Health Problems

Translation: Ruth Fleishman

The Gate of Mercy or Palestinians have Patience in Abundance. Life they scarcely have.

An hour and twenty minutes is a lot of time when you are at the checkpoint and you advance only by twenty meters, given that it's not even the rush hour and most people are heading towards Palestine and not out of it.
After years of experience you know better than to wonder about that which is beyond you and which you will never understand. Only the soldier in the glassed post, who was driven out of his bubble by boredom, tried to explain: "It's in accordance with the orders… yes, the checkpoint commanders can see through their plasma screens everything that is going on both inside and outside… it's probably because the computers crashed…"  The soldier also showed some compassion for the parents of an ill baby who kept coughing and suffocating from the cough, they were on their way to get treatment in a hospital and when hearing their cry he opened the bullet proofed window, clenched the fingers of his right hand together and signaled them: just a moment…
The concerned parents stood in front of the post trying to shield their son from the Qalandiya chill and waiting for the "Gate of Mercy" to open. From time to time the distressed father would shout out to the soldier, and he would display once again the same signal with his hand, as if to say: patience…

Palestinians have Patience in Abundance. Life they scarcely have.
After only half an hour the gate opened for them, but not before an officer made sure that the infant's parents were "Kosher" and presented no danger to the safety of the Israeli state.

"In spite of it all I was lucky":
The "in spite of it all" which A mentioned to us, is his daily queuing up in the lines of Qalandiya, when finishing his day at work in Ramallah and returning to his home in East Jerusalem a journey that takes three hours.
The "in spite of it all" is also the constant threat, expressed or hidden, each time when A has to renew his permit to stay in Israel under family reunification (-such a long name for such a malevolent procedure) and when A recites before the person who will verdict whether he will receive the rod or grace: "I'm clean…", he is told that according to the computer, as a child he threw a stone. The throwing of the stone stands for the original sin that is always before him. And once, due to his infant crime he was denied the permit and only a lawyer could annul this harsh sentence, for that time.
The "in spite of it all" is also the pain he feels for his son who is bullied by Jewish children at his tennis lessons: "He is an Arab".
But mostly, the "in spite of it all" is the uncertainty and the fragility what the future holds for him and his family.  

And A told us: "in spite of it all I was lucky, since four years ago they discovered I had cancer in my stomach, because I have a permit, I got treatment at Augusta Victoria and not at the West Bank".

- A Kid's Toys:
"What have you got there?" the tens of people cramped at the metal bars heard the soldier say.
"A kid's toys", replied the interrogated person.
While grasping his son by his hand the man stood at the bullet proofed window, behind which sat the interrogator.
"Then open it so I can see!" said the soldier.
The man let go of his six year old son and the content of the bags was taken out according to her orders. There were neatly folded clothes as well as some toys in plastic wrappings.
"Spread it all over the floor!" screamed the soldier.
One by one the clothes and toys were placed on the filthy floor at the soldier's feet. The child, of whom the father let go, cramped himself to the wall, embraced a plastic rifle and looked straight into the lost eyes of his humiliated father standing in front of him.

-His time- Her time:
"I've been standing here for an hour…" complained a young man who reached the soldier's window, and she put forth before him a speech of reproof that was heard from one side of the checkpoint to the other: "You've been standing here for an hour? Really??? Do you know how long I've been here? Take a guess! Come on, guess! – Throw a number!- Got nothing to say! Then I'll tell you, I've been here for twelve hours! All day, all day, twelve hours! It's a little more than an hour, isn't it? Then that's it, no more complaints from you!"
The young man picked his belongings from the convey belt and made himself scares as the soldier finally said: "I need to pee!"

Translator: Hanna K.

Destruction in the Bedouin village Arab Ar-Ramadin

13:30 Habla – A tractor and a truck loaded with plants leave the village. 7 pedestrians are waiting to go in. It is quite in the area. There is nothing exceptional.

