Punishment

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

A man who was missing an arm stood and looked over through the fence at a police car.

"Stand away from the fence!- don't come near the fence!- don't you understand Hebrew?!..." the tower yelled. The man who was missing an arm stayed by the fence, supported by a traffic sign indicating of a parking spot reserved for invalids alone, and waited. He didn't seem sad or miserable. He just stood there and waited.

Two days earlier, when he was returning with his daughter from the Friday prayers at El-Aqsa, a police officer took his identity card from him. On that day he came back. Perhaps, and he didn't actually know how or by whose hands, they would him his ID back.

"That's him, over there, behind the fence, the man who is missing an arm, over there… "We explained to Moti the police officer. "He could be also missing a foot", said the BP officer guarding officer Moti as he was handing out traffic tickets to those heading out of Palestine.

Moti listened, he spoke on the phone with Nadim Asi who had his ID taken from him by the policeman, and concluded that they wanted to punish him because his daughter did have her Kushan (=birth certificate). But he, said Moti, couldn't help, it might be at the police station behind the checkpoint, maybe at the border police base in Atarot, or maybe at the police station in Nave Ilan or perhaps they simply shoved into one of those boxes… (he was referring to the complaint boxes on the side of the winding roads of Qalandiya passage).

We followed his advice and headed to the military entrance. Avi the police officer came towards us, he wrote all the details, and then he went away and came back, he said that the ID wasn't there, at the police station. He said that Nadim should go to the DCL on the next day to ask whether they had a solution to this problem.

Nadim, the man who was missing an arm, was probably an innocent victim of the overreaction of the security forces to the demonstration supporting the hunger strike of the administrative detainees that was held on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint. The remains of the tear gas still stung in the eyes, steaming fumes of sickening stenches from the skunk machine, rose from the puddles that had accumulated inside potholes on the defective roads and as remains of the fire that had been shot, on the ground laid the empty casing of a:  grenade that is used against protesters known as a RARNAG, it is place on top of the rifle's barrel and shot with a blank cartridge that thrusts the content of the "can" with grate force forward. The can contains small metal balls that are covered with rubber, there are strict orders regarding the use of this weapon. *

*I received this information from an interviewer from Breaking the Silence. 

Translator:  Charles K.

Summary

R., the security coordinator of the Maskiyot settlement, continues to abuse the Bedouin living next to the settlement, with the assistance and cooperation of military commanders in the area.  Recently he again stopped Bedouin at the Tayasir checkpoint for no apparent reason, destroyed a tent in which people were living as well as a shade canopy for sheep on grazing land far from the settlement.  Since the authority of security coordinators holds only within the borders of the settlements, he calls upon soldiers to carry out his wishes, and they do.

We again witnessed cars detained at the Za’tara (Tapuach) junction so the Shabak could interrogate youths, something that now seems to occurr all the time.

The arrest of the Bedouin at checkpoints for no reason, without calling the police or filing a complaint, usually at the initiative of one of the security coordinators, used to be very frequent a few months ago.  Now they’re doing it again.  When we read about the unconditional support of the settlers for the Jordan Valley deputy brigade commander, it was clearly not due only to the beating he administered but primarily because the army units in the area are the settlers’ contractors.

11:20  Za’tara junction – no inspections

11:40  Ma’aleh Efrayim checkpoint – no soldiers 

Between Gitit and Mechora people are again cultivating lands next to the Mekorot pumping station.  In prior years, Eyal Levy from Na’ama in the southern Jordan Valley was in charge of the work.  There’s no settlement near the fields.  The packing house adjacent to the cultivated fields is still abandoned.  We note that the fields receive water from Mekorot.

We drove into the Hamra settlement out of curiosity.  The guard at the gate asked us what we wanted.  What’s most noticeable is the profusion of greenery and well-cared-for landscaping in this arid region.  The water allocation to the Bedouin is 0 (zero), none even for drinking, and the permanent localities are allocated only one-tenth of what the settlements receive.

