Verifying Palestinians’ testimony in the area of Hamra:

The activities of the escorts who accompany the shepherds have  increased recently because of the daily violence against Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley.   A legal committee has been established to submit legal complaints and lawsuits against the settlers.   This is similar to the “Yesh Din” organization of Volunteers for Human Rights.

We were supposed to present the testimonies that had been written by an attorney to the Palestinians who had submitted complaints so that they could verify their accuracy.  Meetings were scheduled with several Palestinians in the area for this purpose.

A new ruling forbids Israelis from crossing westward at Hamra Checkpoint.   We therefore needed a prearranged permit from the army supposedly because they were protecting us from danger.  The less official reason is that the settlers prefer that no one bears witness to what is going on.

In any case, we received oral permit to cross  from the officer at the District Coordination and Liaison Office .   The soldier who met us had not received the permit and didn’t want to check whether it existed.  He made us stand aside so that we would not block his view of the traffic moving through the checkpoint.  We waited for two and a half hours and then learned that if we were permitted to cross we would have to remain on the other side until 6:00 PM  because the checkpoint would close between 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Because of the Jewish Passover holiday.

I sent a message to the group that today we were experiencing what it was like to be Palestinians.  I also called a Palestinian who calls me and asks for my help each time he gets stuck at the checkpoint  despite the fact that he knows that I cannot do anything.  I wanted him to help us but he did not answer.  So we had become Palestinians for several hours.

In the Northern Jordan Valley there are two east-to-west checkpoint: Hamra and Tayasir.   Tayasir Checkpoint was closed many months ago following a terrorist attack in which two soldiers were killed.  Since then it has been completely blocked.  Only Hamra checkpoint has remained open for all the Palestinians in the area who need to cross.    Traffic moves through slowly and is often stopped without consideration of the long line.   People have to stand and wait for hours.  The day we arrived cars were standing in line  in both directions without moving  for a long time, and when the checkpoint opened   it only opened in one direction.   Afterwards it opened in the other direction and this continued for the entire time we were there.  A single soldier officiated and was not checking cars at all.  There is a shortage of manpower in the army.   Even Israeli cars with yellow license plates did were unable to cross.

Before and afterwards I visited families with a car loaded with used clothing to be distributed in East Hamra and Makhul.

The day passed without incident.