The door of the building above the well is open and we enter. We meet A. who is responsible for the coordination between the DCO and the plant nurseries, lives in Kalkilya, is the owner of a plant nursery and moreover is responsible for the 5 wells in the area. He tells us that the well isn't connected to the electricity and is therefore activated by diesel oil  which is much more expensive. Each farmer has to pay 2000 Shekels for water instead of 400 Shekels he would have had to pay had the well been connected to the electricity. There is underground water in the wells, which date from the thirties, serve all the farmers in the area and he cannot understand why the civil authority prevents them from connecting an electrical cable (3 phases) from the electricity pole which is situated 50 meters from the well.

He speaks fluent Hebrew and we continue our conversation with him and ask about other problems, and he tells us that soldiers destroyed on Monday two building in the Bedouin villagte of Arb A-Ramadin.

The childrens bus leaves at 13:55and we follow it to the village.

14:10 Arab Ar-Ramadin. At the entrance we meet a local Bedouin and he leads uf to the two houses which have been destroyed by the IDF. On Monday at 07:00 fifty soldiers arrived at the village on two jeeps and two tractors which immediately began the destruction work. A warning had been given a week before, but on Monday morning the inhabitants we removed from their houses and were not given the chance of taking out the house's contents. In one house live a couple and seven children and in the other a couple and ten children. Furniture, clothes, toys, electrical appliances, textbooks etc. – everything turned immediately into a rubbish heap. The army's claim was that the houses were built too close to the road leading to Alfey Menashe. The first house was at a distance of 200 meters from the road, while the second was even farther. The two houses were built by the inhabitants five years ago with an investment of 80.000 Shekels each, and now in the severe cold they are forced to live in tents supplied by the Red Cross. Photos of the galvanized tin walls and crushed plaster , the refrigerator, the gas stove and the teddy bears were put on to the web by Karin.

Very near the dwelling place stand three new high voltage electricity poles. Our hosts tell us that the people of Alfe Menashe settlement were against the positioning of the poles near their area for fear that they cause cancer, so they were transferred near the area of the Bedouins. We ask them whether they spoke to anybody? And they answer – who will listen to us??

We left bags of clothes and shoes and left shamefacedly, after promising that we would try to pass the information on to the media in Israel.

15:00 Eliyahu Crossing– about 8 vehicles are waiting in the queue in the direction of Israel.

We turn right to Azzun and continue to Kafr Thulth. We stop near the grocery and the pharmacy. The pharmacist with whom we talked in the past tells us that he still is the only person of his family who got permission to go out to the olive picking. We call J. from Ras Atiya but there is no reply. We decide to drive to the village all the same. With the help of a relative of J. who lives in Israel we reach the council building, but it is closed. We decide to call him and to ask him to prepare for us the list of all the people who didn't receive permissions to go out for the olive picking.

We return all the way to Azzun by way of Abu Salaman and the village of Thulth.

16:35 We take road No. 55 in the direction of Qalqiliya and Kfar Saba.

At the Eliyahu crossing (109) we decide to try and take the right side lane which is intended for Palestinians. The soldier who checks people at the CP asks us where we came from and we reply from Alfe Menashe. The barrier is lifted immediately and we pass. We didn't notice any cars that were delayed.

Translation: Ruth Fleishman

The victim is a Palestinian. His time and pain can't be assessed nor are they of any value.  

Qalandiya
The lad had been hassled for an hour and a half, suffering from excruciating pain, laying on a stretcher in the ambulance that took him from Nablus to Mukased hospital in East Jerusalem, where a surgery was scheduled for him. He was diagnosed with a fracture to the pelvis and the pain ran from there up to his spine.
Despite the fact that the Red Crescent had prepared all the necessary permits in advance, the soldiers at the checkpoint wouldn't allow the ambulance driver to cross to the other side, and kept ordering him over and over again, to head back.    
After numerous calls to all the hot lines, it turned out that: oops… coordination had been made, there really was no reason for the hold up and the torture. But after all, the victim is a Palestinian. His time and pain can't be assessed nor are they of any value. No one took responsibility and no one apologized, they just thoroughly inspected the documentations, scavenged through his and his mother's personal belongings in public and wrote down the license plate number of the ambulance and information of the driver from Jerusalem, who claimed that writing down the driver information is a procedure performed only in Qalandiya checkpoint.