12:25 Hamra checkpoint

A semi-trailer is loading concrete cubes that had been placed on the road to divide it into lanes.  The checkpoint is empty most of the time.

M.A., who lives opposite the Maskiyot settlement, was again arrested last Saturday and held for a few hours at the Tayasir checkpoint.  R., the settlement’s security coordinator, initiated the arrest.  The reason wasn’t clear.  Since he has no formal authority beyond the borders of the settlement, he calls soldiers to carry out the punishment.   Such behavior had been frequent in the past.  Last Saturday he called soldiers to demolish a canopy that had been erected on grazing land three kilometers from the settlement to shade the sheep from the terrible heat.

A., a member of the Darajmah family, has for decades taken his flock during the summer to the area near Maskiyot.  When he set up his tent this year as usual, R. appeared, accompanied by soldiers, arrested him at the checkpoint and, in his absence, ordered his sons to demolish the tent.

14:15  Tayasir checkpoint

The checkpoint is usually empty at this hour

15:25  Gochia checkpoint

As usual during recent months, it’s closed, no soldiers and no locals.

16:05  Ma’aleh Efrayim checkpoint

A large armored vehicle stands in the middle of the checkpoint.  A soldier sits on the steps of the cab.  Palestinian cars go through freely.

16:25  Za’tara checkpoint (Tapuach junction)

Two border police soldiers are taking a handcuffed Palestinian youth from one of the concrete shacks to the other side of the white metal fence, apparently (based on past experience) for interrogation by the Shabak.  We don’t know how long he’d been handcuffed, nor what finally happened to him.  We stayed only half an hour (after a long shift in the Jordan Valley).  The border police soldier in charge said that it hadn’t yet been decided what to do with him.  His family hadn’t been notified.  He was filling out a report, apparently about the youth’s arrest.

The procedure is for border police soldiers, who are in charge of the checkpoint, to randomly stop taxis whose passengers include young men, send them over to park in the plaza, detain them until documents are inspected and someone decides who’ll be interrogated by the Shabak.  If the interrogation drags on they try to convince the taxi driver to continue on his way, apparently because they don’t want cars to accumulate.  During the half hour we were there, three taxis were stopped and one person was taken for interrogation.  He hadn’t returned by the time we left.  Two taxis continued waiting more than 20 minutes.

The border police soldier has more authority than the soldiers, which may be the reason they’re the ones who’ve recently been manning this junction, to make it easier to arrest people when instructed to do so by the Shabak.

While we were waiting a border police soldier went by, accompanied by a Jewish civilian (who seemed to be a friend or acquaintance) who threatened to smash our car windows if we didn’t leave immediately.  He said he lives in the area.  The police officer didn’t respond to his threats; both continued on their way.

Since the last time we were here two weeks ago, a fence has been erected between the road toward Huwwara, as well as the soldiers’ buildings, andthe plaza.  Two pedestrian entrances allow people to move between the two areas.  We saw a man in civilian clothes emerge from the other side of the white wall behind which the youths had been taken for interrogation, talk on a cellphone and then go back inside.

Qalandiya:

The heavy traffic gave no evidence to the desertion and neglect at the pedestrians' checkpoint.

One of the cab drivers standing at the entrance to the checkpoint said that it took him that morning two hours to cross Jaba checkpoint towards Azaria, and then two additional hours on his way back. The soldiers placed barbed wire on the road and each time gave permission for only five vehicles to pass.  

Jaba checkpoint:

Two soldiers stopped a vehicle heading to Ramallah. The four passengers were taken out to the car and their IDs were examined.

Bir Zeit:

We didn't have the time to mount the hill on which Bir Zeit checkpoint is located, however due to their curiosity the pair of soldiers manning it troubled themselves and came down to find out what was going on.

