Soldiers, checkpoints, and oppression

Supper and conversation at Hami's house

            We ate supper tonight at Hami’s house, which is right next to a Jewish settlement.  To get there, we walked with him on a street past the settlement.  He was not sure we’d be able to go that way, but the soldiers let us pass.  There is a long way around we could have taken instead.

            When we went through one of the checkpoints, we saw a young Palestinian guy (19 yrs old?) crouching down and facing a stone wall across from the soldiers’ station.  He was being detained and was not allowed to face away.  We stopped to observe.  It was a bit testy.  The young man began to turn and the soldiers yelled at him to stay turned toward the wall.  He did, but turned again in a bit, and finally sat down half-turned.   

Soldiers/checkpoint to left, CPT members in middle, Palestinian detainee facing wall on right

This is how we find the Palestinian man,  just waiting to be told he can go.

The detainee turns a bit, and the soldiers yell at him to turn back to face the wall.

            Members in our group were asking the soldiers what he did wrong and how long they were going to hold him.  The soldiers were sarcastic – “we’ve held him 6 hours” said one, “no, seven hours” said another.  It is true that they do this sometimes, but the detainee said he’d been held about ½ hour.   The soldiers say that the man yelled insults at them, and that's why they are holding him.

            I had my camera out to take a picture of the soldiers -- something that's always iffy, but an important part of documenting human rights abuses.

            “No pictures!”

            “Why not?  Are you doing something wrong?,”  I say.

            “Yes, we’re doing something wrong,” the soldier replies sarcastically. 

            If he is, then the world needs to know about this. If he isn't, it shouldn't be a problem to have it documented.

            Here's a video another international group took of a man being detained at a check point.  You need to know that this is a daily occurrence for Palestinians -- this is not an isolated incident.  I've only been here a few days and I've have already seen this happen several times.

            Not all the Israeli soldiers are like this.  We’ve encountered a whole range.  Coming home tonight through a checkpoint the soldiers were friendly and laughing with each other.  Some are bored.  Some are happy to be here and see it as a high calling.  Some seem scared.  Some are indifferent.  Some will talk readily.  Some speak English, while others do not.  Some will speak with us, others won’t.  Some seem like they relish the power they have.  Others seem kind.

            These are not career soldiers.  These are young men doing their mandatory military service (3 years for men, 2 years for women – we don’t see many of the women soldiers here).  One states that he wants to be here.  One says he is just doing what he’s told to do.  One says he hopes he gets fired.  

Here’s a bit of that last conversation, which one of our team members had on the roof a couple nights ago with a soldier at a station on the next roof over (the soldier was bored out of his mind and talked with Marcus for a long time):

ARE YOU WITH CPT? the soldier asks

yes

DO YOU SMOKE?

yes

VIRGINIA TOBACCO?

Yep.  Do you want a cigarette?

I CAN’T. I WOULD BE FIRED… (long pause) …I’D DO ANYTHING TO GET FIRED.

 (Marcus cracks up!)

For more of that conversation, check out Marcus’s post on our team’s blog at http://cptdelegationmay11.wordpress.com/.  Marcus is hilarious and the conversation is quite entertaining!

A young man being detained at a checkpoint a few days ago.  When we first came upon him, the soldiers had ordered him to stand against a wall in the blazing sun.  A few minutes after we got there, they told him he could move to the shade.

            These checkpoints are a constant part of life for Palestinians here.  Palestinians can be pulled aside for no reason, and held for as long as the soldiers want to hold them.  This can be a few minutes, or it can be hours.  From what I've seen, 10-20 minutes is common.  I can understand the fury that burns in the stomachs of young Palestinian men.  Nothing justifies violence in my way of thinking, but I can understand why a person would respond violently to this type of constant harassment and humiliation.
             Back to tonight's encounter: one of the soldiers tells us that if we'll move on, he promises to let the guy go right away.  We move along.  When we pass back through the checkpoint later, the soldier tells us he kept his promise.  I hope so.