Shavei Shomron, Beit Iba, Sunday, 16.07.06 PM Observers: Sara K., Amira I., Susan L., (reporting) Summary Playground behavior would seem a strange way of describing what MachsomWatch women witness at the checkpoints in the Occupied Territories. “Break time” (hafsaka) in school is when children learn social skills they will need in the world outside. But it can also be an occasion for aggression, harassment and bullying. So, it’s not surprising that there is a large literature on playground behavior with plenty of research on children’s play, including such issues as playful and aggressive fighting and racism and sexism in the playground. The West Bank as a playground? Maybe: after all, soldiers and passing Palestinians inhabit (if only for too many hours) determined checkpoint boundaries (the “playground” as defined by the authorities). Nobody respects nature or property in that “playground,” and the soldiers certainly fail completely to respect the “other.” So, all in all, it’s just “child’s play” in the Occupied Territories on a day when rockets reach Haifa, and the rampage in Gaza and Lebanon continues. The road to Jit: Very quiet, no police at the Qalqiliya entry to the Occupied Territories, little traffic on the road, quite a few vehicles, about 15, trying to pass the new airport-like checkpoint at Qalqiliya. The entry to Azun still blockaded, just with no Hummer present. Masses of yellow taxis at the recently created earth mounds barring vehicle entry to and from the Palestinian road, parallel to the apartheid road, a couple of kilometers west of Azun. 13:15-13:35 Jit Junction Three soldiers check vehicles on their way from the west, turning on to the road which we’ve just traveled on. They work efficiently, but the list on which hundreds of ID numbers (the last four digits) are printed on one page makes this a laborious process. So, the last vehicle, number 15, takes approximately forty minutes, and when we leave, there are still the same number of vehicles. Most are yellow taxis or minivans, with the maximum number of passengers, but there are also trucks and private cars; some effort is made to check ambulances which come into a lane outside the concrete barrier dividing the road, creating a makeshift checkpoint. A Taneeb bus, also completely full, has to deliver all IDs to the soldiers who let the bus move away from the congested area while one soldier checks each ID against his list. In the midst of all this, a Hummer arrives, bearing the soldiers’ lunch. One starts to eat.. 14:00-14:30 Shavei Shomron, Deir Sharaf As we drive up the hill along the now closed road to Jenin, we spy a brand new military lookout tower, high up on the hill, close to the settlement, behind its grim grey wall. No work being done on the so- called new security road. A little later, we’re told by Jamal, the minimarket owner in Deir Sharaf, his trees are now dying, nothing has been done to move them to his land, and there’s been nobody working up there for the past week. Just trees and livelihoods destroyed. At the entrance to the settlement, a little further up the hill, the old temporary lookout tower, from which soldiers would call to us, has gone. Instead, no prize for guessing: another brand new, concrete military tower, still uninhabited, still in the process of being installed, by no less than a local Palestinian worker. The checkpoint is deserted. No boulders in the roadway, just the plastic barricades and razor wire across the road at the Sebastia side of the former checkpoint. According to some taxi drivers in Beit Iba, this checkpoint is now completely closed, as is another one in the hills above, Gate 420. To be confirmed. Jamal’s mocking joke of the day: Deir Sharaf is called Kfar Shalom by the soldiers. Yes, they cut down his olive trees, so that makes it the “peace” village.. 13:35-15:25 Beit Iba A lot of taxis, a lot of dust, a lot of pedestrians, a lot of filth, and lots of humiliation and harassment, but fewer vehicles than usual. In the detention compound four men, one with hands cuffed behind his back. He’s “wanted,” we’re told, has been there for many hours – “since morning” – and will stay there until 19:00 when “he’ll be taken away.” Other detainees try to ease their fellow Palestinian’s plight – bringing him a cup of the brightly colored drink borne aloft on a tray by the usual young peddler at the checkpoint. When we raise questions with the soldiers as to why the so-called “wanted” man is sitting there, we’re told, “What, would you prefer — that we put him into the cell?” on which the western sun is now beating harshly. As we raise this issue, the three other detainees are given back their IDs and are on their way. Another soldier loosens the handcuffs on the “wanted” man. During the time we’re there, the “parade” in and out of the detention compound is non stop. This is capped by questioning why one particular middle aged man is being detained. “I can’t check all these people, so I send them there.” This means the ID is passed to the checkpoint commander, sitting at the computer inside the checkpoint post proper, the ID is checked against it, and the man is on his way. But this same soldier makes everybody trying to get into Nablus empty all their belongings on the dusty, dirty ground, often refusing to look at anything if it’s handed up to him. At one point, he has a large piece of luggage (empty) handed over the concrete barrier into his compound, and as he looks into it, his magazine drops out of his rifle with a clatter. So much for security! It’s all like a very bad comedy, without the laughs. At other times, he rummages into every plastic bag, unwraps metal boxes of candy, goes through dirty or clean laundry (what’s the difference anyway), and the people, often families with young children or infants, bear it all in painful silence. At the so-called humanitarian line, actually open today, a soldier overseas chaos, much of it his own making. He props himself up against a plastic barricade, and argues, loudly, with most pedestrians trying to cross the checkpoint from Nablus. Heads of families, if young men, are ordered to go back, to get into the long lines at the turnstiles. Arguing ensues, sometimes bargaining, and often the Palestinians win! The soldier’s actions are pointless, he’s “playing” with the Palestinians, and sometimes the commander, inside the checking booth, calls out to make things move. At one point, we see two middle aged men, showing their IDs with the common An-Narjah University card also in the ID folder. They’re certainly not students, they are indeed faculty, pass this checkpoint all the time, so why can’t they pass today, why the fuss? Because.. But they do pass, not without some interference, which does nothing to deter the young soldier from continuing his badgering of pedestrians. Playground bully! 15:00 – The dust is slightly alleviated by a water truck from the quarry spewing water around the vehicle checking area and on some passers by. Sometimes there are no cars at all coming into Nablus, but the line coming out of the city is, as usual, endless. The three soldiers at the vehicle checking point work efficiently but are also hampered by the huge list of numbers against which IDs are checked. No buses at all. Their commander goes over to their area only once during the time we’re here. A passing young man complains that to go 30 kilometers has taken him two hours. He carries his new certificate from the university, proudly, in an envelope in his hand. He hopes for better days, for peace, but there’s nothing specific in our discussion about events over the past few days, or today. Life in the Occupied West Bank goes on. Once again, the Palestinians seem to be forgotten on the larger stage of Middle East events. Instead, the “playground behavior” of the army continues, and goes on and on. 15:35 – on our way to Anabta, near the junction with Route 60 an army jeep has stopped. A large truck has tried, but failed, to get over the newly erected earth mound, preventing entry or, in this case, exit, from the tortuous route through the fields way beyond Shavei Shomron. Just beyond, on Route 60 itself, a rolling checkpoint at the Palestine Plastics junction, three soldiers checking all vehicles, about 14, going in a westerly direction, but a soldier is also seen, about to put down a metal spiked grid on the road to indicate a checkpoint also in the opposite direction.