On arriving at the road ascending towards the checkpoint we noticed a police vehicle and a military jeep. Two traffic cops were investigating a Palestinian driver that was pulled over, while three reserve soldiers were observing them. We inquired regarding to the driver's offence and learned that he had been talking on his cell phone while driving. Not long after he was permitted to drive on, another vehicle was pulled over and in it were six Palestinian women, four of them were seated in the back seat of the car. The Hebrew speaking police man of the two detected "propaganda material" (the flag of Palestine) in the car and asked one of the soldiers to inspect the vehicle, but the soldier replied that it wasn't necessary. None of the present party had a sufficient knowledge of Arabic so as to understand what the passengers were saying, but it soon became clear that the elder woman among them had needed medical treatment and that they were then already on their way back to Ramallah where they live. Things got more complicated when it turned out that the driver had forgotten her driving license at home, she was forced to stop a taxi, go to Ramallah, take her license, return and present it before the traffic cops. The rest of the drivers waited for her at the spot where they pulled over.

While we were waiting we chatted with the reserve soldiers. One of them explained that the bible does not distinguish between "the State of Israel" and "the Land of Israel", and therefore all the lands of the country are part of the state of Israel. This is also the case with Sinai and the Eastern bank of the Jordan River. After a long conversation and once the soldiers who were in the midst of their patrol decided to get back on the road, they invited us to participate in the memorial ceremony at the "town" Atara. We decided to give it a miss.

The traffic cops found time to arrest an additional vehicle. The driver was Yatma, a fifty one year old metal merchant from the village Kablan. The policeman asked on the radio for someone come and pick him up since it was suspected that there was an attachment order on his car. We stayed there for a while with the policemen, the passengers from Ramallah who were waiting for their driver to return with her license and the metal merchant. Suddenly, the two soldiers standing at the Bir Zeit checkpoint began marching in our direction, until finally joining the waiting crowd. One of them took a photo of the sun setting over the mountains of Samaria with his smart phone, and the wanted to know whether we weren't "into sirens and memorial ceremonies". The soldier was also worried that he might not be able to hear the siren, but the Hebrew speaking policeman told him that the siren that emerges from the speakers of the "town" Atara can be heard very well near Bir Zeit checkpoint.

Suddenly, the taxi with the driver from Ramallah arrived. She presented her license before the policeman who gave her a ticket specifying three offences: driving without a license, driving with six passengers in a vehicle that is intended for five and (as a result) driving while one passenger didn't have her seat belt on. The fine added up to 250 Shekels, but the specification of the offences was written only in Hebrew. Once the ticket was given to them they were permitted to head on to Ramallah. A short while afterwards, appeared two friends of the metal merchant, one of them was asked to take the detainee's vehicle and drive it home (because as it turned out, there was no attachment order on the vehicle). The friend told the policeman that he had spoken to the detainee's lawyer and that they were under the impression that the whole ordeal had ended a year ago. The policeman replayed that he didn't actually know what it was about, but that the detainee would be now taken for interrogation at the police station near the settlement Yizhar, if he wished to help his friend (who didn't speak Hebrew) he could come along.

We left the junction leading to the checkpoint an hour and a half after arriving there.

Translator:  Charles K.

Photos:

Ruins of the Sawaftah family’s house.
 El Hama Ruins of the bathroom after it was demolished.
 A daughter doing homework in their temporary tent.
The chicken that survived the destruction.

On Monday, 26.3.12, darkness fell on Khabis Sawaftah’s family.  While the family members were busy with their morning tasks, two bulldozers, 12 vehicles 

from the Civil Administration, Border Police personnel and about 40 additional soldiers descended on them, ordering them out of their home.  Khabis, his wife and their five children stood 20 meters away, the soldiers standing between them and the house, watching Civil Administration personnel dumping their belongings, sacks of lentils and rice tearing and spilling everywhere.  Blankets and mattresses, schoolbooks and clothing – all tossed around as if they were garbage.

