Qalandiya
Three functional tracks were set in front of the checkpoint:
A for women
B for men
C for those turned away
In between was sterile
territory. It was absolutely forbidden to mix A and B. Whoever went wrong or tried to choose the wrong way on account of some difficulty or physical handicap – was immediately corrected and sent away.
This was the fate of a blind man who came from Ramallah and asked to be able to continue on track A, and was answered – “Only in a wheelchair”. But there was no wheelchair. He asked again, entreating, pleading. “No, only in a wheelchair”.
This “only in a wheelchair” answer was used to get rid of a cancer patient who showed them documented proof of his illness.
He, like others, had to drag their feet in the heat and the potholes to the other side, meant for men, and hundreds of meters away.
It is wrong to understand the Palestinians’ silence as accepting or surrendering to their fate.
Talks with them show this is the consequence of despair, accumulated and held by the collective spirit and there’s no knowing from where or when or how they will end up exploding.
Three functional tracks were set in front of the checkpoint:
A for women
B for men
C for those turned away
In between was sterile territory. It was absolutely forbidden to mix A and B. Whoever went wrong or tried to choose the wrong way on account of some difficulty or physical handicap – was immediately corrected and sent away.
This was the fate of a blind man who came from Ramallah and asked to be able to continue on track A, and was answered – “Only in a wheelchair”. But there was no wheelchair. He asked again, entreating, pleading. “No, only in a wheelchair”.
This “only in a wheelchair” answer was used to get rid of a cancer patient who showed them documented proof of his illness.
He, like others, had to drag their feet in the heat and the potholes to the other side, meant for men, and hundreds of meters away.
It is wrong to understand the Palestinians’ silence as accepting or surrendering to their fate.
Talks with them show this is the consequence of despair, accumulated and held by the collective spirit and there’s no knowing from where or when or how they will end up exploding.