Jaba
To make sure that the soldiers won't be able to force us to retrieve our steps, we parked our vehicle before arriving at the checkpoint- on the road from Qalandiya, where they believe we aren't allow to be.
It was the flash of the camera and not our presence, that alarmed the checkpoint commander, S, who arrived escorted by two of his soldiers and ordered: "no pictures!", he also had a reason: "no one can find out how the checkpoint works, that there are two soldiers in the front and two in the back". He also had something to say about our being there: "you are risking your lives!", once we removed all responsibility for our safety from him, he continued to say: "this is my checkpoint, I'm the commander here and I decide who is going to stay here and who isn't and you are putting the soldiers at risk".
When referring to the role of the checkpoint he explained that it's too dangerous for Jews to arrive at Qalandiya and the solider beside him added: "they would have stoned you had you dared to drive up to Qalandiya… from here on end it's A territories, Jews aren't allowed there". We suggested that they take a look at some maps from time to time, but it wasn't so easy to persuade them with the facts, because: "That’s what our highest commanders told us and they know the law!"
When we asked how the checkpoint functions in during the morning hours, S told us that each day, early in the morning, the police detains all vehicles arriving from Ramallah/ Qalandiya and: "inspect them one by one. They are probably looking for someone who is supposed to arrive from Ramallah". We asked about the length of the lines that are creating due to this procedure and he replied: "I prefer traffic jams to the possibility that a terrorist might cross over".  
In attempt to end our conversation S complained: "You aren't listening to me!...", actually we were listening. But we don't believe that to listen means to obey.

Translator:  Charles K.

We arrived before 5:30; the line stretched to the checkpoint’s parking lot.  People looked very tired.
A few minutes after we arrived it began to be congested and people crowded around the entrance to the inspection area.  As always, we telephoned the DCO and the humanitarian office to complain that only three corridors were open at the time crowding was greatest.
The DCO officer arrived at 6 and let through all the people waiting at the humanitarian gate.  Two more corridors opened.  A Kafkaesque scene developed before our eyes as a man with heart disease, unable to push into the line at the revolving gate, on his way to Hadassah for a periodic checkup, also asked to go through the humanitarian gate.  He had great difficulty explaining that he’s employed, he’s receiving excellent treatment for his heart disease by the professor at Hadassah, which allows him to live a regular life and to work.  For a moment it seemed his work permit would be cancelled because a work permit and heart disease don’t go together.  They don’t care that the patient has also a one-time entry permit to Israel for the hospital appointment!
Finally the world returned to normal, and that a man was both employed and had a doctor’s appointment no longer seemed contradictory.
We took with us the Kafakaesque impression this little incident made on us when we left.

14:10,Etzion DCL:  only a few vehicles were in the parking area, but the waiting hall was empty. We assumed that only a few people were inside, that that they would be attended to, come out shortly, and that our shift would be short. We were wrong. Our shift was long, irritating and tiresome, but it ended in success.

14:30 - still none of those waiting inside had come out. We thought that the soldiers hadn’t returned from their midday break or that they were not functioning properly. We phoned the humanitarian center.

14:45 - a young man came out who had applied for a permit to enter Israel in order to work in a monastery, but he was refused entrance. We referred him to the department of the Interior Ministry which deals with such matters.

15:05 - a man and his wife who had renewed their magnetic cards came out; another couple who had received entry permits also came out. We thought that they were the last ones and that soon the DCL would be empty.

Then a man approached us who told us that he was suffering from a heart disease and was in need of a heart transplant. He was being treated every Tuesday in the “Mokasad” hospital in Jerusalem by a heart specialist. Until today he had received a permit which was renewed each month. Today he had been told by the hospital that they had sent him a new invitation and had coordinated with the health department that he should receive a new permit at the Etzion DCL.

He came to the DCL but did not receive the permit. He was told that the security service was examining his case and that he should return tomorrow. The sick man explained to the soldier that the security service had already been authorizing his monthly permit for a year and each month renewing it. He asked the soldier to check if the permit had arrived but the soldier refused. The man asked for our help. He told us that when he was a minor, before he was issued with an identity card, he had thrown stones and had been arrested. When he submitted an application for a permit to go for treatment in a Jerusalem hospital the security service investigated his past and he was given a permit. Therefore it is not clear why now he has suddenly been denied.

