Al Arrub – sudden blockades day and night
Again, we drove along road 60 to the south of Gush Etzion to the entrance to the Al Arrub refugee camp in order to see what the barriers and blockades which surround Hebron look like.
We were happy to see that the southern entrance to Hebron at the foot of Beit Hagai is open with no army presence.
At the next entrance to Hebron in front of Qilqis, there is a checkpoint manned by soldiers who are holding up cars.
Surprisingly, the Sheep Crossing was open on both sides of the road and without troops.
Zsa’ir -Shuyakh junction is open and there are no soldiers. On road 60 the cement barrier is manned by a soldier with a drawn weapon.
Then we drove again on the new section of the road that bypasses the entrance to Al Arrub.
In Ibrahim's grocery shop he again says, as I have already reported, that the situation has not improved as they had hoped. The army continues to encircle and strangle the Palestinians with roadblocks and house searches, even though the stone-throwing incidents hardly ever occur when Jewish vehicles are moving on the remote road. Ibrahim says that during all hours of the day and night until, 12 at night, there are roadblocks. His livelihood is greatly affected by the lack of traffic near him.
Other people who came to the grocery store talked about the constant pressure that the IDF exerts on them.
One of the soldiers who came down from the pillbox to take the supplies that were brought to them, approached me and asked who we were. To my surprise, he had heard about MachsomWatch because he had been in the army preparation course, Telem, where he had met one of our colleagues who had lectured to them. He is from the Nahal unit.
Of course, I asked his opinion about us. His body language was negative.
On the way back, along the old route of Route 60, at the gas station near the entrance to Karmei Zur, we were told that the army still demonstrates a presence, mainly in the evenings, a little less than the time before the new way. There, at the point of connection between the old and the new, the cement barrier is manned with troops and weapons drawn.
On the way back, when children return from school, there are still soldiers at the checkpoint in front of Qilqis, and this is what their childhood looks like.
It is interesting what the authorities think about the future generations of Palestinians, that this is their daily routine, and this is what their daily meeting with the State of Israel looks like.