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The Occupation Testimonies, Part III: Inside the Checkpoint
Breaking the Silence, an organization of veteran IDF
soldiers working to expose the everyday reality of the
occupation, is releasing a new book of soldiers'
testimonies from the years 2001-2010.
The collection of 101 testimonies shows the degree of
control Israel has over the lives of Palestinians. Unlike
previous publications by BTS, this one is not (only) about
war crimes. More than anything, the testimonies reveal the
banalities of the Occupation: the roadblocks, the nightly
raids, the mass arrests and the daily humiliations which
take place everywhere in the West Bank.
The third collection of testimonies from BTS's new book
we publish deal with the checkpoints. The checkpoints are
one of the aspects of the occupation that affects the
entire West Bank population, not just some unlucky
individuals. Some Palestinians can spend hours each day
in the long lines leading to the army posts; others are
stuck, refused or turned back for lack of appropriate
papers, or just our of the ill will of an 18-19 years old
kid who commands the post. For many Palestinians, the
checkpoints represent the enormous degree of control
Israelis soldiers have on their life.
This is how these checkpoints look from the soldiers'
side.
-----------------
Testimony 28: Everything is up to individual interpretation
- We spoke about who would want to cross into Ramallah.
Supposed that someone comes with his child, with his
grandmother, with whomever, shows me documents, he
needs to get to the hospital in Ramallah because he
has a doctor's appointment. The protocol, as I under-
stand it, is that cases like this should be allowed
to cross. I let the guy cross, and after a few minutes,
they get on the radio from the next checkpoint and say
to me: "Why the hell did you let him cross?" There are
directives indicating he can cross. They don't want him
to cross, I don't know why.
- They would say to you, "I don't want to," or "Did
you not understand the briefing?"
No. It's all very much up to individual interpretation.
The briefing wasn't clearly saying: "OK, if there are
humanitarian cases, they can cross." What exactly
constitute humanitarian cases? It's very much up to
the interpretation of the person commanding the check-
point at a given moment. The guys at the next check-
point started calling me the "UN guy" all the time,
because I would always let people cross who they then
decided cannot cross. It was totally subject to the
mood of the person commanding the checkpoint, how
long he has been on the base? really according to
what the guy's personal issues were at the moment.
There is no person who coordinates or oversees, not
even in the operations room. There is no procedure
for getting on the radio to other operations rooms.
It's more like, "OK, there is a guy in this
situation... can he cross? Not cross?" Sometimes you
do it, Sometimes, whoever is in the field decides.
It was all a very, very big mess."
---------------
Testimony 3: spilling out crates as "an example"
- After the fact. If you look at your company, were
things run correctly? Is there a gap between what
they taught you and expected from you and how the
checkpoint looked at the end of the day?
People from my company did things in a very strict
way, mostly in Reihan. In Qalqillya it was less
strict from the standpoint of what they did at the
checkpoint. They were strict in Reihan, but at the
same time there weren't too many deviations.
- How are they strict? How does it manifest itself?
The DCL (District Coordination Liaison] set up certain
Palestinians that were coordinating the transportation
of goods. A guy who had a Mercedes mini truck was
transferring agricultural goods in crates, all kinds
of vegetables. In general, we had to pass a megnometer
[metal detector] over the crates, above it and below
it. You put the crate on the side and continue to the
next one. You can also tell him to spill out the
contents of the crate. It's not a large crate; it's a
crate of old plastic. Of course, you don't help the
guy empty the contents of the crate. You tell him to
spill it out, and afterward he collects it. From the
standpoint of our procedures, it was legitimate. They
told us to spill out a few crates as an example. The
same guy, I remember, had ton of goods, we spent an
hour after the closing of the checkpoint to keep check-
ing him. With regard to him I remember there were a
few times they told me to empty out his crates.
- Why him specifically?
There was a [soldier] girl who came to hum at the
[erased] facility at the pedestrian crossing and he
said to her that he would give her father 40 sheep
if she would marry him, but I hear from her that he
was annoying her. But that's nonsense, you aren't
strict because of that, rather they are [supposed
to be] strict professionally. Sometimes there were
people who took it personally, that because he
annoyed you, you dump his crates. But we were
supposed to do it as an example. You don't dump out
everyone's.
- How many crates did he have?
In the small truck there aren?t crates, it's a bath.
There are Mercedes trucks. For example, there is the
Isuzu, which are small and they have crates, but
this was a bigger truck, like a medium size and you
have maybe 200 crates.
- And in that case he dumped out 200 crates?
In her case? Yes.
- Is that a common "punishment"?