Shlomit started to telephone. The humanitarian center checked and found out that he had been told that the permit had been held-up because it had not been coordinated with the health department.  The hospital insisted that there had been an application for coordination and said that his doctor would apply again. We tried to check with the health department whether the application had been received by them, but they didn’t answer the telephone.

Shlomit didn’t despair. She contacted the humanitarian center again, and with its help reached the department of health which confirmed that the coordination had been established and the permit has been sent. The sick man went in again, hoping that now they would receive him, but again came out disappointed. He was told that the security service was still checking. Shlomit continued to make phone-calls. The humanitarian center cooperated. After a few hours and many telephone-calls she was told that the permit had arrived at the DCL., but wasn’t yet printed.

Night fell, and the DCL was about to close. The sick man sat, gloomy and dispirited. An officer, lieutenant A, came to lock the door and Shlomit told him the story of the sick man. The officer promised to enter the office and check whether the printed permit had arrived, and politely and considerately agreed that in the meantime he could continue to wait in the hall.

Finally he brought-out the longed-for permit.

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

Qalandiya checkpoint (photo: Behing the wall) :

Palestinian friends that witnessed the women's demonstration on the previous day said that during the time it was taking place, the checkpoint had been closed from both sides for two hours. They testified that cement bricks were brought ten days before hand, they were used to block the roads and had been carried from the side of the roads to their center a day in advance and the way leading to and from Ramallah was blocked up until Sunday. 

Only two lanes were active at the pedestrian checkpoint. Suddenly, as though they had been given a green signal, the two had stopped operating and no one was allowed in the inspection area. The lines grew wider and longer. Not only that no explanation was given, but all the soldiers had disappeared and the post at the end of our lane (no. 2) remained empty. After a nerve wracking twenty minutes, and not before we called the operation room receptionist to asked whether the checkpoint was closed for passage, the checkpoint was activated again.   

At the waiting shed at the entrance to the checkpoint we met to desperate women from Gaza: the young one was a woman who went through a medical procedure in her eyes at the hospital in Ramallah and the other was her escort (probably her mother). Their permits had expired on Saturday. The DCO in Gaza that had been handling their case over the phone allowed them to pass a day later. When they gave the inspecting soldier their original "Tasrih", he confiscated the document and banished them from the site. Had the inspector behind the shielded window checked these women's information on the computer (as they had asked him) he would have known that a new permit was waiting for them at the DCO. When we asked the soldiers agreed to check their ID numbers, but by then it was too late, the DCO offices had already closed and no one was to be found there.

The women were forced to return to Ramallah, rent a hotel room and return to the checkpoint on the next day.

Jaba checkpoint:

Apart for a group of soldiers who had their rifles pointing at vehicles, a dog trainer and a dog with a muzzle on his mouth were also at the site. The checkpoint commander crossed the road towards us and in an instance started giving us his long speech, it was full of arguments against our presence and it start with: "you are endangering yourselves…", and continued with: "your presence is distracting my soldiers…", following this sentence came: "I don't like seeing you endangering soldiers….", and he even tried this one: "nothing is going on over here, it's a real bore!..."

We answered that we were going to stay and document, that we weren't concerned for our safety, that we had no intentions of talking to the soldiers and that we were not endangering them, and that we would overcome the boredom that he promised us. 

He got back to the post and after several minutes the soldiers stopped a car, the driver got out of it, the muzzle was taken off the dog who sniffed the car from all sides, his trainer opened the doors and being so familiar with the job, he got inside, sat on the driver's seat and then wondered off to the rest of the seats, once he finished his task in a manner that satisfied his lady, he received signs of affection from her. Only then was the vehicle given back to its owner who was permitted to head on.

Translated by Ruth Fleishman

Qalandiya:
The relics from the Fridays of the Ramadan months were still detectable. Cement blocks were scattered on the roads, narrowing the lanes and along the separation wall was another ,paralle,l separation wall (shorter than the first) with an open gate at the center, "the revolving door" the soldiers called it, "the gate of the rejected" was how we call it (Ruti Barkay coined the phrase).
Through it they banished the women who did not comply with the age criterion. The pictures of Moatassem Adwan and Ali Khalifa, who were murdered at the refugee camp, were still hanging for the separation wall and fences.

