Hebron, Sansana, Sun 26.4.09, Morning
Our shift begun at Shoket juncture at 06:45 and ended at 11:30am, as we filed a complaint at the Shoket Juncture's towns' police state (mishteret ha'ayarot). For our driver, M., it was a first experience of the settlers' racist, vehement language, first and foremost amongst whom, the Spitting Anat (a notorious Hebron settler) and it was fortunate that he was well prepared for such events by Hagit.The red berets' (parachutes) and Border Police soldiers' treatment of the children and youngsters' passing at the Pharmacy CP is bad (although TIPH representatives told us that they find it considerably better than that of Golani soldiers).
Sansana-Meytar:
When we arrived, towards 07:00am, the last workers were passing through. A long line of tracks was waiting to pass on the Palestinian side. Three buses of prisoners' families, headed to the Ramon prison, were awaiting passage. The two falafel booths make waiting easier.
Road 60 has been decorated with white and blue flags (in anticipation of Israel's 61st independence day).
Hebron:
Soldiers at every corner and turn.
Pharmacy CP: we arrive there at 07:55am. It is now manned by Border Police soldiers. The young children, hurrying to school, are detained also following their check by the magnometer in the CP's small structure, and asked to open their bags; these, now, are checked rather casually. "Ta'al" (stop) calls a soldier at one boy, but the little one goes on walking. The soldier is too lazy to chase him up.
Tel Rumeidah Hill: no detainees
.
Tarpat CP: manned by the parachutes. A young man is detained. He is made to sit bent between two barriers (see attached photo), next to the position. He's not allowed to smoke. "You're giving us a hard time" the soldiers say to him. Someone standing next to us mutters that the soldiers sometimes leave detainees in this position for up to 3 or 4 hours. A little after our arrival, he is being released, not before he was given a pedagogical lecture by the soldiers. Another young man is detained.
I told the officer who arrived there that although I've been observing checkpoints for a long time now, i've never seen such treatment before. In response, he said that he will check both whether we are allowed to be there at all and our complaints themselves. I hope he did, and has learnt something, too.
Tenuva CP: Many soldiers.
Leah asks to photograph the soldiers' briefing, posted very obviously somewhere. This is a road that many settlers pass through in their vehicles at this time of day and one of them is Anat, well known to/from other shifts. She pushes in, curses (her infamous repertoire) and doesn't let Leah take her photos. A yeshiva youngster who just arrives takes that briefing off and hides it away. All along, none of the soldiers say nothing. After all, it is us who provoked…. Suddenly, Anat decides that all this is not enough, so she runs towards our van, curses M., our driver, who is not-Jewish (he withstood the malicious expressions muttered against him with great dignity) and tried to puncture the vehicle's wheels. While I try to prevent her from doing so, a soldier tries to forcefully restrain me.
When the policemen finally arrive, they ask for only our personal details and Anat demands that they arrest us for enquiry on allegations of assault.
Our own complaint, was filed at the Towns' police station.
Having filed it there, we drove on, to calm down at the Zif grocery, where the grocer neither asked nor enquired, serving warm and sweet tea instead.