It's a kind of punishment, but it happened more
rarely, it happened because he annoyed her.
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Testimony 24: A kind of complete arbitrariness
Each time they would block and open the road with a
front loader. And every time they opened it we would
have to guard the crossing. It's hundreds or thousands
of cars, even pedestrians. You stand there, three-four
soldiers with an APC. There isn't even anything to do,
other than guard the APC. It's also a gigantic area
because it's like a checkpoint on both sides of the
road, and on each side there is a lone of cars spanning
about 4-5 kilometers. And then basically, what matters
from an operations standpoint, is to prevent a traffic
jam on the road.
- On the Jewish road?
Yes, yes. And then you let them drive, they start
driving, and there is no room for two cars at the same
time, in both directions. So immediately there is a
traffic jam, and you start directing traffic because
you have to somehow release it.
- And what happens at the checkpoint? You inspect
everyone?
No. There is a surge of people, Thousands of people.
- What is it a checkpoint for?
It's a checkpoint to limit their flow of traffic at
night, or at the house when they begin curfew. Some-
times you inspect suspicious things. There are cars
that are allowed to enter that arrive from route 60,
trucks with yellow license plates. Other plates, of
course, don't travel there. Each time, the order
changes about who can cross and who cannot. So a line
builds up again, because truck drivers don?t know they
aren't allowed to cross because either two hours ago,
or yesterday, or two days ago, they were allowed. So
a traffic jam is once again created. Orders can change
several times in a single day. It's kind of complete
arbitrariness. One incident I certainly remember,
when there was some restriction on trucks with yellow
plates, that they couldn't enter anymore, and traffic
jams started to build up. I said I'm not letting them
enter. Until now they could enter. I don't care, I'm
not endangering the road or my soldiers because of it.
------------------
Testimony 29: The IDF's great wisdom
Company A was at a checkpoint called Noam, which is
on the way to Jericho. I think that it separates the
Jordan valley road and Jericho. It was winter, the
beginning of 2001, and it was a pretty difficult winter
as far as I remember, rainy and cold. There are "the
bases," which are basically a few buildings where the
unit that operates the checkpoint is located. Outside
there is an open-sided shelter, which is basically the
checkpoint. A very improvised checkpoint, not like the
checkpoints today, which look like an airport terminal.
- That's only very specific checkpoints.
Yes. But no, I think it was erected just before we
arrived there. I sat there with an officer, the platoon
commander for Company A, who was really of rare quality
relative to battalion 443. And we sat there and covered
the shelter with plastic sheets because it rained a
lot. And it was nighttime and aside from us no one was
awake. It was the middle of the night, and when I think
about it now, it was really scary to sit in the middle
of nowhere with the wind gusting around you, and the
plastic sheet blowing made it difficult to hear and see
what is going on around you. And basically, you wait
for a car to come, and you know because you see the
headlights. And we sit there, two of us, and the order
that day ? again, yes the great wisdom of the IDF ?
was to prohibit cars that only have men inside them to
cross. They needed to have either a child or a woman in
order to be able to cross. Yes, of course it's a very
specific target.
- Did you ask...?
Did we ask why? Even if I asked, he was an officer,
that's his duty. When I asked why, the answer was:
"Those are the orders, there is nothing to do about
it." You aren't supposed to ask why in the army,
and when you ask...
- But these are pretty strange orders.
That's right. There are orders that are strange are
your duty as a soldier is to carry them out without
asking why.
- Would you look for the logic?
There is no logic. If you were to search for logic
in the army you would go crazy. They would
institutionalize you.
- So what would happen? You would stop cars?
No. There were almost no cars. It was the middle of
the night. It was raining. But there was one car, I
remember, it was a Subaru, with two Palestinian men
in their forties I guess. They were very nice. They
stopped. They asked to cross. And that same officer,
who was a sensible guy, did not say to them what
every other person in the army would have said,
which is, "no you cannot," rather he said to them
[in Arabic] "either a woman or a child." So they
argued a bit, and he said to them, "those are the
orders, what can I do. Either a woman or a child."
They turned around and went into Jericho. Ten
minutes later they came back with a boy in the
backseat and the officer said to them, "please,
go ahead," smiling at them, and they smiled back.
Everyone understood how idiotic and ridiculous the
situation was. Yes, you know it just adds further
proof that the IDF's job is to embitter the
Palestinians' lives. Because if you think about it,
there is really no operational need for it. What's
the difference if the same men in the same car bring
a child? They grab some kid, pay him a shekel and a
half to come with them for an hour or two. Yes, so
there. So it seemed ridiculous to me. It didn't seem
shocking. Today it seems shocking.
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