Tue 8.11.11, Morning

Translator:  Charles K.

Nothing unusual occurred.

I’ve been trying since yesterday to write this report – after all, there’s nothing new in it - but haven’t been able to do so.

Meitar crossing

was already empty at 8:30.  The two buses with prisoners’ relatives were parked in their usual spots.

Route 60

Almost completely empty [the holiday] except for many police vehicles which stopped vehicles to inspect what they’re supposed to inspect.  The Israeli treasury got rich yesterday (traffic fines).

A greater number than usual of large concrete blocks used as barricades is heaped at Har Mano’ah next to the entrance to regional headquarters.

Signs posted at the entrance to Kiryat Arba and Hebron:  “This time we’ll get to Migron and Giv’at Assaf before it’s too late.”  They’d been torn down and had disappeared by the time we returned…  “A normal holiday” in Hebron, children walking around in holiday attire, no detainees at any checkpoint, schools are closed.

Sunday and Monday were two “Moslem exception” days. “Everything’s quiet,” they tell us at ‘Abed’s shop.  Jewish music blasts from Beit Gutnick.

Paratroopers at all the checkpoints.

The Border Police guard all the entrances to the Cave of the Patriarchs and the crossings around it.

We’re glad to get away from there to buy olive oil at the olive press near Idna and return home through the Tarqumiyya checkpoint..

Everything’s also deserted along Route 35 because of the holiday.

Tarqumiyya checkpoint

The instructions regarding inspections and interrogations are much stricter and more excessive at this checkpoint than at Meitar, except with respect to settlers. Something has changed, despite “positive” meetings and discussions with the “crossing” managers. Apparently we’re also now defined as some kind of hostile element. Yes, Angelika has a German passport, and they’ve been instructed to check more carefully; yes, our driver is an Israeli citizen, but he’s Bedouin, and we’re from Machsom Watch. “What did you do there,” they ask when we tell them where we came from. They’re polite, but apparently someone told them to detain us. The German passport was taken away for a long time, we were sent to the inspection area, watched by a young, energetic security man.  “Why?,” we asked; the response was non-committal. Time passed; we talked to the young people in uniform. They don’t understand us.  The motivations and opinions they express, which we could have expected, are completely opposite to ours. “We’re keeping you safe, otherwise you’d all be butchered…We know them…We’ve buried many of our friends in the army…We’ve seen much blood…”, etc. Meanwhile, Zion sends one of his deputies to explain politely that some things are out of his control, and they’re waiting for authorizations regarding Angelika.

Another security man who had nothing to do, as well as a nice dog handler, join the conversation. The dog handler explains that he’s aware of the problematic nature of his job, and is sensitive to the feelings of those he checks so they won’t be upset by the dog’s presence. For example, if there’s a Koran, they remove it from the vehicle. 

But, despite everything, though it’s not clear why, after they finished checking Angelika [Hagit, as a way of showing her support, asked them to inspect her as well, as they do at the airport], they asked us to empty the car, and they took everything to be inspected and scanned. Even samples of the olive oil we bought. There’s no doubt that this way of treating ordinary Israeli citizens is very peculiar [whoops - we’re not ordinary. Sorry!].

The management of this checkpoint is excessively devoted to its job. Does somebody, somewhere in the system have trouble making appropriate distinctions? “The guardian of Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep”? I, for one, sleep more poorly as a result of what the security people said, and of their behavior, despite how polite they were.