Roadblock removal and beatings and tear gas at checkpoint. West Bank

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday November 24, 2003 20:00 by Aron Baker baker_aron at hotmail dot com Balatta Refugee camp, Nablus, West Bank

Today we removed a roadblock by hand using shovels and ropes and yesterdday we intervened when soldiers beat a man and then tear gassed us all.

Today we removed a section of a road block outside Balatta refugee camp and because no one with machinery is willing to supply a digger and driver for fear of arrest and confiscation of the digger, we removed it with shovels and used ropes to haul out the huge blocks of stone. Finally meeting 1 which 20 people pulling and others levering and pushing couldn't budge we tried to pull it out with a car, eventually we managed to pull it out using a van crammed with people for weight and this only just managed it. We succeded in creating a small passage for cars to squeeze through the roadblock. Tonight we will sleep close to the roadblock in an attempt to prevent the IOF from closing it during the night with a bulldozer. The last 1 we opended was reinstated the same night by the military despite the fact it serves no purpose other than to make peoples lives harder.



Yesterday, Sun, 23rd?, some of our group went to do checkpoint watch at Huwarra checkpoint, which frequently has huge and slow moving queues. They arrived around 2:30 or 3 to find many people detained, still 8 taxis detained and we learned they had been detained for 4 days. About 50-60 people where being detained but after some initial negotiations most of these were released, I think many of them were detained simply because they didn't qualify for exiting the city today. They have recently changed who can exit, before it was anyone with village ID could leave and people with Nablus ID could not without a special permit, now they won't let anyone out if they are from the out lying villages, hence they can't go home, even students. This mainly applies to younger men under 35 but to others at the discretion of the soldiers. On our arrival at about 3:30-4 we found another 50-60 people being refused permission to exit and being detained, despite living in out lying villages, after more negotiations they had their IDs returned but most refused to leave the area, because they wanted to go home.
1 man was being detained seperately, he was handcuffed with cable ties and the soldiers were pushing him around, he was a Palestinian Israeli and the army said he was bringing stolen goods or something like this, he was argueing loudly with the soldiers which is always a dangerous thing, and they were pushing him around, making him sit and stand as first 1 soldier ordered him about and then another. Eventually the ploice came but after talking with the soldiers and him they left and eventually the soldiers released him, after approx 5 hours in cable ties. He obviuosly hadn't done anything wrong, except prehaps to attempt to enter Nablus when he wasn't supposed to.
The group who mainly had their IDs returned except for the few that the army had lost ( which happens frequently), sat and stood around in 1 of the "detention" areas, as darkness fell and people drank the water we had brought some began to sing, to keep spirits up and frustration at bay. The DCO was wrung and an human rights organisation who both promised to work on the situation. The queue remained queueing and the soldiers often stopped checking IDs to shout and scream and threaten because the queue had crept to far forward or wasn't straight enough or because the men who's IDs had been lost dared to approach them to ask for them after being told to stay back. Often the soldiers would just saunter off to chat amongst themselves or because another jeep had stopped by for a chat.
As the evening drew on and and the soldiers continued to dawdle and harass people their patience lessoned and people jeered at the soldiers as they imposed their authority. As we stood around already frustrated with our negotiations and our water all drank by hungry and thirsty people who had been fasting for up to 20 hours already, we saw the queue edging forward again, eager to get home, the soldiers began forcing every body back herding them like cattle between concrete barricades and barbed wire, 1 man must have resisted slightly or taken offense at being shoved by some scuffy soldier with his M16 and next thing they had grabbed him and as he struggled 2 or 3 soldiers bent him over a concrete barricade and started beating him, as we moved to intervene we could see the soldiers hitting him and beating him round the head with their gun butts. We physically tried to insert our bodies in the way and shouted at the soldiers to stop, but other soldiers attempted to block us and force us back. The beating stopped when we intervened but the soldiers then chased everyone from the queue and they ran, fleeing back fearing the repercussions of the angry soldiers. The soldiers screamed that everyone hates the Jews, all the world, and screamed at us in particular that Europe killed 6,000,000 Jews. 1 ISMer pointed out his grandmother had been at Auschwitz, the soldier replied that she was there killing Jews, where as infact his granmother was killed there. A soldier asked me where I was from and after telling him I came from "neutral" Ireland he told me we killed Jews and then told us that we killed Jews, (us the ISM activists) to which the ISMer whose grandmother was killed by the Nazis told him if he was being beaten by someone with a gun he would try to save him too.
The shouting subsided as we withdrew back to where the Palestinians had fled to. I don't think the soldiers can comprehend that we get many people who are of the Jewish faith working with ISM and there are many Jewish peace groups in Israel that also campaign, sometimes in the terratories against this illegal and immoral occupation with all its ugliness and propaganda.
The Palestinians were not allowed to return to queue, as the group tried to return a soldier threatened everyone with cable ties(handcuffs) and tear gas, then shortly after another pretended to throw tear gas, then another came forward and threw a coke can which made everyone jump thinking it was tear gas, he moved back swiftly, impressed with his ruse. People milled about, some edging forward towards the queueing area, a soldier came forward and threw a teargas cannister amongst our midst, others cocking guns and threatening the crowd, everyone started fleeing, mostly back but 2 of us ran down 1 side to the detention area, a Palestinian picked up the cannister as it spewed its poisonous contents and threw it back, the soldiers scattered back also as the wind blew in their direction! 1 ISMer caught a lot of the tear gas and had to be led from the area by another to recover. About this time they released the man they had beaten, as he had done nothing wrong.
Eventually a DCO arrived and the human rights organisation were working behind the scenes to allow these people to return home but 8 o'clock came and went as we continued negotiating with the soldiers and DCO for basic human rights, unable to even get water from the soldiers who had made people queue or deatined them, many for up to 6 hours now. Eventually they were told to queue again, even after being ordered to go back to Nablus about 20 times. Many had left feeling it futile to remain wasting their lives here at the "checkpoint", as 9 o'clock approached the hand full of people who had stuck it out were eventually allowed to pass.
My only question, why not 7 hours earlier when they came to this charade they call a checkpoint?

I think these new restrictions are geared towards making life even harder for the Palestinians because tomorrow is Eid, the equivalent of our christmas, when people exchange presents and celebrate the end of Ramadan.


Check out this link which is in the haaretz newspaper web site, while much of the site and paper is rascist propaganda and complete biased rubbish, espicially news which came from the IOF press office, some articles on the side can be very questioning of Israel's policy towards Palestinians and settlements.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/364268.html