Al Jib checkpoint:
"The DCO should check whether he isn't 'refused passage'- and I'll cross!", the checkpoint commander notified his supervisors on the radio link in regards to a dying man who was being transferred to Mukased hospital.
In addition the commander read out loud the man's medical chart. After all, people who have no rights don't have a medical confidentiality either. The Palestinians inside and around the checkpoint, the numerous soldiers and us, heard all the details. We heard that the man was unconscious, that he had cancer and that he had a wide range of additional illnesses.
Luckily for the Palestinian the DCO answered that the man was "clean". Otherwise, perhaps once again an unconscious person with only hours to live (the ambulance driver whispered to us), would rise from his death bed and endanger the country.  

During that hour in the day the laborers make their way home after working in the surrounding settlement. Many stopped to tell us that the checkpoint commander, a BP officer who arrives there once in every two or three weeks, doesn't allow the residents of the nearby villages, who work in Jerusalem, to cross this checkpoint when heading back, he sends them to Qalandiya or Zaitim.
This trip not only takes them a long time but is also very costly.

6.55 – 10.00

6.55 Shaked-Tura CP

Seven soldiers are slowly climbing up to the CP. The first gate opens at 7.03. At 7.12 the first of those to go through is a herd of goats. The red-head from Daher-el-Malek is driving his family to Ya'abed. At 7.20 Dvorah who belongs to the drivers of 'On the Way to Getting Well', arrives. She is allowed to pick up Zina and her mother from the center of the CP, between the gates. She will take them to Ilan in Jerusalem. Only a few are going through today. At 7.25 a second car enters going in the direction of the West Bank. A number of workers are waiting to be picked up. At 7.45, the CP is empty of people who want to go through.

8.20 Reihan-Barta'a

A truck loaded with blocks is waiting on the road. At 8.33 seven cars go up for inspection. They emerge after twenty minutes on the dot. In the Palestinian parking lot opposite the Entrance/Exit gate to and from the terminal – a taxi driver is waiting for passengers to Jenin. The price of the trip for a single passenger is ten shekels. A 'Special' trip costs seventy shekels. The livelihood of those who drive people in private cars has been hurt seriously, because the commercial taxi drivers have the right to first choice. Workers who enter the terminal are seen in the sleeve that emerges to the north, after eight minutes. At 9.00 the parking lot is almost full. An Israeli garbage truck arrives from the West Bank and goes through quickly in the direction of Israel. At 9.30 the truck with the blocks comes up to the inspection pavilion and another six pickup trucks come up at the same time. A small truck, loaded with mattresses, packages of clothes and straw chairs, on its way to the West Bank, is detained on the road. It turns out that it has to be inspected in the area that is generally designated for cars that arrive from the West Bank. The driver slumps in the shed. He is told that his turn for inspection will be in another two hours.

Reihan CP 6.00

The upper parking lot is full of activity. There are many workers and many Transits. Three seamstresses come running to a car which is full and waiting for them. They tell us that they spent about an hour in the CP. In the enclosed pavilion, trucks loaded with goods and passenger cars are being inspected.

6.10– in the sleeve leading from the terminal to the seamline zone, people going through are moving slowly. They tell us that inside there are many people, that the inspection is very slow, and that today, quite unusually, women were put into the siderooms for a very thorough inspection. Inside the terminal it is quiet.

6.20The detained women came out and told us that they were not required to undress. One of them is still in an inspection room and the driver waiting for her is very upset. He calls up somebody in the CP. When she emerges, at 6.30, she says that she was detained for inspection because the sleeve of her blouse was wet.

6.40– The workers emerge from the terminal at a reasonable pace.

Shaked CP – 6.55

Six soldiers 'crawl' to the CP and open it only at 7.10. About 50 people and a herd of sheep are crowded near the turnstile; the first of those going through to the seamline zone crosses the CP at 5.15.

On the side of the West Bank, a sick little girl is waiting with her mother to go through to the hospital in Israel . But she does not get any special treatment in going through the CP. Only after all the people have entered, and after the herd of sheep has gone through, and after a discussion between us and the soldiers – did they allow the car that brought the little girl to connect with the Israeli car that came to pick her up – to enter the center of the CP and to move her on from car to car. The little girl went on her way at 7.30. This procedure delayed all the activity in the CP.