When they finished emptying the house of its inhabitants’ lives, Civil Administration personnel entered to photograph the empty structure (to prove that the compassionate occupier destroys only empty homes and not, God forbid, their contents).  Then it was the reaper’s turn; in a few minutes the home had been turned into a pile of stones, boards and plastic sheeting.

The family cat refused to abandon her kittens; the house was demolished around them.  But cats, of course, have nine lives, and a few hours later the family saw the cat climbing out of the rubble, carrying her six kittens, hale and hearty.  The chicken that hid in the aluminum stove also survived but, traumatized, refuses to leave it.

The lives of Khabis and his children (the oldest is 13) have been destroyed.  Khabis is a wage laborer, the poorest of the poor, living on land belonging to our friend Nidal, which is registered in his name in the tabu – the land registry.  Nidal employs him to cultivate the fields and take care of the date palms in return for meager pay and housing.  But they somehow managed to survive.  Now the house is gone, everything that provided even a minimum of security, a place to lay their heads, store some food and shelter from the burning sun and the rain – all gone.

People from the UN, the Red Cross (which brought a small plastic tent) and many politicians from the Palestinian Authority arrived a few hours later with fine, encouraging words, praise for the family’s steadfastness, their attachment to the land, the same politicians who disappear immediately afterward, leaving Khabis and others like him to deal with demolition orders and to pay court fees ofmore than 1000 shekels to delay the demolition order (the homes of those who paid weren’t demolished).  Khabis has barely enough money for food and books for the children – how can he pay court fees?

After they depart, Khabis is left with his pain, helpless – what happens now?  What can he say to Khaled, his 13 year old son, who refuses to greet the Jewish women two days after their countrymen destroyed his life, looking at us with such justifiable hatred.  And we sit with the family, the little girl seated on the ground in the tent doing her homework, listening to them tearfully repeat what occurred during those forty terrible minutes.  And we have nothing at all to say in reply.  Because, no matter how much solidarity we feel, we can’t even begin to imagine how terrible it must be when a bulldozer demolishes your home.

But, when we leave, Khaled lowers his head as we pass, whispering in Hebrew, “Goodbye.”  And my heart breaks.

According to the OCHA report:  “At El Hama and Furus Bet Dajan, on 26.3.12, six residential buildings, three structures housing animals and three storage buildings were demolished, leading to the forcible uprooting of 36 persons, including 13 children.”  The army demolished an additional 12 structures housing animals at Khumsa and El Farsiyya, affecting the livelihoods of 40 people who are particularly weak and vulnerable and have difficulty surviving in any case.  And during the previous week the army demolished structures at Fasi’el-al-Wista and Jiftlik. 

Every such incident makes entire families homeless, broken and at a loss, like that of Khabis.

We saw no point on such a day to record that people were delayed ten additional unnecessary minutes at a checkpoint, or had an annoying wait for the occupier to wave them through.  Today we let the checkpoints be.

What, then, did we do?  We met A., who gave us a power of attorney document for a lawyer.  A. had been jailed in the Ofer base; his belongings (telephone, money) weren’t returned when he was released.  The lawyer will try to obtain them.

Then we met S., who had also been released from jail. Two weeks ago they’d brought him in the middle of the night to the Shomron gate, an entry point to Israel, and released him.  Only then did he discover that the police officers hadn’t brought his ID with them.  S. walked from the checkpoint along Highway 5 for an hour and a half, at night, without an ID card.  Why did he walk?  Because Highway 5 is an apartheid road, Palestinians are forbidden to drive on it, settlers and other Israelis won’t stop for him and give him a ride to the nearest locality where he can get a taxi.  When I telephoned Hadarim prison to ask about the ID, I was told that only S. or his lawyer was allowed to come pick it up.  But how can S. come to Israel (the jails are in Israel, in violation of the Geneva Convention) without an ID?  Get a lawyer – and who’ll pay?  He hasn’t any money.  So S. is stuck, unable to move around, confined to his home because he has no ID.

And that’s it.

The occupation’s routine in the Jordan Valley.

Translator:  Charles K.

