Etzion DCO: Why not help if possible?

Place:

Etzion DCO

Tags:

Transfer Permits to Israel

Updates during Corona

Observers:

Shlomit Steinitz, Natanya Ginsburg

Dec-21-2020

Morning

DCO Etzion 21.12.2020, 10.30 -12.00

Two weeks ago we thought we were maybe going to be out of a job as so few people approached us but this time when we arrived there were many more cars in the parking lot. Most of the problems as we know are usually police or shabak and we give them Sylvia’s details. Often, as today, someone says that he knows Sylvia and her team and praises them to the skies.

One man told us how just before the holiday of Id Il-fitr he in desperation entered Israel illegally to look for work as there was no way he could provide for his pregnant wife and two children. He said bitterly that when he was brought before the judge he told him this but that it was like talking to a wall. | He said asked the judge who would bring milk for his children but the judge was unimpressed.

Two soldiers approached us asking who we were and said they knew of Machsomwatch. We were trying to help a woman who had had an appointment with a hospital as she has a problem with her thyroid. She says she cannot sleep at night as she has a problem breathing. She had had a permit to go through but for some reason was stopped at the checkpoint. Now she has another one for the 20^th. He told her to come into the offices but when she came out later said that he said he could not help her as she had to bring him the printed out appointment. She told us she is unmarried and lives alone which knowing Palestinian society we found rather strange. We do not understand why this should have been a problem as she had the appointment on her phone. He could have sent the photo to his whatsapp and printed it out for her. The soldiers were pleasant and I would have hoped that they would have helped her. N. was not present that day. We phoned the shop, Ricardo, to ask if we could bring her there and have the printout but they did not have ink in their printing machine. Following their advice we phoned the Hope School which is opposite but there was no reply. Some Palestinians sitting around remarked on how much we were trying to help. Then two of the men said they would take her to Beit Fajar, have it printed out and then bring her back. So it was a concentrated Palestinian Israeli effort.

At Ricardo where we often buy we were just about to drive off when a man signaled us and to him too we gave Sylvia’s details.

Then back here at Nofim one of the handyman came to help me with something and some of his relations also have problems so he photographed our card with all the details and that ended our day.

Why do we take the trouble to report in Corona times as well?

Because democracy’s watchdogs have fallen asleep on their own watch, so Israeli citizens have no idea what is actually happening in the Occupied Territories, especially now.

Day and night, Israeli soldiers (as the State’s emissaries) help extreme settler-colonists take the law into their own hands, unhampered. They do not stop even in days of a raging pandemic and do not hesitate to harm Palestinians – their bodies, property, and sources of livelihood.

Unceasing harassment of the weakened Palestinian population inflicts psychological harm as well. All – from babies through and including the elderly and the ill – are open prey to Jewish violence and terrorism which the settler-colonists are only too eager to exert.

We of MachsomWatch will not cease to report, certainly not now during these Corona times and under the threat of annexation, about the settlers’ increased rampages, those who hurry to set facts on the ground helped by the Israeli army.

Israel rules the West Bank, and by force of the Geneva Convention, article no. 27, it is committed to enforcing law and order there. The inhabitants of these Occupied Territories have the legal right “to decent treatment of their body and dignity, and should be especially protected against any act of violence”.

Ironically, this is not at all upheld.

Nor shall we cooperate with the commonplace ignoring of the Palestinian people’s suffering, and with the Israeli public’s indifference to it. We shall continue to follow up closely and report the goings-on in the West Bank, in its villages and encampments.

No one should be able to say ‘We knew nothing, we heard nothing’

Location Description

Etzion DCO

See all reports for this place

serves residents of Bethlehem and surrounding villages who need magnetic cards, work permits for Israel, permits for one-time entry for religious or health reasons, various police permits, etc.