Workers come out of the inspection pavilion very slowly. The Israeli who is responsible for the archeological dig, who has been coming here daily in the last two weeks to pick up workers, gets upset. His workers do go through in the end. As he puts it, 'The State of Israel loses points everyday in this way.'

7.45– The first worker for the dig comes out of the inspection room. Their bus enters the area of the CP and after a short conversation with the soldiers it is turned back. A loud argument between the Israeli responsible for the dig and the soldiers does not have any effect. The Israeli calls the DCO and hopes that something good will come of it. In his opinion, the soldiers are now 'showing him who is boss'. In the meantime, the workers tell us that when they used to go through the Kalandia CP on the way to similar work, they were inspected inside the bus.

8.00 Cars with passengers go through in both directions.

8.10 Finally, the workers' bus enters for inspection and goes through to the seamline zone. An hour of work in cool weather was simply lost.

The settlers from Maskiyot keep abusing and taking advantage of the Bedouin who live at the foot of the settlement. This time they stole a cow in daylight as one of the daughters of the family watched them. They returned it only when the police intervened. This is another link in the chain of abusive attacks that have the goal of banishing the Bedouin who live near the settlement. (They were, of course, living there before the settlement was founded.)

13.20 Zatara Junction– The passage in every direction is open without any inspection. There is one soldier in the guard tower of the junction.

14.00 Hamra CP– very thin traffic. The heat is over 40 degrees Centigrade. Those arriving from the west (the West Bank) are forced to get out of the car which is to be inspected. Wait time is about five minutes. The cars entering the A area are not inspected, and they have practically no wait time in a queue. We met Daphna and Tal who were with the journalist from Haaretz. Daphna told us that on Thursday she waited for an hour and a half with Palestinian tractors until they  opened the Guchiya gate, where they were now going (see below).

When we passed near the Guchiya gate, at 14.55, five minutes before it was supposed to open, the gate was closed and in front of it there was a tractor loaded with sheep (we did not see the woman and the baby that Daphna relates to because they were in the driver's cabin).

15.15 Tayasir CP– They let vehicles through from one side at a time and in the meantime, the vehicles on the other side have to wait. Most of the vehicles in the Valley do not have air conditioning and the heat is often 40 degrees and over. Here, too, those coming from the west get out of the cars and go through the inspection on foot.

15.45– a visit in the Kadri encampment at the foot of the hill of the Maskiyot settlement:
adri is away because his old father is in the hospital in Nablus. His wife and four of his children were in the tent. They told us that three days ago the settlers of Maskiyot stole a cow from his brother's herd, in daylight, with one of the daughters of the family watching. A similar incident took place a month ago. The cow was returned to the encampment only after they called the police.

:Addendum to the Report
Daphna Banai (reporting), Tal Haran. Guest: Alon Idan (journalist from Haaretz)

At 14.50 M. from Hadida called us. He has been at the Guchiya Gate for five minutes with his wife and his nine month old son. He asks us to call the DCO and to ask them please to open the gate a little early because the baby has a high temperature and they are on their way to Tamoun to the doctor.

We called the DCO and we laid out our request, even though it was clear that there was not a chance that they would open the gate early. It has never happened, so why should it happen now? We were close by and we arrived in less than five minutes. The tractor and the passengers were on the side of the Valley and they waited for the soldiers to come and open the gate so that they could go to the West Bank. The tractor had a cart attached to it with about 15 sheep. The baby looked faint from the heat, but he became lively very fast, examined us with great interest and waved his hands. The mother and the baby sat on the tractor and since it was very hot, I offered them a place in the car with air conditioning. The mother said that the difference between the heat outside and the low temperature of the air conditioner would only cause the child to be even more ill and she would rather stay outside.

Again, as three days ago, the soldiers did not arrive. The heat was inhuman and we were roasted together with the people waiting to reach a doctor.

15.25– The jeep arrived and the gate was opened. After the family went through we drove a short distance from there. At 14.35 we passed again near the gate, which, although it was supposed to be open for half an hour according to the agreement between the army and the Red Cross (from three to three thirty), was locked again and there was not a single soldier to be seen.