An eviction order was issued to the brothers of the Darajmah family living on the outskirts of the Maskiyot settlement.  This was after considerable harassment by the settlers, led by the settlement’s IDF security coordinator who, in one incident, abused the Bedouin’s horse so badly that he killed it.  The horse’s owner was afraid to file a complaint.  The harassment was intended to make their lives so unbearable that they’d leave.  Now the Civil Administration is doing what the settlers want, ordering the Bedouin to remove his encampment, his family and his flock within 30 days, or else bulldozers will forcibly remove him.  The land belongs to the Christian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, which does not object to the Bedouins’ presence, but it won’t fight for them.  He also contacted an attorney who said nothing can be done.  Yesh Din apparently said the same thing.

*

The Civil Administration foiled an EU initiative to construct a water cistern for the benefit of the Bedouin shepherds in the area of Hamam el Maliah, after having dispossessed them from the spring next to the Maskiyot settlement.

*

The young shepherd who had been severely beaten by Rotem’s security coordinator dared file a complaint with the police, which indicted the attacker.  That’s truly a revolution in the behavior of the Jordan Valley authorities – to indict a settler for harming a Bedouin?!

*

The Shabak detained Palestinian police officers from Nablus, on their way to a conference in Jericho, at Tapuach junction to inspect their documents.

***

Za’tara checkpoint – Tapuach junction  11:15

Three Palestinian vehicles detained in the plaza for document inspection.  Border Police soldiers give the documents to someone behind the plaza’s white fence.  The people being checked say the Shabak conducts the inspection.  It looks like there’s a special operation today to check documents of people coming from the direction of Nablus.  Only young men are in almost all the vehicles.  After one car is released, the one following is detained, about three at a time.

When we reached Hamra we understood the reason for the operation.  Today there’s a Palestinian police conference in Jericho that will last ten days, part of the “cooperation” between Israeli and Palestinian security services, or Israeli retaliation for Palestinian Authority policies.  Anyway, the detainees didn’t appear concerned by the delay.

In one car, which apparently didn’t contain police officers, was a Palestinian who’d come from Jordan after having lived there four years.  He didn’t have an ID, which apparently had been taken from him, only a photocopy of it.  He also was allowed through.

Kusra

Again we ran into the man accused by the Palestinian police of collaborating with the Shabak.  His brother was shot and killed by Palestinian police officers, and he also has been arrested a number of times, interrogated and tortured.  He fears for his life; he doesn’t know who could help him.

The fields between Ma’aleh Efrayim and Mechora, near the abandoned packing house, are starting to be cultivated again, after we were told last month that all the fields that had been cultivated by Eyal Levy had been abandoned.

Hamra checkpoint – 12:35

Light traffic.  People coming through the checkpoint complain of inspections that are too rigorous.

Vehicles coming from the Jordan Valley to the West Bank aren’t inspected.  On the other hand, everyone travelling from the West Bank to the Jordan Valley is carefully checked.  Every bag goes through the scanner.

Police officers are crossing here also on their way to the Jericho conference.

Tayasir checkpoint – 14:30

Children from the encampments on the other side of the checkpoint, who attend school in Tubas, have kilometers to walk.  A few got rides.  The unit serving at the checkpoint has been replaced by soldiers from the Kfir brigade.  They welcome us.

Light traffic, no lines.

There’s a group of soldiers and about 20 pup-tents in the wadi next to the road from the Tayasir checkpoint to Hamam el Maliah, as well as larger tents and an army truck.

Gochia checkpoint – Closed, as usual, at the time it’s supposed to be open.  We called Zaharan, from the DCO, who said that he himself made sure it would be open, though he couldn’t come today.

An army vehicle arrived at 15:30.  The stopped to see whether we were alright (we’d forgotten our flags today, so they couldn’t identify who we were).  They told us they belonged to a unit at the Tayasir base responsible for opening the gate; since they arrived, they come to the gate each morning at 08:30, and if someone crosses they also come in the afternoon to open it.  No one crossed today, so they didn’t come to open it at 15:00.  This sounds like a reasonable arrangement; the question is, whether they’ll stick to it.

