QALANDIYAH Checkpoint
outside Ramalleh
8/23/2004
When we went through the
checkpoint with Palestinians we were herded together by sex.
At one point we were crowded together so close that I couldn't raise my arms up
from my sides.
In the mid-day heat, the soldier who was assigned the function of selecting who
would proceed
would randomly allow 3 to 4 persons through at a time.
The only way to get through was to let the human current push you
forward to the opening.
The smell of vehicle exhaust mixed with sweating bodies permeated the air, and
fine dust coated everything.
Gunshots rang out from the Ramalleh side of the checkpoint where Palestinian
kids had scaled the concrete wall and placed two Palestinian flags at its top.
When pursued by the soldiers
they began throwing rocks. The soldiers returned fire from their U.S. M-16s.
Someone said that they thought that the soldiers were using rubber coated
rounds. Since there
were no injuries or fatalities I can assume that either the soldiers were very
poor shots or they
were not attempting to inflict serious injury on the youths involved.
I hope the latter was the case.
At one point I counted 37 shots fired in a period of one hour, but traffic went
on as usual at the checkpoint, sadly, the people here are used to these
occurrences.
Soldiers shooting at rock throwing teenagers.
45 minutes it took to get through the checkpoint.
After we got through, we positioned ourselves to monitor activities at the
checkpoint, and stayed
until it closed. Several Palestinian teenage boys had been detained by the
soldiers at the checkpoint, and there was concern about their welfare because
soldiers were seen beating them. Our presence was to help
keep the violence from escalating any further.
Once soldiers were aware that there were international monitors at the
checkpoint I observed that the pace of people being processed increased
drastically, 12 to 15 at a time.
Palestinians were getting through the checkpoint between 5 - 15 minutes during
the
monitoring time, instead of the 45 min. it took us. (Note; a guard change occurred at the time we started our
monitoring, which may have also affected the speed of processing.)
*My apologies for the poor quality of photos, but soldiers at the checkpoint
don't want photos taken so you have to take your shots when you can, and
hope you don't get your camera confiscated.
My question is; if Israel isn't ashamed of the way they treat the
Palestinians then why do they work so hard to keep people from seeing and
documenting what is happening?
We kept hearing that it was for security and for our safety, but I never
felt in danger while in the Palestinian community, and our presence and photos
were no threat to Israeli security.
Sort of reminded me of the
Patriot Act here in the U.S.
Liberties lost for the sake of security.
