, some days you get bad ones.”
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Sure. . . apparently the soldiers we saw are out there a lot of the time–enough to see many groups such as ours.
Below is a link to a video I made at the checkpoint.
As you watch, note:
1. our guide Daniela (short black hair with glasses) talks throughout about soldiers “having guns”, exerting power, and becoming violent to the point that many of them (according to her friend) have to see psychiatrists and social workers after serving at the checkpoints. Listen also for her talking about the “humiliation” of the Palestinians.
2. the Palestinians talking and joking with each other before the gate is opened
3. the Israeli soldier unlocking the gate, and the Palestinians opening the gate
4. the bus/van driving through unchecked
5. me asking Daniela why the bus/van wasn’t checked
6. her responding that no bus went through
7. our saying that maybe it was a “van”
8. her lack of response
A final thought today: are all Israeli checkpoints like the one we visited? Of course not. But what you have seen is what we saw at this checkpoint which was supposed to be an example of something it wasn’t.
From the checkpoint, we traveled next to Nebi Elias, and that is where we will pick up our description tomorrow.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.