Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Sun 1.5.11, Afternoon

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Observers: 
Roni Hammermann, Aya Kanuk and Tamar Fleishman (reporting)
May-1-2011
|
Afternoon
Seriously? Does this make us safer?

Translating: Ruth Fleishman

"All the Israeli citizens, regardless of their race and religion, know that Israel is, was and will stay obligated to being the most anti-racist country in the world…"

Qalandiya checkpoint:

-    On the same day that the Israeli president spoke these word (Hebrew source: http://www.calcalist.co.il/local/articles/0,7340,L-3516288,00.html), we witnessed this "anti-racist" country physically and mentally torture a person with heart disease on his way to surgery.
The 46 year old man from Gaza had been transferred from one stretcher to another, from one ambulance to another, ever since the break of dawn, exposing him to the public eye. This was in violation of the right to privacy embedded in the patient's bill of rights: "…maintain the dignity and privacy of the patient at all stages of his treatment" (Patient's Right Act, 1996, chapter 3/10). Not having civil rights means that even his privacy had been taken from him, this is his "punishment" for not having been born to the same people as a the president.

-    Roni had set to meet a German group on the Palestinian side of the checkpoint. The visitors weren't satisfied with our explanations regarding this checkpoint and the occupational mechanism as a whole, and wanted to experience it by actually crossing the checkpoint alongside us. This journey that was supposed to be short and simple, ended in bitter disappointment: The soldiers, who had probably been watching us the whole time, decided to play a hoax on the expense of the foreigners and locked the turnstiles every time that one of them arrived at the head of the line. They got everyone running from one lane to the other as their finger constantly pressed the lock button. When the visitors realized that this was part of a collective punishment, that the main victims were the Palestinians who had arrived there at the wrong time by accident, they felt guilty and headed back.
 
On Labour Day:
"There's no work here. It's tough this way..."
said a resident of the refugee camp who was sitting idly by the wall. Throughout the hours we spent at the checkpoint and its vicinity, we saw hundreds of labourers heading back from a day of work. They were the lucky ones that received permits seeing as they fitted the profile that the sovereign had implemented: adult men. They are obedient people who don’t speak out when their salaries aren't paid or their social rights which are implemented by law are taken from them, for it is well known and reality proves it to be so, that anyone who dares complain loses even his single prized possession- the right to provide for his family.

Jaba checkpoint:
"You mustn't stand here!", "You mustn't take our picture or that of the checkpoint"- "This is a military zone..."
We saw a long and curvy line of vehicles on the road leading to Adam at the direction of the checkpoint. We insisted on our right to be there and take pictures, as well as see the decrees that forbid us from doing so. The group of soldier huddled at the post and started looking through their files, but the decree that is said to exist wasn't to be found (because there is no such decree!).
The soldiers' attention was diverted towards us, making them forget all about the Palestinians and the traffic began to flow.