Tarqumiya

Tarqumiya Thursday 30.12.04 AMWatchers: Michal Z ., Elena L (reporting)Arrival: 5:10. Departure : 7:00It was still dark when we arrived. When we approached the CP on foot we saw no workers crossing through it and the soldiers (two) were standing next to a group of workers waiting behind the barriers on the Palestinian side. The CO told us that according to the letter of his instructions he did not have to let workers through before daylight but that he had begun letting them through since 4:00 am, because he knew they had to get to their places of work. We asked how many had already passed through and he replied 100-150. The stoppage we witnessed was because the CO had been irritated by a middle-aged Arab –Israeli driver of a transit who wanted to take a group of Palestinian workers through to the Israeli side. The CO had asked him if he was married, in order to check out –so the CO told us –what was written in his ID. The driver had replied: "What does it matter to you?" The result of this "cheekiness" was the delay of the driver and his workers (who refused to go through without the driver whom they had already paid). The CO announced that he would let the driver only after he had been checked out by both the GSS and the blue police. We tried to soften his decision but without immediate success, and after about 10 minutes the driver and his workers left the CP in search of a way round it. The CO told all the Palestinians waiting at the CP that if anyone should be caught trying to bypass it, his 'tasrich' (permits/ passes) would be confiscated and torn up. We asked since when had this become the rule- and he replied that it had always been the rule 'on paper', but until now it had not been enforced.The CO was very polite and efficient in passing through all the other workers who arrived. The queue was long but despite that no one had to wait in it for more than 10 minutes. The second soldier was very bad tempered (perhaps because he was at the end of a 12 hour shift and he also didn’t feel well) , but the CO took pains to calm him down. The generally courteous behavior of the CO (towards us as well) makes it clear that the confrontation with the "cheeky" driver was the result not of malevolence, but of the twisted relationships that are unavoidably created by the reality of the CPS. The CO asked us again and again whether his decision to react as he did to the driver's 'cheek" had not been justified. Though we said it was not the army's job to educate, he remained convinced that he had been in the right: "I decide which questions to ask", he said. He told us that in squad commander's course the trainees are made to play the part of a Palestinian for an hour or two. He claimed that what he suffered in those two hours was enough to let him understand the uncertainty and arbitrariness experienced by the Palestinians at the CPs. Despite the arrogance in his response to the driver (of which he remained unaware) –the CO can in no way be described as abusive or as an Arab-hater. He expressed an interest in MW's organization and asked to be given our web-site. While we were there about 400 workers passed through the CP. If we add those who went through before we arrived the total was 550. Many cars and trucks went through on a parallel lane and none were stopped for more than a brief inspection. A settler also drove through and she clearly cursed us as she passed us but we couldn’t hear what she aid because her car windows remained closed.Detailed instructions for the elections have not yet been received by the soldiers manning the CP ( Tarqumiya is not an internal CP).