Ma’aleh Efrayim checkpoint – 15:20  Soldiers on site inspect vehicles entering the Jordan Valley.

Za’tara–Tapuach junction – 16:35  Two Border Police soldiers, no inspections.

Translation: Ruth Fleishman

Photos:

Starting afresh

Once the vegetable stalls were here

At the endless traffic jam at the entrance to the checkpoint, a bus driver had the top half of his body hanging outside, he addressed Roni and said: "Tell the people from the Association for Civil Rights to come here, so that they see what goes on, I've got a lot to tell them". And a by passer asked: "Write, tell people about this place…"

Since soldiers lead by people from the administration had raided on the peddlers at the checkpoint and its surroundings, old Abu-Suliman's cart, who sells candy for a Shekels and salted Lupines for two Shekels, is positioned outside the entrance to the checkpoint construction. Because peddlers are forbidden to stand inside roofed construction, according to the directive of the municipality and the soldiers who abide by its dictation. By Abu-Suliman's cart, Fadi placed a fruit cart that was only half stocked.  
Fadi still hadn't recovered from the financial loss that he suffered after the entire merchandise of that day was thrown away, a thing that happened not before the arrival of the representative of the administration who drew a camera in front of him and in a humiliating and embarrassing gesture, immortalized Fadi's image as he stood by his source livelihood.

Everyone fears the return of the representatives of the occupation who impose law and order. No one knows when and from where might they appear and who will be the victims next time, but the people around there know, after years of standing there, that the current tranquility is temporal and fragile

.
But the law of survival and that which existence necessitates are forceful and plenty, and the loss of work days is a privilege that the Palestinians here can't afford.
And just as before, like the phoenix, they rise up from the wreckage and destruction and start over again.
And what had up until a few days been fruit lane by the side of the main road, gives evidence to what took place that day. That lane is still deserted and his now the lane of filth and garbage.

Translation: Ruth Fleishman

Precisely fifty years ago, on the eighteenth of March 1962, the French occupation on Algeria ended.
The occupation lasted 132 years.
And what about our region?- The reality that is depicted in the thousands of testimonies given by victims and thousands of oppressive rifles and the violation of human rights , indicates that the occupation is insatiable, it only betters its grip and perpetuates itself and invades and destroys everything that hadn't already been oppressed, crushed and destroyed.  

And so, as part of the relentless bulling of the men in uniforms, "Yigal from Beit El" (so people said) stood at the head of the force that raided the fruit stands that were placed on top of mobile or immobile carts, along the road leading from Qalandiya to Ar-Ram and around the squares, he wouldn't stop before the theft and destruction were complete: equipment was confiscated, mountains of fresh fruit were thrown into the piles of rubbish that are never cleaned, and anyone

who had managed to build a shop on top of boards and canvases was threatened/promised that if he, A.- G., doesn't take it down himself by next week, the army will complete the destruction.
Apart for the destruction that "Yigal" and his people had created and apart for the financial loss of all the victims which adds up to thousands for Shekels for each person, the livelihood for their families had been shattered and they had lost the source of income that scarcely enabled them to provide for their household members.

Translator:  Charles K. 

The Judea and Samaria district police also do their part to embitter the lives of the Jordan Valley’s Palestinian residents.  Last week N., a police officer, issued a NIS 1000 ticket to M.A., a shepherd, because he had crossed the Alon road with his flock.  Since the grazing land is on the other side of the road, he has no choice but to cross it twice a day.  There’s very little traffic on the road.  The traffic ticket stated that (only) one car was delayed.  Why did he get a ticket?  To teach him not to cross the road?!  The next day, the same police officer, a resident of a nearby settlement, issued a NIS 250 ticket to each of two passengers in a car who he claimed weren’t wearing seat belts.

I assume the amounts are those set by Israeli law, but the occupied territories, and the Jordan Valley in particular, are the Third World, with a Third World economy.  A laborer in a settlement earns about NIS 70-90 a day, without any benefits, and still has to pay for transportation.  NIS 1000, in the Jordan Valley, is a huge amount.  That’s oppression!

Gochia checkpoint

The checkpoint, through which tractors can reach the Alon road from the west, is supposed to open three times a week for half an hour in both the morning and the afternoon.  During the past six months, we found it open three times.  All the other times we called the DCO, who promised it would open, but it didn’t.  That’s how they showed the area’s Palestinian residents that there’s an additional restriction on movement within the Jordan Valley, and nothing can be done about it after the barrier ditch, preventing vehicles from crossing the road from west to east, was deepened.

Shomron gate 10:50

Two Border Police vehicles and a few soldiers on the side into the occupied territories.  It’s not clear why they’re there.  There are no delays.

Tapuach junction - 11:00

No soldiers, neither when we returned.

Ma’aleh Efrayim checkpoint

No soldiers, neither when we returned.

The cultivated fields of the Mechora settlement have expanded southward.  A number of new chicken houses.

Hamra checkpoint 11:45-12:05

A woman and two men wait for their taxi to come through the checkpoint.  The taxi driver carries all their belongings to the scanner by himself – two heavy boxes, and a heavy bag. The soldiers stand and watch as a man, who’s not very young, carries the heavy belongings back and forth, and it’s inconceivable that any of them would help him.  That’s what the lengthy occupation has accustomed us to.  There are rulers, and there are subjects.

The tent encampment opposite the settlement of Maskiyot

Last week M.A. grazed his flock on the other side of the Alon road.  He had to cross the road to return to his tent.  A police officer from the Ma’aleh Efrayim station, who happened to pass by, issued him a ticket for NIS 1000 for “obstructing traffic.”  It should be noted that a car passes on that road only about every five minutes.  The police officer noted on the ticket that (only) one car was obliged to wait.  We should note that the same police officer, who lives in one of the settlements in the area, issued tickets in the sum of NIS 500 to two Bedouin traveling on the same road for not using seatbelts.

A handicapped girl, about six years old, lives in this encampment.  Her feet are twisted; she can't walk.  A few years ago she underwent an operation on her spine in Ramallah.  Her father bought her a wheelchair for 200 or 300 shekels, in poor condition.  She’s a lively, cheerful girl, impish, somehow manages to move around and play with the other children.  She attends school in the tent encampment below Maskiyot.  Her father says the doctors told him nothing could be done for her.  We have to think of a way to help her.

Translator:  Charles K.

We made our regular visit to Huda’s kindergarten in Hashem al Darj, near Umm el Hir.  We arrived with a car full with donations to the residents of Umm el Hir, and material for the kindergarten.

Hashem al Darj

We arrived at the kindergarten, in its new building adjoining the old one.  No dramatic changes were visible, but as we drew closer we saw people working, installing windows, ceramic tiles, etc. inside.

But…good heavens!  The kindergarten is closed!

We called and called, but no one replied.  Huda, the kindergarten teacher, doesn’t answer her cellphone.  We wondered whether to go to her home and decided it wasn’t advisable, for personal reasons.

We asked the people working there, who told us that the kindergarten had been open during the past few days, including yesterday.  We wondered – what happened today?! – and returned to Umm el Hir.

Umm el Hir

Eid told us what had happened that week – again buildings were demolished in Umm el Hir, his village.  People from the Civil Administration arrived and again demolished the home of a widow with nine children, the oldest of whom is 20.  The residents immediately erected a tin shed right next door.  We went to visit the woman and her family.  We gave her the goods we’d brought, including a small cabinet donated by our friend Patty.

We listened to what their neighbors felt about what the “bad Jews” had done, and saw the horrible scene with our own eyes. 

We also left for the residents the fruits and vegetables we had brought for the workshop in the kindergarten, and drove home.

Translated Dvora K.

A cold rainy day.

Summary:

The person responsible for security in the settlement of Maskiyot continues to make trouble for the residents in the area, in collaboration with military units serving in the region. Last week there were two incidents in which he initiated the illegal arrest of shepherds for 4-5 hours, and soldiers actually carried it out. In both cases they did not call the police, and that's proof that there was no legal reason for the deed. After 'the punishment was applied in full', the shepherds were freed to go home.

We heard complaints about unnecessary delays at the Tyasir CP. We ourselves saw an eight-minute halt in which no vehicle could go through the CP; there was no apparent reason for this. This was after we had left the CP and stopped to observe from a distance.

Gochiya Gate again was not opened until 15:45.

Tapuach Junction–11.25

There are no inspections. Near the guard tower that overlooks the road before Ossrin, a military vehicle is parked

Kussara

We met a man who told us that the Palestinian police are pursuing him, claiming that he is a collaborator [with Israel]. He was arrested several times and has spent time in jail. That is why he is having a hard time earning a livelihood for his family. His brother was killed by the Palestinian Authorities because he too was accused of collaboration. At the entrance to Kussara there is a  second hand goods store, for which the name 'second hand' is too grand. The items for sale are terribly ragged things that somebody has brought from the flee market in Jaffe and sells here.

Ma'aleh Efraim – 12.10:

There is no inspection. A military vehicle is parked near the CP. We did not see any inspections on our way back either.

Hamra CP – 12.30

A white Brinks van is parked near the CP and bars the left lane. When we returned it was still parked there in the same place. While we stayed there was a steady stream of people and cars in the usual speed. The passengers get out of the cars which come from the west, go through the pedestrian CP and wait for their vehicles in the cold rain for several minutes. Every time they refurbished the CP, no one has thoughtto have consideration for the thousands of people who go through the CP daily, whether they wish to or not, and must wait in the cold and in the rain in winter, and in the terrible heat of the summer.

The vehicles that come from the east, from the direction of area A, are not inspected.

In the encampment opposite Maskiyot: three weeks ago we talked with a shepherd who's been arrested illegally by R., the security person from Maskiyot, who was helped by a group of soldiers who actually carried out the arrest. This was done with the excuse that he'd come too close to the settlement fence with his herd. The shepherd was held in the CP for three hours, and then released.

Last Friday, he was arrested again. In the middle of the day he was taken from his herd which was left without anybody to watch it, for four hours.

In another encampment we were told about another case of a shepherd taken to the Tyasir CP – again on the initiative of R., who called on the army to make the arrest. The shepherd phoned N. from the Association for Human Rights. She arrived at the Tyasir CP but he was taken to the Hamra CP with the claim that he doesn't have an ID card and was kept there for five hoursa lltogether. In the end, he was released and no complaint was submitted to the police.

The same woman from the Association for Human Rights is calling a meeting of the Bedouin who live in the area in order to explain to them what their rights are and how they can fight for them. We appealed to the organization 'Yesh Din' ['There is Law'] after we received the agreement of the people involved to put in a complaint.

Tyasir CP – 13:50

When we arrived at the CP it was empty of cars. During the time we were there a few cars went through at the usual speed.

14:20– Three cars have already been waiting for five minutes and not a single one goes through. Only after an unexplained pause of eight minutes did the traffic begin to move.

Before this the residents of the encampments, who have to go through the CP regularly, told us that there are long delays to get to the urban center of Tubas . Somebody told us that yesterday at 10:00, not a rush hour for traffic, he's waited at the CP for about an hour, on a tractor open to the wind and the cold.

Guchiya Gate – 15:10

The gate is closed. We rang Zaharan at the Jericho DCO every ten minutes. He spoke with the person responsible for sending the soldiers to open the gate. They told him that the soldiers had been sent there, but none arrived. Those who needed to go through the gate did not get there either, because they knew it would not be opened.